Long Line of work Poems

Tacita leaned in close and lowered her voice a tad. “So tell me, Jack. What’s your real name?"

"You don’t really want to know who I am. You just think you do. Aye, the public loves...

Read More

The HR person called me in… I was turning gray… Was he even twenty-one?
I wondered if the interview would go well, as he did fung shui the chairs around.
Offered a caramel expresso mocha late decaf,...

Read More

Standing at the fork in the road,
I don’t know which way to go.
I watch a girl stand there crying,
Running to and fro.
Her tears fall to the floor,
There’s nobody there to catch,
Her heart as it sinks...

Read More

alone in this world of chaos and destruction
fighting to survive in a world with lost hopes
my dreams of freedom becomes just an illusion
while i strive for the stars and stripes we once use to see...

Read More

I: in the 70s

At sixteen, looking through a magazine,
I came across the picture of a girl
whose character was Mary Ellen in
“The Waltons” show I watched on Thursday nights.
Her look was that of mine when I...

Read More

You’re selling drugs to your own people; you’re like a terrorist bomb 
                      ...

Read More

LINES

We LINE up in traffic, or clear out the door, 
And there are BEELINES we make, to the seashore.
Get mad and we're "DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND," 
He USES A LINE when he asks...

Read More

*Image of Cherokee Piper, Four-seater single engine by Wilkie.

Lifetime Get-A-Way, A Survivors Tale

It is nineteen-eighty new years eve in less than two days,
that said--this turned a fourteener syllabic lined poem,
fourteener set of rhyming-lined poems--to paraphrase,
I...

Read More

HEART OF A GOOD WIFE:

Don't ever nag that she grew wild,
I'm blunt to say this,so be assured.
And no more can you treat her bad.
Absolutely, she's now matured.
Frankly, she possess all the qualities,
That filled your home...

Read More

Lord hear my prayer.
                               
...

Read More

Middleclass alcoholics 

After a heart attack my life as seaman was over, so I went back to school 
and trained to become a shrink helping people with addiction problems
and for this I got a diploma....

Read More

Well, I woke up this morning 
Put my blue jeans on 
Drank my morning coffee 
Answered the telephone 
Had another assignment 
Another body had to die 
No need to ask what for 
It was my...

Read More

Sent down from Heaven, their jobs are sure tough
But they don’t fly away when the going gets rough
They rise to the challenge to bring back wonder and hope
Failure does not happen in their line of...

Read More

A single mother weeps, trying to sleep,
Her son’s father figure has been gone for nearly three weeks. How is this funny?

A bright mind has no control in his own home,
The orphanage doesn’t own enough money...

Read More

I must have one of those faces
or maybe people just assume
that because I'm quiet
I must be a good listener, because
wherever I go- they find me

The talkers, the sad, the lonely
the frustrated, the depressed
the I-just-don't-know-what-to-dos

Like the...

Read More

We last saw him in the summer of '78.
Our ministry with kids had closed,
and we were being reassigned to a
church 2000 miles away. Little did
I know that we would ever see John
again.

My wife and I...

Read More

THE RIDE

I got a horse named Sam, a dog named Joe, 
and my old Chevy truck.
In the front of my trailer is my saddle and bridle 
with a horseshoe thrown in for luck.

Got my bedroll...

Read More

I pack eggs on a chicken farm.
Their colours range from brown to white.
Quite often in this line of work
I see some funny sites!

When walking through the hen house
I see a yellow forest of legs.
The foliage...

Read More

I call her name in my sleep 
                 No, not this day 
      ...

Read More

When a whore house was fun

I sat down to write about flowers, those often
called weeds and grows on untended pavements
but another thought got in the way as I recalled
that flowers in a whore house are...

Read More

They formed a posse and it was loaded

Three experienced  at tracking

And their guide

He was a one-legged kangaroo

No one dared to waltz with him

Even Matilda kept clear

The heat  was unbearable

Australia

And no one liked bank...

Read More

The Flowers of Fall 
On the road to Bolequeime on the way to 
the German supermarket that sells proper Teutonic sausages
autumnal blossom flowers sit on white plastic chairs
high heels and shorts 
Sometimes a car stops,...

Read More

fall for the eyes once over
again, spin up, spin down &
wonder if you’ll ever hit the 
ground again---ceasing the caring of
all the poetry that came before
because s/he is staring right back
into you & all of...

Read More

You can take away my job
Another line of work I will find
You can take away my hair
Going bald I really don’t mind
You can take away my friends
I am comfortable all alone
You can take away my...

Read More

I worked in a bowlin' place settin' pins,

Tryin' not to let a ball break my shins!

In those days of yore, pins were set by hand,

And you had to hustle to beat the band!

I was around...

Read More