Nov. K Poems 2009

I don't know why women give me their phone number
By Mikel K

Dear Writer:

We appreciate the opportunity to read your work, but unfortunately this submission was not a right fit for The Baltimore Review.

Thank you for trying us.

Sincerely,

The Editors of The Baltimore Review



Who do I treat better?

Should you show compassion to
a homeless guy
or give him the bum's rush?

My black cat, Jaggar, is laying
on my desk in front of me,
which is weird because Jaggar
never gets very close to me.

I probably show more compassion
to my cats, than I do to bums
on the street,

I naturally feed my cats,
and do not perceive them
as hitting me up for spare change.


Mikel,

I spent a whole day hangin' on a street corner in L.A. in '76 hoping to run into Bukowski. A friend of mine and he had been writing back and forth after I introduced him to Buk's writing. Buk started contributing to my friend's self published poetry rag "Blow". So I bought a cigar, threw back a couple straight shots and waited. Thought I saw him but the guy seemd too cleaned up so I quit.

There could be a guy hangin' on the corner right now 'cause he heard you were nearby.

--alsoknownas

For supper

My stomach growls, it's not going on the nod.
My vocabulary is speechless; yelling out is pointless,
only God would hear me, and he has given me free will;
which means I must suffer, for eating the wrong thing.
.

I've come a long way baby

I just did a shot of peppermint tea,
which is far better for me than
a shot of peppermint schnapps.

It's not always the boss who gets bossy

Co-workers can be weird;
the young lady that I worked with, last night,
told me, early in the evening, that I worked
much too slow for her tastes.
I had always thought that maybe she shot
methamphetamine before she came on the clock.
Later in the night, she told me that
I "didn't do things right, that I hadn't folded
the towel correctly," the towel that goes
underneath the mixing cups and blenders.
I told her that nobody else had ever said
anything to me about the way I folded towels.
She said, "Really."
Later in the night, I heard this young lady
talking to herself about how she had to be at
her full time job, in the morning.
Stress is a killer.

Observation from the coffee counter

He asked for shots of hazelnut and chocolate.
He didn't look shot out on drugs,
but I soon saw him sitting sideways
in one of the comfortable chairs
in the back of the bookstore
twenty or so books strewn at his feet
like the burnouts do
acting like the chair is their throne
and we, who work at the bookstore,
are their servants, there to pick up after the king.
He complained about the size of the cup
that I gave him, saying that it was too big.
I said, "Well, it's too late to change it now."
I didn't charge him for his shots;
he immediately inquired if the milk that we place
at the condiment station was fresh.
He was going to make a chocolate hazelnut drink
of some sort.
At some point, somebody who is going to look burned out
on drugs doesn't look burnt out on drugs,
they still have a cool about them.
This kid still had his cool,
but I'm guessing that it wasn't going to last very long.


It is sad

This is one of the few days after Halloween where
I don't have candy. I had it as a kid, and then I
had it when I had kids, but the kids have, basically,
left the nest; I am alone with no candy.







Pet Report

Morisson is at my side,
where he always is,
Bundy is asleep,
because it is early,
Kobain is asleep
on the pillow
at the foot of my bed,
Jaggar is laying down
on my desk,
and the turtles
are running back and forth
in their aquarium.

Death by your favorite foods

As I get older,
looking in my refrigerator,
I fully realize
that what I eat can kill me,
yet I like what I eat,
so should I go ahead
and die earlier?


Tombstone

I can see the fleas on my animals increasing,
and the cockroaches running through the sink
are becoming more and more. I'm eating the same
food over and over, not because I like it, but
because it is what I can afford. I don't feel
poor, I feel bohemian; I'm doing what I want
to do, which is type. When I die I'll leave behind
more poems than many men have dollars, and
I'll feel like that was a great accomplishment.

Honesty

Oh you'd hate me
you're such a yuppie chick
and I'm cultivating the near homeless look
not so much because I am near homeless
as because I hate the clean cut look
it's so dishonest
none of us is honest
and the most clean cut looking ones among us
are usually the biggest crooks.

Last night, a person driving a very yuppie car leaned on the horn when I rode my bike in front of them, when they they I shouldn't have, but I know full well that I was well within all my bicycle rights to do what I did. I didn't shoot them a bird, or yell at them(I'm almost fully in control of my emotions, now,) but I did get in the middle of the lane in front of them, and ride my bicycle very slowly, so that they could not get around me.

I have risen very early this morning, 4:30 a.m., have barely had time to make a cup of coffee, and Jaggar has already pointed out to me that he would like something placed in his wet food cat food bowl, and that I need to put water in the bowl that serves all the animals. I am amazed that Jaggar is a male cat, for it is usually a female that points out all my shortcomings, and tells me what I need to do.

I have decided to quit being angry about the fact that my job will not be there for me when I get back from my four to six week recovery from hip surgery period. I have decided that I am going to write my boss a letter, and thank her for all she has done for me, even though she has been mean to me, at times, during my stay on this job. Anger, and resentment, are two things that I have fought for years, and I do not want them to creep back into my existence, whatever the reason, whatever the excuse. I have learned that there is always something good to come out of something back, that as one of my fortune cookies, once told me that, "it is always darkest before the dawn." Last night, a co-worker and I joked about hurting the evil corporation where it is most vulnerable, that is damaging its profits. We joked about destroying the espresso machine, and disabling the copier. We laughed about giving away everything, instead of taking money from people. Ha, ha.

It's five a.m. and Morisson is dutifully at his position by my side. You think that he would be laying on the floor, or still sleeping, but no…he is next to me, waiting for me to slide my hand onto this head and start petting him, and scratching him. What a loyal dog. I love him so.

Jaggar: My black cat. Someone found Jaggar in a McDonald's parking lot with his chest caved in. His mother was lying near him dead; she had been run over by the same car that caved in Jaggar's chest. Jaggar was rushed to the vet, where I was taking my dogs, and cats, at the time. Different members of the staff would bring Jaggar out, and show him to me; sometimes he would be licking a syringe, as if it were his mother's tit. I started to fall in love with Jaggar, and anticipated visiting with him, when I would be going in with one of my dog's or cats. I didn't realize it, at the time, but I think that the vet staff was grooming me to be Jaggar's daddy, because when he became well enough to leave the vet's office, it was in my hands. Jaggar was the cutest little kitty, but he was always an aloof kitten. He didn't play like normal kittens did, and he grew up to be an aloof cat who doesn't play like other cats play. Jaggar has his own set of rules and regulations for how you can interact with him. He will rub up against your leg to show you love, but don't even try petting him because he won't let you. I think that the way that he was raised made him a little anti-social, a little bit detached. I don't care about all of that; I love him anyway.

