A selection of poetry 1983 - 2023

Words Upon The Wind

The Writer's Pain

Once again my mental bladder is full Words and ideas become painful and cruel.

I GOTTA GO!

Legs crossed, dancing up and down. With pen I scratch and keyboard pound

I lose track of time, stuck in a dream, As words flow out in a steady stream. Some words dark and others light Mix them around until they sound right.

Now the bladder is empty Such a welcome relief.

Just hope you don't think, The words I write stink.

I killed a man today. Forgiveness from God I won’t pray!

No need to poke him to see if he’s dead. He’s a corpse with an arrow through the head.

It wasn’t so hard to end his life. I knew he wouldn’t leave a grieving wife.

How could I do something so callous and hard, Then write a poem like a guiltless bard?

He didn’t fit into the story I was writin’ My prose I decided to tighten.

I put him into a body bag, With a mouse click and a drag.

To Murder, I Confess

The Glorious Man of Armor

In his day he strutted about the countryside blazing in the sun. His every piece lovingly shaped, a nobler garment there was none. Now he stands in the corner and rusts.

Many a battle he fought and justly won. Cleansed of vanquished blood and mended where damage was done. Now he stands in the corner and rusts.

Always a fine lady's kerchief he wore in a joust. Many a tourney he left the victorious host. Now he stands in the corner and rusts.

To his king tried and true and always his honor kept. The queen's own champion, to her honor he always leapt. Now he stands in the corner and rusts.

Never once defeated by an enemy. Yet defenseless was he against new technology. Now he stands in the corner and rusts.

He stands in the corner on display, To bear witness to his glorious day No more battles shall he see, Now he stands in the corner and rusts.

Let Me Own This Ground

As I lay dying on this field I hear the march of history around me. The sound of the musket shot and the smell of powder. The clash of swords and the pounding of horses’ hooves. The whistle of arrows cutting the air The sounds of flesh and bones crushed by stone clubs.

As my blood seeps into this battlefield It mingles with the blood of past warriors that gave their all Fighting over this piece of land. My dying request is that my bones be interred with my brothers who died before me. Bury me deep and mark the spot with only a rose. I fought hard for this land, which my comrades may or may not keep, But at least let me own this small piece, if only in death.

Now as the din of battle fades into the distance and I draw my final breath Leave me here to wait for an escort to the halls of Valhalla.

Eden

In the Garden of Eden there was found Condoms lying all around A bite from the Apple revealed What God from them had concealed.

Newly opened eyes found them nude Their thoughts soon turned to the lewd A quick slap and a tickle Put all our fates in a pickle

The gift of knowledge filled their brain For which they traded eternal pain When learned that the price of ecstasy - is pregnancy

People see you and they scream and they shout. Your thankless job we couldn’t live without.

Pollen to stigma you do marry, And sweet nectar in your belly you do carry.

Directions to flowers you report like a scout. “C’mon,” you say, “and help a fellow out.”

Life so short, 30 days and then it’s done. ‘Busy as a bee’, do you ever have fun?

Tender lovers we call our sweet honeybee. Then shake in terror when you nest in our tree.

In tea and on toast, golden honey so yummy It sticks in my mouth on its way to my tummy.

Your honeycomb of perfect geometric design, Whose shape we use to make a traffic sign.

Splattered on my windshield, now it needs washing. No sign do we have to warn, “Lookout, bee crossing!”

Sorry I stepped on you; stinger still in me straight as a post. Thus ending your life, poor little bee ghost.

An Ode to Bees

Untitled

My eyes are red, My mouth tastes like spew, Got really wasted last night, Check out my wicked new tattoo!

The Bulb or the Light?

What are you? The bulb that carries the light or the light? - Joseph Campbell

A life I spent pampering the bulb. Wearing the stylish fashions Hair cut to imitate big celebrities. Liposuction and silicone sculpted the bulb To a cultural ideal

Age brought gray hairs, Clairol sold the cure Nip and a tuck eradicated pesky wrinkles. Fortunes spent on creams and pills Waging war on age and gravity. Constant roller coaster of self-loathing Problems found then disguised With Patent-medicines.

