He was born in Groesbeck, Texas and his name was Joe Don Baker.
Sadly, after living for nearly nine decades, he needed an undertaker.
He attended North Texas State College on a sports scholarship.
He starred in "The Living Daylights", "Cape Fear" and "Joysticks".
When I say that he was a very talented man, it's not a joke.
He died of lung cancer which proves that people shouldn't smoke.
After living for eighty-nine years, he perished and it's a shame.
Joe Don Baker was a skilled actor who was destined for fame.
[Dedicated to Joe Don Baker (1936-2025) who died on May 7, 2025]
I speak of the breast best,
mother Mary and her voiceless love.
My pillow-talk told to doves and divas.
And my voice sounds in the whale bone,
in the thunder of workaday ants in their
Brooklyn bodega’s.
The breathless, the brazen
those who bargain and barter
their marketplace musical masterpieces,
let them unsling all vocal vending’s
be they sharp or velvet
in a caroling of living daylights.
Talk is dirt, let our mute fingers plow;
what we say, we say beneath the light
where ancient suns still lay voiceless.
I am a penny opera, you are the
song of the earth, my throat
swallows words
turns them into raw diamonds
for your cleaving,
facets you polish
with chorus and chant.
Where you echo I follow
washing my face in
your timbre and tone.
Deliver us plain into a Voice,
one chord struck as clear
as a chisels gleaming cut.
Utter me in your tongue
and I will croon you in the womb
where a common blood speaks.
Proclaim your revelations in a simple song,
an anthem for us to pray
at the end of our tolerable,
unsung days.
Daylight Saving time again.
I guess we have never
had to make egg sandwiches,
at 7a.m.
deep in the dead-eyed dark of night,
then run out of must have mayo,
drive to the edge of a pale-faced light
to bring some home
then crawl to work half-asleep
with an aching head.
and already punch-drunk,
from leaping when told to.
There was a moment, it flashed over us
like lightning at midday.
We should have looked away
but then the living daylights
transformed us
into two undying prayers.
Black cats in lightless rooms
communicated in Brail.
Our hearts danced
among the scattered bones
of fallen angels.
Our friends understood, we were done
with just living,
we were heaven-deep in love,
heads above the stars.
Daylight Saving time,
not many want or need it.
I guess some busy body
never had to make egg sandwiches,
at 7a.m. and then run out of mayo,
or crawl through traffic half-dead
with an aching head.
The living day lights;
half too dim, half too bright,
and in this clock-watching boxing ring
of a sleep-walking world
we are already punch-drunk,
from leaping when the light
is made to jump.
There was a moment,
it flashed over us like lightning at midday.
We should have looked away
but then the living daylights transformed us
into undying lovers.
Black cats in lightless rooms
whispered to each other in Brail.
Our eyes turned blind as we dazzled, then glowed
among the scattered bones of fallen angels.
Our friends understood, we were done
with just living, we were a prayer
created in a firestorm,
and we would claw our way through
this death
into our own natural indecent state.
I have discovered something
definitive proof its not
slipping out of our skin will show you
who swear by the possibilities
this fade redux
has elapsed into your moment now
has dropped into your lap
look to your left and
you'll find the “creature”
you'll find me with the star people
the Sasquatch,
and the fairy queen
then
in the middle of the road we stumble
wondering which house it is
whipped by the wind was all bits of sand
for a moment it was much darker
everything came apart
terrifying as
hands grabbing the wrists of the branches
breaking the living daylights
while the thunder progressed.
soon
it lifts your other hand
the densely packed caution
mixed with heat and regrets waves you on
the smell of sweet grasses calms
in the field where the sun is low.
silhouetted
he was just black shapes
thin lines coming from the meeting places
his pattern spread out like a quilt
(in layers is where the milkyway lies)
(in layers is where you hide)
in some shape that's indescribable
in some song that lifts the clouds high
7.23.10.
If I go a whole day without my Wheaties
I'm miserable, grumpy and mean
My Wheaties are really the only thing
Between me and a very bad scene
Beat up little kiddies but they must be little
Like two or three feet high or less
None of those overgrown teenager dudes
My face would end up quite a mess
Don't think badly of me, it's the Wheaties
They provide me with real hutzpah
You best hide the kiddies if I run out of 'em
Hide the axes, knives and chainsaws
I did seek help but the psyche was like me
Needed his Wheaties to cope
Beat the living daylights out of yours truly
Whipped me with his stethoscope
Wheaties are required to maintain stability
So we don't go off the deep end
Had a great big giant bowlful this morning
So relax I'm real mellow again
© Jack Ellison 2013
always had to take her shoes off in the house---
she’d been in enough men’s arms at this stage
to wonder what she was doing with a man who
was a model metro in the 21st century---
wasn’t that he wasn’t good looking,
after all, all her friends wanted to
**** the living daylights out of him
(both her gal pals & her guy friends),
but alas, this shoes-off-in-the-house thing
was really getting on her nerves.
for you see,
there were times when all she was wearing were
stockings,
or perhaps she had sandals on that evening &
it had been getting gradually more chilly as the
night had progressed…
perhaps she had sweaty feet &
she didn’t want the rest of the house to savor her
smell…
perhaps she found herself asking over & over
on the way home,
“how did i wind up with such a man
who commands others to walk
shoeless?”
I fell for people off the job
and I'd tell him about these people
once the job clock turned on
we are friends first
so I never suspected
what lied beneath
the feelings that I
I won't digest
because he knows everything
about me.
He says whatever
happens I'll be just fine.
Him just being him I can
count on all the time.
I don't know when it happened
but somehow over time
he's the one who makes
me smile when I got let down
by all the ones I fell for.
But what happens when you'd
rather stay friends than wreck
something that could possibly
have a beautiful ending.
He doesn't suspect but
he'll be one of those guys
that I'll always wonder what if with.
What if I'm missing my happy ending
And it's been in fount of me all along
That's a thought that scares
the living daylights out of me
that's a thought that could do
some harm
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