Rebellion

Salivate like Pavlov's Dogs
they do, but I won't, not in this case
because I know that I'm supposed to,
but, some mornings, when I've just woken up
and everything is clear
I know that I am not supposed to do
everything that they want me to do.

They are mean women working for a vicious corporation. Karma is catching up to them, and they will all soon be on the sidewalk. Yeah, right; unfortunately people like them never get what they deserve.

Silenced

The cats gather by the front door
looking out at a world that they
used to be a part of. They are not
allowed to be outside cats, anymore;
the new abode is situated too close
to traffic, and their owner doesn't
want the to get splatted by a car.


I rule the land

I'm writing another memoir,
and, for some reason, I keep thinking
about my first girlfriend.
I don't really want to write about her,
because I got burned.
I only want to write about situations
where I appear to be a conquering king.

Augusten Burroughs

The auditorium was packed
and most people there
held a copy of his latest book.
He was as funny in person,
as he was inside his books.
It is nice when someone measures up
to your expectations;
it is nice when your literary heroes
don't let you down.
Good job Augusten.

Can you freeze brownies?

I made brownies, yesterday
and they may have been the best
brownies that I have ever made,
they may have been as good as
any brownies that I have ever eaten
and that includes brownies
that I have eaten at Christmas parties.

Better off than many

I am sneezing, this morning
because it is cold
but I don't want to turn on the heat
because the bill was very high. last month
without the heat being turned on.
I am a victim of my income,
or lack thereof, but there are
far worse things that I could be.

Significance

Nothing seems significant, this morning
a world series was won
while men and women continued to die
in wars in other places
Funny how war can come to seem normal.

He is talking to me

Off in the distance
I see who I want to be.




I guess that we might find out

He lived, but twelve others died.
He will wish he was dead,
and eventually they will kill him.
What makes a man kill others
in such a senseless rampage,
as this, pulling several guns
on an army base and killing
fellow soldiers.

Why them and not me

I am not the best looking man in the world,
but I have certain redeeming characteristics;
a nice smile, and I write well.
My children's mother is currently telling me
that I need to shave, that this long white beard
that I am sporting makes me look like a homeless man.
Well, I am, almost, a homeless man,
in fact I am not quite sure what it is
that keeps me from being on the sidewalk;
dumb luck I guess.

Let the games begin

Some people's job is to criticize,
and some people's job is to create.
I am a creator, but a young lady
just sent me an email, and asked me
to criticize her poems.

I will do things for women, sometimes,
that I wouldn't do for anyone else,
and there is no benevolence to it at all.

Miscommunication with the communicators

The high speed dsl that I ordered and installed
was slow as hell. I gave it a week, and then
I called them and said, "Take it out."
They sent me to nine different departments;
they really didn't want to take it out.
One young lady tried to sell me a slower speed plan;
I said, "heck no," and when she was supposed to
transfer me to yet another department,
mysteriously, I got hung up on.
Finally, I got a young lady to terminate my existence
with her company. She is sending me labels
so that I can mail them their modem.
It is amazing how uncommunicative
a huge communications company can be,
when they are trying to hold on to your money.

No kiss

She sends her love to others; you'll find her
lipstick on everyone, but me.


One of the most awful things that you can do is to tell someone that you like their writing, when your real motive is to get them to read your writing. I'm not a critic, I'm not a teacher, I'm not up, at this time, for joining, or forming, a writer's group, so that we can tell each other how bad each other's poems suck. I'm a writer, a poet, I'm out here doing what I do on my own; I don't really care what anybody thinks about my writing, and I don't really want to read your writing, just because you told me that mine was nice.





Morning Walk

On our morning walk, we ran into a squirrel
who came so close to us, that I could have
reached out, and picked him up, and had him
for breakfast. Of course, I would have
much preferred to have the oatmeal that was
waiting for me back at the house.

"Don't leave your children unattended," said
a sign in the middle of the bright red,
orange, and yellow children's playground
in the park that we were walking in.

Tense

Satan felt my balls
and I got hard for The Lord.

In Public

I am not going to beg
but I am going to
seriously wish that
people with cell phones
sit nowhere near me.

The older Jewish woman

She would probably never think
that I thought that she was hot,
but I did.

A woman younger than I

She called and said
that she had been
shooting heroin, again.

Each day has its own particular beauty

It is a Saturday morning
life so many others
and yet I know that this one
is different
My coffee is the same
Feeding the animals is the same
Slowly coming out of the grog
is the same
and yet this day is different.

Sometimes life is like a movie

There was something about her
even when she was just words on a screen
before I had her picture
before I saw her smile.

There was something about her
before the plane touched down
before she extended her hand
before she offered me that smile.

There was something about her
at the coffee shop
with her clothes on
before we entered her bed
and she still had that smile.

There was something about her
for the whole weekend
doing simple things
doing simple things
and through it all, yes
she wore that smile.



I didn't know that I would be just talking to voice mail

I don't know why women give you their phone number
when they don't plan on answering.

Did I leave my heart in San Francisco?

On Tuesday, I am going to San Francisco
for five days. An old friend bought me
a ticket, and even though I am walking
with a limp, and a cane, I am still going
to have a very enjoyable time.
O.k., as well as being an old friend,
this young lady is also someone who I dated for awhile,
but after we finished dating, we became
friends again. There is also another woman
who I dated living in San Francisco
with her husband, and her children
and I am going to visit with them also.
It seems to me that I get along better
with woman as ex's than I do when we are involved.

Due in full

My dog Bundy doesn't like the mail lady,
and I am pretty sure that she doesn't much care
for him; he is not very nice to her when she
brings my mail, which is mostly bills.
I wonder if Bundy knows that she is bringing us
mostly bills, and this is the reason
that he freaks out on her.

Retrospection

My father took me to a K-Mart parking lot,
intent on teaching me how to drive;
he lost it, freaked out, and started yelling,
and screaming, as he was wont to do,
and decided that I should take driver's ed classes
instead of having him teach me.
The instructor at driver's ed didn't freak out,
and soon I had my license, but I had no car to drive;
my father didn't much trust me to give me his car
very often. It is funny how you can look back
on things that seemed so traumatic at the time,
and smile at them now.

Slow Down

There is really no need to hurry
in most any situation,
unless someone is trying to
make a buck off of your back,
or is strung out on speed,
and is, somehow, involved in
your existence.

