Long Lansing Poems

I was in the shotgun seat
in 1960 Lansing Michigan
headed straight as a harddrive
through ghettoizing "Negra Section"
hunting down our commercial whitebread 
heavenly ThriftyAcres

Wanna be a WalMart ImPlantation
but not Southern enough,
somehow,
to withstand straight-male competition
in fluent White Privileged...

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I.

The Fish Crow is an outcast amongst the seagulls
Standing on the hot Miami sand
At the end
Of our rose-colored beach towel

Nodding and blabbing half-heartedly
Nuh-uh nuh-uh
To the lack of crumbs

From us
The stingy blue collar visitors
From freezing old...

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You may have noticed the Michigan Catholic farmer
claiming his First Amendment rights have been infringed
to speak his mind
about the degenerative nature of same-sex marriage
when the nearby East Lansing operated Farmer's Market
determined his farming operation
was not...

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Screaming Guillotines

I.

I sit on the wide veranda of this house called America,
And I can see the Beast Boys coming our jungled way,
Coming like wild torrents of lapping flames over the astonished landscape,
Coming with black eyes...

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As the sun sets
A hot wind like this
Does not belong in downtown Lansing
But here it is
Speed-boating down the Grand River grinning and wearing Ray-Bans

My wife and I
We hold down our pouncing bouncing patio table
At the...

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Beneath the city the river fishing is good.

I roam with tackle and pole below those wiggling tapeworms
Wound around the cement underbelly of bridges
Devouring the guts of the city’s glamour
Down here where shadows are long as...

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I remember,
in the early 60s,
our thirty mile drive
from our historic family farm,
in all White rural Michigan,
not counting the Mexican migrant workers
which adults made a point of discounting,
on the first of several shopping trips to Thrifty...

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Clutching
The end of my Zebco rod and reel
As the cast of tackle is flung
Like a small knot of costume jewelry
Skimming atop the caramel-colored Grand River
Dragonfly rattling awry

The vibration tingling in the palm of my hand
As...

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THIS IS HOW LIFE FEELS WHEN YOU GET TO BE MY AGE

I have a general philosophical  precept
Life is in general a bowl of cherries except 
When someone stabs me in the back who didn’t...

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No one’s exactly sure how this buffalo in the 1960s
Found its way to live in the heart of the city
How it separated from a sky stampede
How the great beast dropped its guard and refused to...

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BUT   ESPECIALLY   EAST   LANSING


Cell phone with a woodywoodpecker ringtone;
Russian style  of guitar-playing with strummed beats;
Regina-Saskatoon red-eye with “collapsible” seats;
Getting a ticket for 2 minutes in a Lansing no-parking...

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Jupiter and Venus meld like two canaries
Kissing in late February
In a black gap
Between mountainous sparkling beach hotels

As if
The planets have privacy in their own city alley

Sand in Miami
Warm as peach pie beneath our bare feet
A...

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A nurse takes time
To hang a DNA rainbow strain
Of Christmas bulbs
Along my gray window ledge

He plugged them in
Bringing a campfire glow of embers
Under my lids
And to the shirking corners
And the inflating machines shushing the room

Below
In...

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REASONS TO THROW THINGS OUT OF THE WINDOW


Window-launch in summer is best, but whatever the season,
Winter, fall, or spring,   the main reason 
Is because were about two hundred feet up,  I reckon...

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internal rhyme

Lil knows skill without frill; she’s talented, sharp and agile.
Lady Lil moves in many grooves and improves with each try. 
When she sits, she throws fits, but never quits her rally cry.
Lady is her...

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KUBLA KHAN  IN EAST  LANSING

Not In East Lansing did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
But oh! that deep  chasm which slanted
Down the green hill east of town
Was a savage place! Holy and enchanted


And...

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SPRING’S     PERFUMES


Oh,  to be in East Lansing
Now that spring is there !
And to see the view entrancing
And drink cool Miller beer.

To be in East Lansing’s main street,
Downwind of the rubber-tire...

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PLACES   YOU’LL   NEVER   FIND   ME



At any rap concert for fun,
At home watching a Merv Griffin  re-run,
Singing bawdy drunken choruses of “There once was a nun”,

Under an...

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NOT  EAST  LANSING AGAIN ?



For your problem, this is the ideal spot for you

Money?  Gambling like Vegas? Chancing?

Health?  Surgery like in Mayo Clinic? Boil Lancing?

Relaxation?  Want to go dancing?

Entertainment? ...

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EAST LANSING STRIKES BACK


In winter the buildings drop large dangerous icicles  - 
Then you’re in the hospital next to the wart-lotion factory
And the retro shopping centre with parking for bicycles
Subsiding into the neighbouring limestone...

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