February 2014 K Poems
Michelle Ann Wiley: “I love your poetry!”
Dogs waiting for breakfast
wanting my hand to pet them
scratch them reassure them
that I love them. I do love them
but I have three dogs and only
two hands. Feeding time is
their favorite part of the day
followed by their walks, which
have been less frequent, recently
due to cold weather. My love
just woke. She can be more intense
than espresso, but not at this time
of day: she is very mellow upon waking.
You don’t necessarily make your own luck
Most of the ice and snow have melted
taking with them the problems that
they caused over the last couple of days.
The weather here is psychotic. On Tuesday
the temperature was in the teens, at times,
and this weekend they are predicting
weather in the fifties with rain. My love
is in the kitchen making sausage and her
special potato and onion breakfast.
Weather good, or bad, I am a lucky man.
Guilty as the dog
Love placed bits of apples
peeled ready to feed the bird
next to me
but I didn’t hear her say
watch the fruit will you
and one of the dogs got it.
Bless you water
Water I sip you and you give me
more than just simple pleasure.
You give me sustenance
nourish my life. I thank you for
your existence, but curse the men
who pollute you in pursuit of a buck.
If you want to be a lead singer
you better not audition to be
in The Beatles; they have the
job already covered.
There will be no evolution.
There will be no revolution.
Everyone will stagnate,
stand in one place.
I’m confused
I can barely take care of myself
let alone someone else, and they
tell me that to give is the way to
receive.
I'm searching for air
I'm searching for a cool wind.
I'm waiting for the sunset.
A day apart
She has been gone
for a day now,
and I miss her as
I missed her yesterday
as I will miss her tomorrow
and all the rest of the days
of my life. She was a part
of me that you can’t take
from me, though her body
has been burned and I have
her ashes in an urn that
sits on a bookshelf in my
living room.
A door without a lock or handle
Her heart was for her only
or, at least, not for me.
One lemon seed at a time
The only lemon seed remaining in the glass floats up on the
water to my lips as I take my last sip of water. I will not buy this seed and
try to grow a tree, though I have done that, once or twice, before. I will put
this seed in the compost container in the kitchen and, eventually, take that
container out to the very back of the property and dump it onto our compost
pile. I am trying to save the planet one lemon seed at a time.
We're not from County Meath.
We are from County Cork
and Dublin. My parents came
over to The States on a boat.
For a reason
If you have my number
you are probably with
a collection agency or
a hospital, the hospital
that I owe money to who
has turned the debt over
to
a collection agency. If you
have my number, you are
probably one of the many
doctors’ offices that I frequent
during the year seeking assistance
for my heart, my head.
If you are a friend, and you have
my number, you are one of a very
few number of people.
If you are the rest of the world
you don’t have my number for
a reason.
Taking leave of
It’s been good to know you
but I won’t be keeping in touch
with you. You were ok, but
you weren’t the best, and I’m
only taking the best with me.
Goodbye to Mary Anne
I used to think I was the bomb
but I was wrong. I was just an
average soul on a crazy planet,
with many men and women
out there smarter than me.
Most of them had more money
than me, too.
Shoot me with something
My dad died at 72. I want to be
still alive at 102. Functioning,
not some Alzheimer’s victim,
shuffling around the nursing home
with drool on his chin, and nothing
on his brain. Shoot me before I
become a zombie, shoot me, will you,
with something.
And in the real world…
On the internet
you have people
looking over your shoulder.
On the internet
you have people
trying to read
what you are writing.
On the internet
you have people
trying to steal from you.
On the internet
you have people
trying to mess you up.
Is her dick that big?
Are her feet that small?
Is her dick that big?
Punk rock prejudice
It’s at the well-dressed ladies they sneer
unless they are comfortable in themselves.
There’s arsholes even in oxblood doc martins.
There’s a joke
in my nose
and it’s called coke.
It’s taken everything
I owned, and everything
I’ve loved.
Take me to the crazy house.
I must have been nuts
to do that first line.
Through the hurt
she kept telling me
that she loved me.
As disappointed
as she was
she kept telling me
that she loved me.
I had forgotten
that I was to take
her out for dinner
on a day that mattered
much to her.
Tears streamed from
her eyes as I begged
forgiveness.
The next morning
there were no tears
on her face. She hugged
me and kissed me.
This girl doesn’t hold a grudge.
My sneezes come in threes.
I wonder why that be?
Alone on Valentines and every other day
I did your drugs.
I drank your coffee.
I did your best friend’s drugs.