The beauty queen

She kept asking me if she was ugly
and I tried to convince her
that she was one of the most beautiful
creatures that I had ever seen.
Well, creature is the wrong word;
she is one of the most beautiful women
that I have ever seen; inside, and out.

Waking Up

The cat's morning meow is sullen
like a river that has seen no rain.

It really depends on the situation

Tom Petty won't back down,
and, mostly, neither will I.

Say goodbye old hip of mine

I am going to San Francisco for five days, next week.
I am going to bring my cane with me, so that I can
limp about that beautiful city. I'm taking my old hip
with me, also, it should be removed soon after I return.
It's not that I wanted to give my hip one last look
at the beautiful city by the bay, it just worked out that way.

God is weird

One woman has breasts
the size of the largest mountains
and one gal hardly has any tits at all.
One man can star in pornos,
he's got a dick as large as that of a horse,
another man struggles to pull it out his pants.

Is there a rule?

Is there a rule
that says you
can't title several poems
the same thing?
If there is, I am breaking it.


Vacuum

It's always when I think that
I might have found company
that I feel the loneliest.





Don't grab your bible

You've been silent, and I haven't shut up
in forty days and forty nights,
not a religious experience, really,
just a coincidence that it worked out that way.

Tweedledee Tweedledum

I guess that the birds have flown off
due to the cold, or maybe they don't sing
at 4 a.m.; they are asleep like I am
supposed to be.

This is a miracle

My black cat, Jaggar,
slept next to me, last night.
He did not bite, or scratch me,
or run off, when I petted him.

Relevance

Somehow coffee grounds found their way
into my coffee, this morning; it was
aggravating but it was not like
having a bomb go off on me as I walked
the streets of Iraq or Afghanistan
being all that I could be.


The Fascinating Bread

The bread was fascinating, some call it "the squishy bread;" you break some off and scoop up the vegetables on your plate with it. I had never been to an Ethiopian Restaurant, before, and the Injera Bread was the food item that I found most interesting and tasty from the experience.

Not her normal morning routine

I am not used to being around a two year old
and she is not used to being around me
normally before she goes to school she watches cartoons
but this morning she has her mommy wrap a towel around her head
and asks her to play buju banton
(at a much lower volume than he was played yesterday afternoon)
the two year old then starts to dance
spinning around moving side to side and up and down
I realize that she is doing this dance for me
or at least because I am sitting there in her kitchen
I also learn from her mommy that buju banton
doesn't like gay people and I wonder why we are listening to him.

Everybody's getting high in Oakland
it's there way of getting over on the man
they stand on street corners with their 40's
marijuana keeps them warm.

And the man makes them bend over,
if they choose to play his game,
put on little monkey suits, dance around
as they are told for eight dollars an hour
while the man makes millions.

You must pay to eat

The first leg of the plane rde
from Atlanta to Oakland was bumpy
the little packet of peanuts
that they gave me could have gotten me sick
but they didn't and I ask for more
because I couldn't afford to buy
a sandwich at the airport,
funny how that goes; food should be cheap,
I think, but it isn't.

Charli is two years old

On day three, we started
to connect. She likes to
be swung.

One of us is getting old

When I was here last,
Randa was a small child,
now she is a senior in high school,
on her way to college.


Frequent caffeine

I could live in California,
there is much to do,
many places to drink coffee.




In California with The Ex's

I am sipping on tea in The Mission District
surrounded by things I cannot see; my hurting hip
keeps me from walking through the neighborhood.
We had breakfast, this morning, mine an outstanding
vegetarian omelet, and an infinite number of cups of coffee.
I bought post cards and post card stamps;
I took a nap, and now I am here at 6:10 California time.
In the morning, it is back to Oakland,
and then the next day I will fly home.
I laugh and say that I get along with women better
when they are my ex's, and this trip is proving that true.



Mikel,

I spent a whole day hangin' on a street corner in L.A. in '76 hoping to run into Bukowski. A friend of mine and he had been writing back and forth after I introduced him to Buk's writing. Buk started contributing to my friend's self published poetry rag "Blow". So I bought a cigar, threw back a couple straight shots and waited. Thought I saw him but the guy seemd too cleaned up so I quit.

There could be a guy hangin' on the corner right now 'cause he heard you were nearby.

--alsoknownas

When dealing with cats in somebody else's home

The first feline to greet me, at the home of my friends
in San Francisco, was the red and white cat;
he meowed loudly upon my arrival.
I thought that he was greeting me, saluting me,
making me feel welcome, but I soon learned
from his master that he was not a very friendly cat,
so, I assume that he had been sounding some sort
of warning to the household, when I had arrived
at the top of the stairs that lead to his home.
The other cat, the black and white one,
stayed away from me when I arrived, interacting
with me not at all, then, but, just now, I was rubbing
his head in the kitchen like he was my own.

Crunkin' it without the crank

We "crunked" it, last night,
on The West Coast, but
Randa, Penny, Mariah, and I ingested
no crack or crank.
We ate Vegetarian Indian food,
how much more healthy.
The wait in the cold was long,
but it was worth it,
I ate food that I never knew existed.
It was much like eating Ethiopian food
the other day with Darbi.

Morning ritual abbreviated

The stones looked like cookies,
but I wasn't stoned. It's hard
to find the coffee filters in
somebody else's kitchen, but I
didn't fly in from the other coast
to miss my morning caffeine.

Relativity

Darbi was surprised at the amount of coffee
that I drink, calling me an addict,
she also said that I was addicted to my laptop.
I can not argue with her; but I can say
that I have been addicted to far worse things!

A little California Journey

A couple of days ago, I rode the Bart
from Oakland to The Mission District
a clean, fast ride it was.
On the way back to Oakland, yesterday,
the train was packed with kids from Cal State
on the way to see their team play Arizona.
People were friendly and helpful
in getting me off at the right stop:
MacArthur is where I needed to be,
and MacArthur is where I soon was,
limping with cane up to the car
that contained Darbi and Charli.

Warmth in the cold

It's five a.m. in Oakland; forty two degrees,
my hands and feet are cold as I type this,
and I thought that California was always warm.
There were lots of smiles on the faces
of the people who have been around me on this journey:
my primary contacts Darbi and Penny
friends from the past who have given me friendship
that will last another decade or two more, I am sure.

Waking up in The Mission District

Someone, on a bullhorn, is trying
to start The Revolution, this morning,
outside the window that I am sitting near by.
They are doing it loudly in Spanish,
and they have been doing it for several hours.
I wish that they would start the revolution
more quietly, or somewhere else.

