Friday, January 31, 2014

Free Bird Fly




She was a drunken wretch,
With the Lord’s words announced in her ears
Between the Rat Pack’s sonatas
Cooing in the background of the lounge.
It was a stand-by flight from purgatory.
She could not afford the chance from Reno
Yet waited as if she could,
With miniature statuettes
Of Jack and Jim and Captain Morgan.
Incorrigible nerves pulsing her jugular
Pumping her pores of fluid and salt.

Hiding his eyes across the aisle—a man!
Aviators, a disguise, kept from her
But reassured she thought, “Under my thumb.”

Friday, December 6, 2013

The Phalanx of Boys



The phalanx of boys
Broken on the battlefield
Like shards of stained glass.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

The Farmer



Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man
Won all their hearts with his ingenious plan,
To take the power of the few,
To remove status and order anew,
To restore riches to the destitute,
To ensure each man equally renew
Disregarded principles of his clan,
Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man.

Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man
With a bellowing voice and outstretched hand,
Gave clever pamphlets by the ream,
Arguing merits of his scheme.
With citizens enraptured in his dream,
The public held in great esteem
He, who upon a noble platform ran,
Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man.

Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man
Was the next steward elect of the land,
Enforcing each promise with tender might,
Changing the lax laws nearly overnight,
Gone were each voter’s public plights
As dissipating clouds in airy flight,
Their praises abundant as grains of sand,
Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man.

Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man
Ruled in office a lengthy span,
But the citizens’ plights again returned
In other forms, with solutions unlearned,
And their frothy minds continued to churn.
His savior portrayal they came to spurn,
“For who was in charge when the plights began?”
—Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man.

Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man
Addressing the scrutiny of his clan:
“From self-review I have not shied,
A moral compass I have not denied,
From past shackles this country I untied
I will keep my judgment until I die.”
Murdered by millions of misguided hands:
Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man

Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man
Was made a martyr for his values grand.
From gloried tomes of philosophy sound,
His words like a fruitful harvest abound.
His body was planted in fertile ground,
Within the soil of a humble mound,
A seed upon which a gray tombstone stands,
Hamilton the Revolution’ry Man.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

On the West Side



On the West Side
Strewn between jagged brick outcroppings—those riparian adornments: 
Kraft Foods, Nestle Purina, Nichol’s Aluminum—are the houses of the evicted.
We are on pace to gut them all
Amidst the on-looking of motley congregations of the deprived and their gawky children.

We build a hill of scrap metal on the lawn.
The next morning it is a piecemeal pile,
Like an unsecured garbage bin
After the plundering of starving raccoons.