I drank her coffee.
I did everybody’s drugs
and drank their coffee.
Now, I don’t do drugs,
but none of you are around
now that I want to buy you coffee.
Let the corvids sing
if indeed they do.
Let them land in packs
scavengers traveling
with family
and friends.
A lose lose situation
I put too much crushed ice in the glass that
I poured my cola beverage into. I hate when
ice rushes up with the drink, making it hard
to get the drink in my mouth. In the rare
situation that I find myself in this happenstance
I mostly just let the ice mix and then drink on
an unsatisfactory melted down cola beverage.
It is a lose lose situation.
Born in the USA
The mailman normally doesn’t deliver to our mailbox until
around 5:30-6 o’clock. Today, a day where the folks predicting the weather are
predicting that we are going to get a half an inch of ice, the mailman came at
11:00 a.m. It was so nice to get my regular assortment of bills, collection
agency letters, and
applications to, once again, get and fail at credit cards;
along with the rejection letters from poetry publications that so make my day.
He doesn’t deliver on Sunday, either. Stamps just went up, again. And standing
in line at the post office to mail something takes hours, and you often get
attitude when you reach your clerk.
Shirley Temple is dead
and you feel like putting
a bullet in your head.
If you feel this way, sometimes,
don’t buy a gun and keep it in
the house.
I’ve lived through thoughts of suicide.
I’ve lived through nights in jail
covered in my own
puke
and who knows who else’s blood.
I’ve walked down the sick green colored
halls of state mental institutions.
I’ve picked my nose, but I’ve never
eaten snot. I used to think that
I wouldn’t take no shit, but I learned
that fist fighting wasn’t it; wasn’t
the way to settle anything. I’m mostly
a quiet man, now; haven’t been to a
bar in a long long while. I’m not perfect
but life is a lot better now than it was then.
Weather
It is the only thing on any news channel
on the tv: weather.
We look out our window: what do we see?
Weather.
Get in our car, what affects us? Weather.
Makes it hard to get to the grocery store.
Weather.
Can’t leave the house until it gets better.
Weather.
Look at that light. The fact that it is on
pleases us. What can knock the power out.
Weather.
It’s hot in here because it’s cold out there.
What can change that? Weather.
Weather. Oh please. Stop affecting me.
Just as beautiful people find
beautiful people, and rich people
find rich people, do ugly and broke
folk find each other?
Isn’t the 4 o’clock news
like the 5 o’clock news
which is like the 6 o’clock news
which is like the 11 o’clock news.
Isn’t all the news the same
unless there is a new murder,
robbery, rape, or broken window?
What you said was heart warming
here in winter’s cold,
where four inches of
snow has come to the South.
We built a small snowman;
he looked mostly like a Martian,
and I threw snowballs at my love,
like I used to at my brother,
when we were kids.
Joan’s in there texting away
12:32 p.m. My phone has not rung all day. It has not rang in
three days. The only people who call me are an 877 number,
and a number of doctors who call to remind me of my
appointments with them. I was supposed to go to the chiropractor on Tuesday,
but the streets were covered in ice. Wonder if I should be giving out my number
more.
Like they say every trip on acid is different
The snowman will melt
just like rock and roll band stages
are taken down and moved either
from city to city or from theatre
to storage area. It’s kind of like
watching a television show. Once
it’s over, it is over, and it will never
be the same, even if the same band
plays the same venue, again and again.
I like crows
and sushi,
and cell phones
that don’t give us
brain cancer.
If you are mad can you pay attention?
Mad like how, man? Mad like angry at
your girlfriend? Or mad like they got
you in the loony bin? Mad like you ain’t
got a job? Mad like you ain’t got a car.
Mad. Like. Mad. Like.
Mad like you ain’t never been.
Touchdown
Would you bring Jonathon Martin
into your locker room?
Michael Sam, the college defensive standout,
into the NFL, when he has just told the world
that his is gay.
Ritchie Incognito?
Michael Vick?
Pete Rose?
Alex Rodriguez?
Mikel K?
Ain’t never gonna screw up on you
I’ve screwed up
on the job.
I’ve screwed up
on the sidewalk.
I’ve screwed up
in the clubs.
I’ve screwed up
with God.
I’ve screwed up
with The Government.
I’ve screwed up
behind the wheel.
I’ve screwed up
hitchhiking down the highway,
but I’ll never screw up with you.
Off the razor's edge I fell
onto a material much like
shaving cream put there
by whom? Was it the rabbit
from Alice? The Wizard from
Oz? Sheriff Taylor from Mayberry?