Weirdness

My dogs have been staying with friends
for the past five days, and my cats,
and turtles have been alone,
except for a daily visit by my daughter.

It is really weird to step out of bed,
in the morning, and not have Bundy
and or Morisson pushing their head(s)into my hands.
It is really weird to walk into a kitchen,
and not have my cats assembled, waiting
to be fed their morning wet treat.
It is weird to not turn the turtles' light on,
an feed them, before going outside
to feed Monkey, the stray cat, who is not
such a stay anymore, except that
he still lives outside.

I will be home Sunday night,
and all this weirdness will end.

Inside an empty house in California

I haven't seen my friend
in almost a decade, and
this morning, I am alone
in her house, because she
is at the hospital where
a friend of hers may be
dieing from a liver that
is, maybe, making its final
protest about the amount
of alcohol that she pours
into it.

It is kind of lonely in this
house on The West Coast.

The Lust to suck on a joint

He pissed positive for pot
thus pissing away his wife,
and children.

I have a nice ass

I got a message from a female friend
saying that my ass looked good in this video,
and I was supposed to click on it it,
and open it to see my ass, but yesterday,
another female friend sent out a notice
saying there was a virus being spread
via videos that were being randomly sent
to us from friends.

I wonder if I would have opened the video
to look at my ass if I hadn't known that
it was probably a virus.

Taking care of business

One of the cats took a small dump
on Scout's desk, while I was away
in Oakland. I'm not sure if it was
a protest dump, signaling the cat's
aggravation with my not being home
for five days, or if there is a greater
significance to it. Either way,
I just cleaned it up, and am going on
about my business.

Where's Monkey?

I've been out of town for five days,
and I have been back, now, for almost half a day,
and I have not yet seen Monkey,
the stray cat who I feed every morning.
I know that my neighbors fed him, while I was away;
I can tell by the amount of cat food left
in the container that I placed on the porch
in front of my home, for them to use.
Monkey probably found a temporary buffet,
somewhere, and will soon return to eating
at my front door.

No Good Loving

I got home late last night,
from the other coast,
and when I lay down on the bed,
my cat did not climb on my chest,
like he always does,
and I wondered if he was mad at me,
for having left him,
or if he was just out of practice now?

Interrupts of drying clothes

I had forgotten to ask Scout
to continue drying the load of clothes
that I was drying when I left for the other coast,
so when I got back, my semi-damp clothes
were still sitting in the drier.
I just pushed the button, to continue
the drying, hoping that everything will be alright.

The time off is micro waved

I have to be at work in two hours,
my isn't it weird how quick the vacation is over.

A pleasant, but expensive cab ride

As the cab driver left the Atlanta airport
he blasted the song, "Staying Alive," by The Bee Gees;
between the music and the car's rapid acceleration,
it felt as if we going one hundred miles an hour.
"Do you like the music?" the driver asked me,
"We used to listen to it in Africa in 1975." he said.
"Yes, I like it I said," I used to listen to it,
and dance to it, and drink gin and tonics to it
in Tallahassee, in 1975, and years beyond.
The ride was costing me $33.50, which considering
the distance that we were covering,
made me gulp, but Omar from Africa was a good host,
so it wasn't as if I was getting badly burned by an asshole,
which so often happens when you ride in a cab.

A lady from the Doctor's office called, yesterday, and said that my hip replacement surgery will take place in three weeks. I have never had surgery before, but I am really looking forward to this two hour session. I will be knocked out for the length of the surgery, and I have no idea how I will feel once I am brought back around by the anesthesiologist. I probably won't feel great; I will be groggy, and in a bit of pain, I would think.

Right now, I am in constant pain. My left leg is, basically, useless. I kind of drag it along with me, wherever I go, leaning on a cane, or depending on my bike to get me places because it is less painful to ride the bike than it is to walk.

This whole bum hip thing has been a very humiliating experience. I have learned a lot about myself, and I have learned a lot about living with pain. I have, also, learned to notice people around me who are in the same, or worse shape than myself: people on canes, people in wheelchairs, and people limping get a lot more attention from me than they ever did. Seeing them usually makes me feel less sorry for myself, and my situation; knowing that others are suffering the same as I, or worse, is a very eye opening experience. Seeing these folks makes it more difficult for me to say, "Why me? Why me?"

I am sure that I will have many more challenges placed in front of me, as I further age. I am glad that the challenge of having a bad hip is coming to an end. I have heard marvelous things about hip replacement surgery, and what it has done for folks in pain with bad hips.

It is weird to thing that my hip is going to be cut out of me. I want to be cremated, when I die; should I get my old hip from my Doctor, after the operation, and stick it in the refrigerator until I pass away so that it can be added to the rest of me and burned also?

Hey buddy can you spare some mortgage money?

Not having money is a great equalizer;
it makes mooches of us all.

The stray cat is still astray

Monkey still has not shown up
since I got back from California,
but someone ate her food, last night.
It could have been Monkey,
or it could have been this black cat
that I know helps itself to Monkey's food
from time to time,
or it could have been a homeless guy,
but I doubt it.

My diet could always use improvement

I woke this morning thinking of broccoli
I don't even like broccoli
My son likes broccoli
I can eat it, but it is certainly not
my favorite thing
So why was I thinking about it
at five a.m.?

How dare I be gone for five days

Jaggar bit me on the left ankle, this afternoon;
perhaps registering protest over my taking a short trip
to the other coast for five days. It was a good bite,
it made me scream, and kick my left leg in the air,
which was not a good thing, because it is my left leg
that is capable of causing me great pain,
because it is my left hip which is soon to be replaced
with a metal hip.
Jaggar doesn't care about any of this;
he just cares that he didn't get his treats
as usual for five days, and he was letting me know it.


Scratch this

The remedies that I have found, so far,
on the internet, for an itchy beard
have been unsatisfactory: scratch it,
seems to be the leading remedy according
to the average person. I want a lotion
to rub on it. I want the itchiness to go
away almost immediately. I want a quick fix.

The Hustler

His exterior was smooth
but his interior was rough.
His smile was pretty,
but he would take you for
a sucker, if he could.

It came not pre-packaged

Love is all around me.
Love has finally found me,
though I have no hand to hold.

Verbal

I'd rather write than read
I'd mostly rather sit than stand
and I've never liked
to have sand thrown in my face.

Am I hallucinating?

Having it pretty good myself,
I must find it hard to really
understand how bad some folks
have it; and why have I been
chosen to have it better than
them?

