Long Boxcars Poems

In nineteen forty four on the third of September
Is a date in my mind that I'll always remember
It was the date of the last train to Auschwitz in Poland
From Westerbork transit camp in the Nederland.

The...

Read More

“50 Words for Poe: Automata”





Haunted eyes of an automaton
the monkey grinds his music
outside the Magic Theatre
Harry looks on

"For Madmen Only"

He enters of his own volition.

Boxcars he rolls
Double Sixes! the Macabre Maestro
conducts his orchestra
Hermine still sings

A...

Read More

Nineteen twenty-four and the wind was cold,
When men in uniform entered our town;
Forced us to leave in their boxcars,
Made us believe that it was for our own safety.

With no time to fix our things
We hurriedly...

Read More

NYC nior in black and white

NYC nior in black and white 

Dark landscapes 1957 NYC 
of automats radio city and hotdog stands 
memories of things past 

Take us back to lucid dreams of light and...

Read More

Travel once on a haunted train,
a taste may make you lose your mind;
Railroad tracks leave the world behind 
dismantled boxcars keep rolling;
Phantom mouths continue screaming,
they show you tickets that were signed;
Pure horror here is well...

Read More

the serene people whose ease of manner
once made him yearn and confabulate
are laughable cartoonish and piteous now
could have been much worse he said
as his last breath left his scarred throat
feral hand closing his own eyes
St....

Read More

When strollin' by the ol' saloon,
on chairs they kept outside,
I spied a dried up, lonsome sort
folks walked by, but eyed.

He had a faithful doggie
with head laid on his knee.
The ol' man stroked him softly, 
kind,...

Read More

Nuremberg, Nuremberg, I’ve done nothing wrong
only followed orders, the children only song.
First it was the word, next it was the book
then it was history, surreptitiously they took.

From a child’s birth, others choose the way 
raising...

Read More

"Got your fluff again"
(for purpose of this poem
pronounce last word uh gain).

The missus uttered
aforementioned phrase
as she pulled a clump of my hair
from out the clogged shower drain
for no rhyme nor reason lemme explain
how so many...

Read More

Forest fairies changing colors,
autumn's patchwork pattern weaving
in the foggy morning stillness
before winter's barren grieving,
up the river on the damp air,
up hollows through the shadowed vales
sounds the mournful, sobbing whistle:
once more memory rides the rails.

Childhood song...

Read More

Choose moment foiled 
Over moment gone or none.
Penance paid all bard alas anon.
Bars of boxcars rolling down 
Canals of clotted wax;
These are the facts 
As I know them to be; 
Sum total me.

Scratch barleycorn 
For...

Read More

They say 'you've got it kid',
but first you gotta rid
yourself of all that fakery,
the constructed rhyme
like rye and flour primed
to exit out the bakery,
and you cannot, should not
loaf, or doubt anything
you ever wrote, it's progress-
but...

Read More

I dreamed I was a porter
carrying bags that weighed a ton.
Quickly answering in the Club Car
when anyone called, "Hey Son"!

I dreamed I was a conductor
punching tickets neat as you please.
Walking up and down the Passenger...

Read More

A funny thing happened to or with me this morning during the 11 O'clock hour. During the few moments that I was watering our lemon tree, a train went back. This was the Amtrak and...

Read More

On the eastern grade of the switcher yard, down at Medicine Hat 
There’s a tendency for cars to roll toward the Dunmore hill 
Back when I was switching trains there, one got loose on me
Sit...

Read More

The Beast  ( La Bestia )

You might wonder - who or what is the Beast?
The Beast in Spanish means - La Bestia. The
Beast is a cargo train that travels from Ciapas
Mex. - to Sonora...

Read More

Looking back helplessly 
at every foible like Epimetheus. 
Born like a weed in the steamy morning,
I was an aimless crude creature spinning
flamboyant cobwebs like a confident fool.
I slathered prismatic patterns, grinning like a jester. 
Then,...

Read More

She lit candles
in her empty kitchen.
Burnt air disappears
through the back door.

Pale and wild,
brittle street witch,
shy, wide eyes.
Her mind like a weathered epitaph,
left alone in it's quiet mystery;
but her spirit roams
gentle and porous.
City sorrows like ashes
cling...

Read More

He's rode the rods from California to the state of Maine.
Long ago he rejected ordinary life with absolute disdain!
He loves the gypsies' life - he craves neither hearth or dwellin'.
Where he'll lay his head tonight,...

Read More

I’m walking backwards to Christmas, he sang,
Across the Irish Sea, he added;
In his head the wires disconnected to fuses
Blowing and smoking through serotonin drought;
Genius rubbed nerves with scouring pads,
Scrubbing the cells with black paint and...

Read More

Crowd of entertainment, chapeaux and gowns, of Renoirs,**
not unlike the expansive midnight sky brimming with stars.
Capture of long ago memories, like lightning bugs in jars.
Knee deep, flood high - boxes of snapshots…our memoirs.
Whimsical caricature of...

Read More

All was certain, the tracks determined
each and every day 
Cold steel certainty dictated 
all thoughts and machinations
complacent
Will the unfeeling rails define us?
Will the force-fed rout devide us?

I stand, a locomotive, raging off the track
teetering engine...

Read More

GO                                  GO
GIVE...

Read More

The gates of Hell opened wide.

Six million souls stepped inside.

Beaten. Shot. Starved to death.

The words of God still on their breath.

Screams of anguish. Cries of pain.

Abhorrent laughter of the insane.

Mothers beg. Their babies moan.

They smell...

Read More

Come and Find Me in My Solitude


four fingers in a water glass
to keep the “creep” away
four fingers in a water glass
to keep the curse at bay
no ice, let’s keep it quiet,
hard bite of whiskey’s sting
“hair...

Read More