Just who was it that saved me?
And for what purpose?
It’s your party. Cry if you want to.
Do you mind if I have
a brownie
and a small piece of cake? Can I
blow out a candle, or two, for you?
Are you going to stay sad? Should I
go? Here’s a present. Would that
help? Would you like to open something
brought for you? Not feeling up to it?
Oh well. I’ll see you some other time.
Are these reflections of yourself?
The art.
The furniture.
Your car.
Your living space.
Your lipstick.
Your face.
Your smile.
The microwave.
The refrigerator.
Your smile.
Your frown.
Your attitude.
Who you vote for.
What you wear.
Your friendships.
Those you hate.
Those you love.
The pictures of yourself
scattered freely about
your abode.
Where will smoke go
if you don’t blow it out?
Will it take you to Heaven
or will it send you to Hell?
Our guy is always in a hurry. He's also always later.
Sometimes, he does wave, though. I had a nice mail lady in midtown. We talked a
lot. She had a great laugh
There's vomit in my soup.
I'm laying on the floor,
once more, of a jail cell.
They warned me how
it would be. I was too
blind to see. Now there's
vomit in my soup. I'm
laying on the floor.
You’re so quiet these days
but it is my fault
I didn’t know how to treat a lady
I only knew how to be myself
with complete disregard for
the feelings of others.
It seems that I heard that
a lot growing up, and it,
certainly, seems to make
sense now.
Happy Hour
Scarce. My love for me,
though they said I had
a big ego. In a drunk tank
overnight, praying to God
if he let me out, I’d never
drink again. I got out and
was at happy hour that day.
Happy hour is not happy
for an alcoholic.
Cheap bastard capitalistic pigs
You know who they are.
I know who they are.
And, yet, we let them get away with it.
We work for them.
We buy from them.
What the heck is wrong with us?
What would The Pope say?
When he got drunk
he was a spendthrift.
He would wake up
broke, no cash in his
pockets or wallet,
only ATM slips denoting
that he had wiped
out his savings in a
strip club the night before
and a fake number that
a stripper named Bam Bam
had given him.
He had a drinking problem
and he needed to attend
Stripper’s Anonymous
as well as AA, but he
wasn’t ready. His boss
gave him an advance
and he headed back
into the sales field to
make some more cash.
He was single, so the
situation wasn’t as bad
as if he had a wife and
several children.
(Bam Bam 404 629-1313).
Have you ever played the fiddle,
the kind they talk about in England?
Ever lifted a candy bar, as a kid,
from the store?
Ever cheated on a test in school?
Ever fudge on your expense account
at work?
Dichotomy
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost taxpayers
$6 trillion dollars or $75,000 for each household in
America.
And they just cut food stamps by how much,
and what shape are the American roads and bridges in?
Pass me a Pepsi. Give me the remote control.
Let’s get a fast burger. Thing is, I love living in the USA.
Coke dropped to $1.7 billion dollars.
I'm all tears for them.
I try to drink tap water with lemon.
I’m not perfect. Sometimes I fail.
I like to, occasionally, bring home
a 1 liter bottle of cola with me. I
will never buy a 2 liter bottle of
the poison, because I would drink
it all and get fat, again, like I used
to be.
Should you smoke crack?
I hope that it is something
that you would avoid,
but should you be thinking
about lighting up, remember
I could list all the obvious
bad things that can happen
to a crack addict,which it is
not hard to become. I heard
a guy say at a 12 Step Meeting
that he was hooked on crack
the first time he smoked it;
but you get the idea.
Next Poem:
Should you shoot some heroin?
The Amazing Power of Your Mind
Your mind can say yes.
Your mind can say no.
Your mind can lead you.
It can make you stay home.
You can use it.
You can lose it.
Dichotomy
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost taxpayers
$6 trillion dollars or $75,000 for each household in
America.
And they just cut food stamps by how much,
and what shape are the American roads and bridges in?
Pass me a Pepsi. Give me the remote control.
Let’s get a fast burger. Thing is, I love living in the USA.
Really Into The Band
The band had a policy of no drinking during rehearsals
or shows, which they started to relax the more successful
they got. At the height of their fame, the singer would
sing in a blackout and the guitar player and the bass player
would pass out. They used a backing track to try to fool
the fans; only you couldn't talk to the fans down front,
and they would talk to the fans in the back, in the parking
lot, about what they had seen, and both sides felt ripped
off
financially and emotionally. They were really into the band.