I'm standing under the rainbow,
certain that my pot of gold is
waiting, while they have DTs
standing in line for stale sandwiches,
and soup that you would only sip
because you have to.

Here he sits broken hearted

Morisson would not eat his breakfast,
this morning, but he just ate a bunch of grass,
on his first excursion of the day, outside.
The poor dog has gas; maybe grass is good for gas.
You know what they say,
"Grass, gas or ass...nobody rides for free!"

How far will the audience follow you?

She says that she likes my love poems
but recently I've been spewing venom.

I Want Your Vote

Follow me, I'm the leader
Follow me, I'm the bleeder
of innocent hearts.

Mikel K Poet: It sucks to be independent when you need somebody, because they are not around.


David Herrle: I've been there, Mikel. It's a blessing sometimes, but also a desolation. We're all "here," though!


Mikel K Poet: It is weird because the above statement that I made was a momentary reflection on the fact that I couldn't much get myself to the grocery store, and back, because of this hip; these days I travel on a cane…and, then, Danielle appeared out of nowhere, and came through for me with a ride.

I have nice food to eat tonight because of Danielle. You have to be thankful for what you have, and, sometimes, seek help for what you don't have. I have been conditioned to be an island, and on my island I must stay; sometimes, this is not the best way.

Anyway, it's mine

Was I just in the right place
at the right time, lucky as
hell or was her presentation
pre-planned with me in mind?
I think I could have been
any other man sitting there
waiting to receive what she
gave.

There's been a change

I don't fit in.
I don't do things
that way, anymore.
Think of the fun
that I'll be missing
by pointing a finger,
think of the life
I might save
by being there that day,
when the music plays.

You can't freeze advice

God is in my freezer,
screw everybody else;
I'm going to keep God
in there.

When Jesus returns
he will break the ice.

Need Glue

I just chipped my best plate
it is one that someone sent over with food on it,
that never found its way back to its rightful owner.
I am sitting at my desk sneezing; I love my animals,
but sometimes their hair drives me crazy.
The Doctor told me which pill to pick up to cure the sniffles;
I wonder if my doctor can help me glue the dish back together.

Animal Farm

The dogs didn't really miss me,
while I was gone for five days,
recently; they were shipped out
to fun places, places of love,
with much newness to them.

The cats stayed at home,
with plenty of food,
and plenty of water,
and they had a visit from my daughter,
every afternoon,
but that was not good enough for them.
One of them ignored me for a day and a half
when I got home, and the other one bit me,
almost right away.

The turtles didn't really seem to have any feeling
about my disappearance.

Fixing an F

I will soon be able to take yoga, again.
I will soon be able to walk my dogs, again.
I will soon be able to swim, again.
I will soon be able to live not in pain, again.
I will not miss the hip that they are extracting.
It did me well for almost fifty years,
but then one of us failed the other.

Worth the fare

I was in the bathroom
when I heard a knock
on the door, and by
the time I got to the
door there was no one
there. I saw a cab speeding off
much like the one that I had
come home from the airport in
the night before; and then I saw
my cane hanging from my doorknob.
The cab driver had been cool,
last night, and he was being cool
today by dropping off the cane
that I had left in his car
on my ride home.
I was thankful for this.

Some people don't mix well unless they're stoned

I don't socialize much.
I'm not sure why.
I used to socialize a lot;
I was mostly drunk
when I socialized, if
there is any correlation.

I just want peace and quiet and to pay the bills

I was being introduced to a new person,
and the person who was doing the introducing
said, "He is going to be famous," and I gulped.
"What are you going to be famous for?"
the person who I was being introduced to asked,
and I scratched my head.

Some fucking sick shit

She was five, and the newspapers are saying
that her mother sold her like a whore. They
found her dead several miles nearby; was that
part of the deal, did momma get extra for her
death?

Selling the truth

Would you back him if he was wrong,
because he was your friend,
and the outcome didn't matter.
And what if the outcome mattered,
what if it affected everyone,
would you still shake his hand,
look him in the eye, and say yes,
"I will back you in this lie."

And yesterday wasn't

It is such a beautiful morning
no one is hovering over me
telling my to sell, sell, sell:
sell bags of coffee,
sell the current desert,
sell the new drinks,
sell, sell, sell.
These bastards can't let you walk in
and order a cup of coffee,
they have to "up sell," you
put coffee thoughts other than
what you had in mind, in your mind.
Sometimes even a thing as beautiful
as coffee is turned evil,
by greedy corporate minds.

A good soldier

Now that she is leaving,
she is using stress
as the excuse for having been
an asshole at work.

I agree with her that there is stress
on the job, but I don't agree with her
that you have to be an asshole to get
the job done..

Sometimes The Mafia seems decent comparatively

We are trained to lust for money,
and we are trained to go to any length
to get it.

Some people are honest and kill for it,
others call themselves "the manager,"
and slowly suck the heart and soul
out of those who are unfortunate enough
to work within such a realm.

Just Because

It's quiet around here, this morning,
the dogs have not yet started to try
to pry my hands away from this keyboard,
the cats are not running from one end
of the apartment to the other,
either in some sort of a fight, or fun.
The turtles are not demanding room service.
Sometimes it is too quiet in here,
and I find myself start to make noise.

Simple things sometimes

When it is cold,
it is nice to have warmth.
When you are broke
it is nice to have money.
When you are lonely,
it is nice to have love.
When your dogs and cats
are hungry, it is nice
to be able to feed them.

If it had been a girl, I wouldn't have kissed it

Broccoli leaves green strings between your teeth,
after you eat it, but it is supposed to be good for you.

I've only recently been able to consume it,
having always found it to be an extremely nasty vegetable.

Adios amigos

She, often, didn't return texts,
or say hello to me on the internet.
He stopped calling my cell phone,
so I got rid of both of them,
and anyone who acted like them,
and, soon, I had no friends.


You can piss in a stream, but you won't pollute the river.

How many bands, if they were born and bred in L.A.
would still be alive and well, today?


You can't put it on your resume

It's easier to catch a buzz,
than it is to do your math. homework,
but no one every hired anyone
for getting high.

You are better off where you are

Some memory came back to me,
I can't remember why
I saw your face smiling
in a dream.

And everyone loves him because he's a billionaire

If you need inspiration,
don't follow him: he is
fleecing the nation.

Life of the party

You slurred your speech tonight;
everyone thought that it was alright,
but you went home, and put your finger
in your head, and pulled the trigger.

