BOOT CAMP POEM/FORT GORDON GEORGIA 

Drill sergeant said 

Stay off Broad Street 

But they went on down 

That Saturday past 

Tattoo parlors 

Massage parlors 

Pizza parlors 

To a bar with 

Cheap beer, met 

Up with these two 

Fine gals who said 

Let's ride out to 

Our place in the country- 

Side for fun, took 'em 

Way out of town 

Robbed 'em both 

Left 'em on the road- 

Side in their BVDs

 

And turned out 

They weren't really 

Even girls at all. 

Not that there's anything 

Wrong with that.

NEW ORLEANS UPPER NINTH WARD 2007

If I could fly back thru time
I might hang on a little longer
To that cute young hooker
With the leopard skin panties
Who sneaked back in my place
When my wife came down to
Talk me into moving home
And stole her purse and all
Her credit cards and $40
And all I could say was 
Wow Honey crime sure is bad
Around these parts! Her name
Was Amber. She was a country girl.

MEXICO CITY POEM

I flew away disgraced that day, 
December/cold

My ruined jeep crushed
In Dad's front yard which

He took with poor grace
Rolled in a ditch by

This young gal I was
Teaching how to drive my stick

So I hiked out on foot
At first daylight down

The Hwy 71S to the runway
Where my flight took off

At eight, and half an hour
Before the big jet hit the

Upper drafts, tear-eyed
And worried sick, my mom

Showed up with sandwiches
In a sack in her mother's way

And so I fled the snow and deep dismay

POEM FOR TEXAS BLONDE

Inside your Vagina lies Freedom:
Freedom from Boredom, Security,
Deadlines, Responsibility, Jurisprudence,
Wisdom, Rationality, Equilibrium,
Placidity & Basic Common Sense --
Like, as a wise man once said,
Riding a psychotic horse toward
A burning stable; but still
I miss you from time to time,
My little chickadee.

 HOT AFTERNOON

If you take an empty
Forty-two oz bottle of Olde
English “800” malt liquor
Cap it and sit cross-legged
Up to your chest naked in
An old school swimming hole
Surrounded by placid murk (cold)
Jade green water dragonflies
And pissed-off squirrels up the
Hill the hot round rocks on the
Bank beyond your shade and
If you pull that empty bottle
All the way down and let it go
It will shoot up as high as
Three feet in the air, or
So I'm told

 MERCURY DIMES

O God, O Venus, O Mercury, 
Patron of thieves, give me in
Due time, I beseech you,
A million bucks. A cruise to
Old Atlantis. A sunny wife
With wings and perfect pitch.
A car with fins. Good boots.
Homer Simpson's actual battered
Copy of the I-Ching, notes and all.
A tattoo of the 1968 cover of
"Indian War Whoop" by the 
Holy Modal Rounders. Good teeth.
A double date with Betty AND Veronica.
Sea monkeys that endure. World Peace.
O God, O Venus, O Mercury,
Be the loose change you want
To see in this wicked weary world:
Brother can you spare a dime?

 

MANITOBA SONNET

My beautiful militant lesbian 
Feminist pal from Manitoba
Was couch-surfing thru Arkansas
And stayed a few days with
An old gal at a commune over
Near Brashhears, said they
Were making dinner and her
Host was trying to open a jar
 
Of home-made salsa but
It refused to budge so she
Finally looked at it in disgust
And said, “Fucking men,”
And put it back on the shelf
And they had store-bought instead.

 

HOW I MET YOUR MOM

 

I used to know this girl

Would let you suck her toes

For a pack of Marlboro Lite 100's in the Box

 

Nineteen year old girls

Smell like Hope, for sure

She did and when she'd

 

Hit a pause in talk

She'd shout, "I'm telling Mom!"

Which knocked me down

 

On the floor laughing--

She went to Oregon

Last I heard. Wotta doll.

CANTERBURY MOON

When the time of the bramble

Was too fast, I courted hard

'pon Delta Marsh Meadows

But never could find a key

Into her mossy furrows

Not unlike, she said,

The pond upon which

Grass and hedge and stump

Rest, and you 'pon me

If it were to be that way with us

But not so, and here

I sit, a man

Upon his chair,

A photo of a pretty girl

Dark-haired and vixen-eyed,

In winter, lest it was

The Merrie month of May,

Outside at night, and

Ringed about by Chaucerian

Greenblack groves, her face

An oval in the pale moon light

ONE WIFE MAY HIDE ANOTHER (after Kenneth Koch)

One girl may hide a different girl

As one costume may hide a

Different costume come Halloween

Or as one love may hide

A second love, which you

Do not see because you cannot

See behind things like love

Then one finds the second love

Hiding behind the other,

Served in secret, just as

One wife may hide another wife,

One who lingers there waiting,

Waiting for the wife to slip,

To give her then a helpful push,

To see how long she falls and falls

Before you hear her bounce.

CAT WAR MANIFESTO

It seems Mr Pickles

Loves blue cheese,

Loves it like a gun loves murder

 

Loves it like that Dobbs Ferry Rat,

That bastard his day will come

Hard and fast he keeps at

 

Our cheese our bowl

Laid out late of night

By Mr Big House Man

 

For us, not for that

Damned Dobbs Ferry Rat

Our crunchy feast 

 

Nor Old Possum Jones

Who's Mr Guts and plays dead

When caught mouth full

 

Of our grub, our crunchy bowl

Ours not theirs, ours,

Our blue cheese:

 

Kill kill kill!

I see things from

The under side now.

Poem For Hawaii (in the style of Don Blanding)

 

In the land where the trade winds gently kiss, Where waves and skies weave nature's perfect bliss, A tempest of fire, fierce and wild, Innocence and beauty tragically defiled.

Amidst the palms and hibiscus blooms, The flames did dance, dispelling nature's tunes, But even as destruction sought its way, Resilient spirits rise to greet the day.

For Hawaii's heart beats strong and true, From Mauna Kea to oceans of brilliant blue, In unity, they mend what was torn, Rebuilding the land where aloha is born.

Through tears that fall like gentle rain, Aloha 'aina, love for land, shall remain, With hope renewed, from ashes it springs, Hawaii's spirit soars on phoenix wings.