No cure was found to Hold off Death’s knocking. Looking on my painted corpse I see the broken bulb. Too late to let it shine I see, always, I was the light.

No More

All the dragons are gone, There's no more left to slay.

All the battles have been fought, There's none to fight today.

No castles to be defended, No new lands to be conquered.

The air has been defeated, The seas have all been charted,

The tallest mountains scaled, The deepest space explored.

The knights and chivalry has faded away. All the dragons are gone.

Driven ever forward by insatiable curiosity, He traveled over meadow and plain. Over hill and dale and through the valleys, Traversing forests and wading streams. He wandered highway and byway of all the countries of the world.

Crossing the mighty seas and walking the great continents. The great capitols and cities of the world he did explore. Scaled all the mountains, swam the lakes and rivers.

Coming to the edge of the world, Having explored it all, Without a backward glance,

He jumped off.

The Traveler

Screams of a Dying Earth

Last night I dreamt of an Eagle. I was standing on a tall mountain looking on a tortured landscape. He came to show me the death of the Earth. As I flew with him I surveyed her wounds.

Soaring wings cutting through the air raised a calamitous voice. The shrieking winds screamed at me of choking pollution and ozone depletion. We descended slowly through the sulfurous clouds until we brushed the fingertips of the trees. Limbs outstretched they pleaded for an end. I heard their moans of breathing toxic air and drinking acid rain.

The Eagle loosed its grip and I floated to the ground. I reached the ground and melted through it to hear the groans of the rock. It berated me with the agony of holding nuclear waste. The soil screamed from years of drinking blood and toxic waste. I flowed down to a subterranean stream and was washed out to a babbling brook. As I bounced and jostled over boulders its hurried murmurs spoke of mercury poisoning and chlorine dumping.

I came again to the mountain and scaled its weathered surface. I found the Eagle, his wings outstretched, dead upon the summit.

Memoirs of War

He’s still living it in his dreams. Hearing the gunboats coming over the trees. The machine guns chatter, and rifles crack.

Comrades falling, some dead before the impact, others drowning in their own blood. Mortars whoomp at unseen targets, shells whistling through the air. Men screaming as they impact and explode. Watching friends blown to fragments, Standing there in his dream, immobile and impotent to help.

He revisits all those old battle scenes, Watching all his friends die. Awaking with a scream still in his throat. He remains where he lies in a pool of sweat.

The war still isn't over yet. Returning there to 'Nam every night to fight it again and again. Praying some night it will be won But for a Vietnam Vet it's never won.

Ender Wiggins

An Acrostic poem

E xceptional intellect and
N atural leader as
D ragon Army commander.
E nemy's gate is down!
R esourceful tactician.

W orld destroyer!
I ncapable of surrender, the
G iant slayer and
G alactic hero.
I nternal demons struggle
N ot the Xenocide, but
S peaker for the Dead.

Hey E.T. are you out there? Tuning us in on Planet Claire.

Open a door in your Dyson Sphere Give us a shout, lend us an ear

Are there green men from outer space? Cosmic neighbors of the human race.

People swear you crashed at Roswell, Abducted they claim with stories to tell.

Little gray men with bald bulging heads Anal probes and sex on cold metal beds

Drake’s Equation will find them it’s said Even 1 in a billion, they can’t all be dead

Plug in numbers but aliens don’t come, Only in tabloids, are aliens that dumb?

Is it possible you came and you left? Extinguished for millennia, leaving us bereft

The universe is full of life’s building blocks. Perhaps the answer truly is Fermi’s Paradox.

Where are you E.T.?

Street Rumble

We beat 'em,
We dis'd 'em,
We kicked their butts good.
That was kinda stupid,
'cuz we in their neighba hood.
RUN!!!!

Sticky Hot

Sun comes up and hangs around Sixteen hours til it goes to ground

no rain, grass is dead more time to lay in bed

window air conditioner makes a racket balanced on the sill, missing bracket

Kids are bored and start to drool Too smart for summer school?

Reruns on TV, such a bore Find a movie to rent, such a chore

Car interior baked oven hot Over 90 degrees, A/C goes to pot

August all hot and sticky San Diego, so rarely icky

Neighbor's pool, a cool oasis Mean guard dog, away he chases.