Even Christ can't save us

It's all wrong: the way they treat us.
It's all wrong:what we'll put up with
for a pay check.
It's all wrong: the way we look at each other
with dollar signs in our eyes.
It's all wrong:
the way I feel when I want the things I want.
They taught me to feel this way.
It's all wrong: who has the dollar
and who doesn't.
It's all wrong: sitting around and wondering
about this, because it will never change.

Can we ever start over?

Everyone in the collective
was extending a hand
for his or herself.

I can't wear my new shoes into Heaven

Fancy things shouldn't matter to me.
Freedom is what should matter to me.

Where you found me

Saturated I will over do it, again;
so raped, I will wander out into a place
that doesn't matter.

No qualifications

Looking in the mirror,
you don't know the man.

You cannot petition The Lord

People are not just waiting around for my call;
I can hear the cattle scream as you kill them
for your pleasure. You don't have to eat them,
anymore; anymore than you have to smoke a cigarette.

Like Jim Morrison said, "WAKE UP!!"

For the last time

She said that she wasn't jealous
as she interrogated me about who
you were.

She said that she didn't have anger issues,
as she screamed at me, and threw her show
across the floor.

I said that I'd love her forever,
as I headed out the door, for the last time.

If things get any better

If things get any better
I'm going to have to put on my sweater
to keep out this cold
that has already gotten inside of me.

There are thoughts that I haven't thought
but I can't think them
when there is no food in the refrigerator.

There are people doing way worse than me,
but they are strangers who don't lay down
at night in my cold, cold bed with me.

I'm going to be a superstar one day:
I keep telling myself this, and people keep
telling it to me as I get older, and older.

See that look in my grandson's eye,
he's too young to really know who I am.

Nobody wants to read the anti-war poems

Nobody wants to read the anti-war poems.
Nobody wants to think about what's happening;
they'd rather read poems about love,
and watch sports on the television.

Don't take this the wrong way, baby

I want to write a song or a poem about her
but I'm scared that I'll jinx it that if I
put her in a song or poem she will run away.

With his guitar and his brain

"He's no longer drunk,and he's got a good woman,"
said K Kristofferson about Johnny Cash on the album.

I haven't had a drink
in almost 18 years, but
ain't no good woman near,

but it's alright
ain't nobody driving me nearly out of my mind, neither.

As I listen, K. Kristofferson talks about the devil
on my laptop on a Sunday, as it rains in Atlanta, Georgia.
I knew he was great, but I didn't know that he had penned
so many miracles with his guitar, and his brain.

How about them Yankees?

Our bleeding nation can no longer afford
to fill up at the gas station. The system
has made slaves of us all, but most of us
don't care about anything but Monday Night Football.

The Romans filled their coliseums
with folks who came to see the lion kill,
we get our share of that at the hockey game.

A Kris Kristofferson song made me write this poem

The prophets headed towards the bank
after they had lead the invasion of a foreign nation
by sending in soldiers, planes and tanks.
Their fingers were covered in blood,
but the only color that they could see was green.
The preachers got their percentage,
and so did the politicians, everyone was happy,
including the few kids who made it out of battle alive
with all their appendages and enough wits about them
to still get their college degree.

Sometimes things ain't right,
but they happen anyway.
Sometimes things ain't right,
but the way that they are presented to us
makes our day.

I don't need no television to make things pretty for me.
I don't need no television to make things pretty for me.


You're a winner, too

I pray to The Lord to keep me off the booze;
she prays to God to keep her off junk food.
I don't know if you have to get down on your knees to pray,
seems the Lord wouldn't care how you are positioned,
when you got something to say to him.
There's a lot of experts on God;
they pretty much make me go on The Nod.
It's like Jim Morrison, and the end:
the only way to find out is to go there, my friend.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah,
here comes the basket;
the church has bills and The Reverend's salary to pay.
I'm a sinner.
I'm a sinner,
but I know The Lord thinks that I'm a winner.

To pay for others' sins

Women treat me like a man,
and sometimes that hurts.

Bathwater

Look over my shoulder
tell me what you see
a setting sun,
a clown selling smiles.

Look at the setting sun,
what do you see: a city
built on dreams.

We can reach our destination,
even if we have to walk.

You can't have it all

The smell of her still haunts me;
in my ear I still hear the symphony
that she created.
Then someone told her that my smile was fake,
and that was all it took for me to see her
walking off in the distance.
Funny, how love is built on a premise,
from such a not solid foundation something
so important we do make.
My children visit me every other weekend,
they bring reports about what's his name.
They are together like we once were,
only I hid the violin and the cello.

Ramble

What's his name we all agree
sitting still will not move you forward.
He's got leg room on his plane,
I was stuffed like a potato in mine.
The free wifi cost my laptop
its battery, the movie sucked,
all I could do was think of her.
On two flights only one of the stewardesses
talked to me; I wrote a letter to the airline
telling them that she should get a raise,
boy I bet they laughed at that one;
when times are tough, only the ceo gets a raise.

If I bio illuminate myself will that attract you to me?

He pulls his Jesus card, but he doesn't fully slap you
in the face with it until the last sentence on p. 206.

"When something bad happens to you,you have two choices in how to deal with it: you can get bitter, or better."

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller P. 180

A beautiful fake

I had a beautiful Christmas tree;
it was a fake one, which I prefer
(why kill a tree and then pollute
the landfill with it?)
It was not one of those pink, or black ones,
that you see so often, these days, in the stores;
it imitated a real one, and came very close
to making one and all think that it was real.
When I moved into this space
I gave the tree that I loved
to three people that I love;
my son, his wife, and their baby boy.
They have more space than I currently do

I opened my red and green storage container,
last night, in the cold ending of a Thanksgiving day.
I have an abundance of lights,
but not all that many decorations;
space is my limitation, right now,
I don't have a lot of it, so my preparation for Santa,
will have to be scant, he will have to know
that my holiday spirit is great even though
I gave my Christmas tree away
because I had nowhere to put it.

Simpatico

My son's wife took great pride
in the eggless pumpkin pie
that she had baked,
but not as much pride as my son did.
I took great pride in it, also,
as I ate it: it was a delicious pie,
you could not tell that there was
anything missing from it.

Meat eaters and mostly vegans
collide during the holiday, in our family,
but everyone has learned
their little tricks to get along.

