I’ve piles not notebooks around my bed and little else, so let’s flip through them and find some poems I feel like sharing!
“Advice”
If you should wish your mind sharper,
Hone a wit that’s fit to slay,
Might I suggest you read Dorothy Parker,
And Edna St. Vincent Millay?
“Anxiety, of the Generalized Variety”
They say tomorrow is another day,
And that is supposed to make me content.
Yet now I fear tomorrow’s gone away,
And my spirit will awake already bent.
Why is it difficult to feel at ease?
That oxymoron, to try to relax.
Maybe I’ve really some disease,
Some chemical of joy I’m cursed to lack.
I know that I’ve felt happiness before,
And there are things that let me feel it now.
Good company, wine in a healthy pour.
I should hike. Get out, see more! Anyhow…
Tomorrow’s today. It’s after midnight.
I’ll sleep, if only to have the strength to fight.
“Haikus Written on Commute”
Not a morning guy…
Alarm’s ring forces my rise.
Coffee, consciousness.
Just one quick drink, yes?
Laughter. Another! One more.
Now, regret for us.
I lost my cell phone.
Have to look at these people,
Feel no connection.
Small talk, they call it.
How are you? Where are you from?
That’s not important.
Trying to impress.
All the stories of my life
Are not meant for you.
Always move forward.
A train, cars, my own two feet.
Can they take me back?
“Stargazing”
There is one! Marked by a flash
As brief as its memory eternal.
The heavens rendered by a minute gash
Of something uniquely nocturnal.
The water glistens like a flowing mirror,
The black sky set with diamonds,
What breeze there is makes the night sky clearer,
While the loons call out like sirens.
It’s hard to tell what I prefer,
The heavens or your awe,
But to have them both together
Reveals to me my flaw:
That all the wishes I deign to do,
Are quite unlikely to come true.
“December 2019”
My father took my on a Christmas nostalgia tour.
He showed us
The docks where we used to catch crabs
With chicken legs on string.
The water was nearly frozen over.
There was frost in the shadows
And dew in the sun.
He talked about all the things that changed,
The houses and their add-ons,
New street names,
Construction.
If he looked down at that thing sheet of ice,
As I did,
I wonder if he’d notice how much he’s changed.