Turkeys booze and cigarettes

I ate no turkey, today,
I drank no beer, and
I smoked no cigarettes.
There was a point in my life
where, if you had told me,
that I was going to go without
turkey, booze, and cigarettes
on a Thanksgiving,
I might have told you
that you were smoking crack,
but time changes people,
and I give thanks
that I have changed, mostly,
in the right direction,
and that what I have eliminated
in my life is both good for me,
and the turkey.

Today

Amazingly, I didn't overeat,
but I did hug a lot,
and nobody seemed to mind.

I don't want to go to bed,
because I will never see
this Thanksgiving, again.

I want to hold onto this day;
I want to savor it for a long time,
even though the clock tells me
that it is 1:54 a.m.
and, technically, my day of thanks
is already over.

I will always have the memories
from today, and some pictures.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,
all of you.

--Mikel K

Thanks

Thanks for planets,
thanks for stars,
thanks for beaches,
and the sand that runs
between my toes, as I
walk along the ocean.
Thanks for legs that work,
eyes that see,
a mouth that smiles,
and ears that hear you
whisper in them.
Thanks for children,
even the loud ones,
thanks for neighbors,
even the ones who use
leaf blowers
early on a Saturday morning.
Thanks for books,
and what I learn from them,
and the joy they give me.
Thanks for my dogs, cats,
and turtles, my near constant
companions.
Thank you for my children,
mostly existing in their own world's
these days; I raised them
to be independent, and drat they are!
Thanks for my family,
it's not the one that I was born into,
but it's the one that I have come to love,
and the one that has come to love me.
Thanks for socks,
and gym shorts,
and clean sheets on my bed.
Thanks for alarm clocks,
and the mornings where
they don't have to go off.
Thank you for the end to war.
Thank you for the end to the cruel raising
and killing of animals.
Thank you for a warm coat
on a cold winter's day.
Thank you for air conditioning
when it is hot.
Thank you for sushi, and pot stickers.
Thank you for strangers who open the door
for me.
Thank you for making me polite,
and opening the door for others.
Thank you for all the different races,
and colors of people that share the earth.
Thank you for jungles that I've never been to,
countries that I have yet to see.
Thank you for people who love me.
It is so easy to give thanks,
one you get started; I am going to stop, now.
But I must thank my Lord, the Creator,
My Higher Power for the faith that I have;
without faith my life would be dismal,
as it once was for so very long,
and, as I think you can tell,
my life is no longer dismal,
and I am especially thankful for that.

--Mikel K

1. God
2. Life
3. My family
4. My friends
5. My health
6. My sanity (smile)
7. My dogs, cats, turtles
8. My home
9. My bicycle
10. My cane (With this ailing hip, it helps me get around.)

Scrap Metal

They always list what awards a poet has won
when they publish his or her poem. I could
care less about the awards that a poet has
won: I care about the poem.

Do you have somewhere to go today?

Some have not,
and I feel for them,
and I would like to invite many of them
to where I am going today
to a family gathering
full of fun and food,
but I can't
so I can just pray
that The Lord has a plan
for those with nowhere to go
on this day of thanks.

Twas the night before Thanksgiving

Twas the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the apartment, Bundy and Morisson were sleeping like dogs
A gingerbread cake was waiting in the kitchen,
to be scooped up tomorrow morning when Kevin arrived.

The children were spread out through the city, one was a new dad,
the other boy was out with his friend who is a gal,
and the girl was in trouble, for riding in a car too young.

That's as far as I'm going with this: Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

--Mikel K

From Georgia to Georgia with much gratitude

As I took their coffee order,
the day before Thanksgiving,
I asked my customers what they were doing
for the holiday,
and many said that they were driving;
"Viginia,
North Carolina,
Alabama,
and South Carolina,
were the main places that I heard
folks from Georgia say
that they were driving to
to spend time with loved ones,
and then one young lady said
that she had come "a long way,"
to be here in Georgia, for the holiday.
She said that she had come from Georgia
to be in Georgia.
She meant that she had come from the Georgia
that used to be part of The Soviet Union,
the Georgia that not too long ago was at war
with Russia.
Her job, there, in Georgia, was "working with
the refugees, both hands on, and from an office."
I asked her if she was scared at all
to work in a place that had erupted in war, recently,
and she said that as long as you stay away from the border
you are safe.
I bet that her family is extra thankful
to have this young lady home, for this day of gratitude.

I have one glorious sip of coffee, left in this cup to savor, and then I must head out there to take what they are giving. I hope that you have a beautiful Wednesday.

Washing the brain

A vast sentence has been handed down,
history is repeating itself:
you better get down, bolt yourself in,
in a hurry, or say why worry
two approaches with the same ramifications
This is not a test.
This is just fiction.
I'm listening to the a.m. radio,
and they are trying to scare me,
daring me to vote other than republican.

Hip Hop Rhyme

I washed my sweater,
and now I feel better,
because my sweater is clean.
.

See Ya

People are weird
they can blow a
twenty year friendship
in one jealous moment,
too many beers, dude,
I'm not in Jr. High; lame game
you been playing recently

Such Ambiguity

You could have been mine,
but instead you are hers,
I only wish that you had
said the words that would
have made things clear to me
about your intentions.

Ashes to ashes and
you got me as a friend until the end.
I don't shake many hands,
I don't look many people in the eye,
I'm not selling insurance,

I have nothing against people who eat turkey for Thanksgiving, though I do have something against the folks who killed The Indians, though there is not much that I can do about it, and I fully realize that I am a beneficiary of the brutal, evil death of The Native Peoples. I ate turkey for most of 52 years that I have been on this planet: this will be my second year that I have not eaten the bird.

The first year, last year, I didn't think that I could do it; I had this idea about how awful it was going to be to just eat vegetables for the holidays (Christmas was looming near by.) My oldest boys' wife, who has never eaten meat, brought the neatest non-turkey dishes to the thanksgiving dinner table, though, that added, delightfully, to the wonderful vegetable dishes that my son's mother had cooked. I enjoyed my meal tremendously, and got as full, and happy as I ever had gotten eating the full range of the Thanksgiving meal offerings(yes that means including eating the abused bird.)

I Googled, "Thanksgiving turkey raising and killing," and I found this post by, "Uppity Person," which pretty much says what I was going to say(except that I think it would have been better for he, or she, to keep the turkey as a pet, and not kill it for lunch!:

"I know my bird, because I raised it, was raised in decent conditions, know what it ate, know it wasn't stuffed in a tiny cage with no room to move and nothing to do but eat the hormone/antibiotic ridden food put in front of it, know it didn't have its beak chopped off to prevent it pecking at other birds, know that it was treated respectfully and butchered without a lot of trauma (like being hung by its feet while proceeding down an assembly line with other terrified birds).

I agree that being more actively involved with obtaining your food is a good thing even though my ancestors were not involved with "genocide against the Native Americans , enslaved the African People , and murdered millions across the world in the 20th century".

Wow, Uppity Person really got some mileage out of the evil way that your turkey is raised and killed, rallying against the whole, or much of, the American way of life!!

Have a nice day.

Mikel K
Nov. 24, 2009

PS Have you bought a copy for you or a loved one, for Christmas, of Mikel K's Memoir, "The Delivery Guy," about that period of his life where K went from being a booze laden, drug addled poet rock star wanna be to a sober father watching his son grow as he runs the bases in Little League baseball?

http://stores.lulu.com/mikelkpoet

I have nothing against people who eat turkey for Thanksgiving, though I do have something against the folks who killed The Indians, though there is not much that I can do about it, and I fully realize that I am a beneficiary of the brutal, evil killing of The Native Peoples. I ate turkey for most of 50 years; this will be my second year without it The first year, last year, I didn't think that I could do it; I had this idea about how awful it was going to be to just eat vegetables for the holidays (Christmas was looming near by.) My oldest boys' wife brought the neatest non-turkey dishes, to add to the wonderful vegetable dishes that my son's mother had cooked.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
I had to microwave my coffee, this morning, because I let the coffee get cold. It's five a.m. and I am, pretty much, wide awake. Thanks Lord for letting me see this new day: it has so much potential. It is raw, unlike any other day that I have ever lived. The gift of life is the most precious thing that the creator has given us. While alive, all things are possible. Do you want a new car? Go out and get it. Do you want to shower your children with love? Do it. I fed the dogs, and cats before I made my coffee, this morning, as I usually do. I think that the animals should go first; that is at least in part why I don't eat them anymore: respect. We should have respect for all living things. If we don't need to eat them to survive, why should we force feed them, inject them with growth hormones, and then cruelly kill them to eat? I see no reason why.

You probably can't tell someone that you love them too much. In my case, I am thinking about my kids. I just sent them an email at 5:46 a.m. that says that I love them. They will wake up to find it, and I would think that it might be a great way for them to start their day. I mean it's not like finding a new Mercedes, that belongs to them, now, parked out in front of their living space, but heck it's the best that I can do give my current circumstances. Do you think that handing out Mercedes to family members is a good way to show your love?

I failed to tell you that several days after I returned from Oakland, Monkey, the cat, returned to my front porch, and has been eating the food that I put there for him. It is funny how things can get disrupted between you, and your animals, when you are gone for even a short period of time. Monkey probably wondered what the heck happened to me, even though I left food for my next door neighbor to feed her. Maybe the bond between an animal and a man or woman is stronger than food.

Seaweed at my feet

If I was down by the sea
I'd walk the beach for an hour
then stop and stare across the waves.
I've never seen a shark,
and I hope that I never do,
but I have bent over and picked
a shell or two.
But, I'm here in the city,
and, still, I'm sitting pretty
you can be calm and serene
in just about any scene.


This one goes out to the one I have yet to find
Someone is my enemy in the twenty first century,
but you'll have to point them out to me:
Sean and Glen and Rush will have to make it clear.

I'm lost in heaven I took a bow
time share vacation doesn't seem
so timely now.
The guy in the cell next to me,
keep asking me if I've got a cigarette,
he's been in and out for years.

Not drunk Not standing on a corner

They wait on a street corner for work
to pull over in a car, and let them jump in.
Many of them look drunk, or close to drunk,
or close to having been drunk.
When I am complaining to myself about
how tired I am from working,
it is good to see them; a reminder to me
of how good I really have it.

Striking out

The dogs gather at my feet, when I eat
waiting for food to fall,
like a center fielder does, in a baseball game,
for a baseball to come to him.

Something in common

I like it when Monkey comes running
to the banister, where I have sat her food,
in the morning. This way I know that she
has gotten her food, and not the black cat,
who sometimes comes and eats it, scaring Monkey away.

I don't know how Monkey can live outside,
especially now that it is cold out there,
but, then again, I don't know how humans,
who we call homeless, can do it either.

They tell me that I was insane

I haven't been arrested for being drunk
since I quit drinking; it seems simple
enough, but for a long time I didn't understand
the equation. I thought that you could
keep doing the same thing over, and over,
and get different results.

There will be a change

It's Sunday, and I'm having my morning coffee
my beard itches, and I don't think
that the anti-itch cream that I rubbed on my chin
is going to help any. The dishwasher is working.
I don't have a job, but I have surgery scheduled
for next week: they are going to trade out my ailing hip
for one made of titanium.
The water pouring out of the filter in my turtle's tank
competes, noise wise, in the apartment with the dishwasher.
The turtles are at peace, one sunning himself on the rock
underneath the heat lamp, the other underneath the rock,
in the water. For a moment, I think that the one in the water
is dead, but but I stand up from my desk and stick my face
in front of the aquarium and see the one in the water
moving his head underneath the rock.
I need to change the turtles' water. I need help carrying
the aquarium into the bathroom to empty out the old water,
and clean the turtles' rocks. With this ailing hip of mine,
I need help, in a variety of ways. They tell me that once
I have the new hip, I will be as good as new.

The process of dreaming

Tired eyes will lead me back to the bed
where they will soon shut, and lead me to
a dream or two.

Separation

With my hip giving me great pain,
I don't, yet, have the energy to
hang my Christmas lights. Maybe
I will ask my son to help me
hang them tonight, or, maybe, I
will just go without lights, this year.

I like cards

I got a card in the mail,
it says, "warm holiday wishes."
I have not yet hung the card
on my wall; it sits on my desk
close to me.

Holiday Radio

There will be reports that
we are not buying as much
as in previous years,
that our trees will look
dismal with less presents
underneath them, but what
the reports fail to note
is that most of us gather
at the holidays to see
the smiles on the faces
of our loved ones, and not
what our loved ones have
bought for us.

Ho ho ho

Christmas trees are going up like foreclosures
The American Spirit will not be toppled
by ruthless pigs,
millionaires who want to be billionaires.
Wait.
Stop.
I want to be happy.
I don't want to worry about
what the capitalist pigs are up to.
I want to hold my grandson, and see him smile;
so what if his planet is shot out; polluted,
fish swimming in human waste; inedible,
a metaphor for all the other lousy things
that have been done to the earth for a buck.
Stop.
I hear Santa coming.
He's not bringing much, this year,
but my grandson is still smiling.