Long Switchblades Poems

Before commiting to battle,
A wise warrior reviews the odds,
Determines the likelyhood of success,
And judges accordingly...

In my younger, gang years,
I at times deviated from this basic logic...
Such as the time I and fellow member,
Barry Bernstein (knicknamed...

Read More

ELECTRIFICATION   OF  UDELNAYA   MARKET



Thank goodness
New glass steel towers are cleaning up the mess
Of Udelnaya market.  Traffic was too fast  *
Street is pedestrianised and bypassed
Bright lights are lit ...

Read More

Pretty soon, night will fall upon the city,
And lives of crime animate spasmodically
As Gene Pitney croons “A Town Without Pity”
And the clubs and the gin joints open methodically.

Hepcat jazzmen smoke reefers, shoot junk,
The pimps clean...

Read More

Peering through an open window...'cross time and history,
I saw a hint of glory past- a fresh simplicity.
Over there... behold, a mother bent humbly on her knees
Praying for her family's care and other earnest pleas
Then, a...

Read More

la beauté du chaos


when the ant farm is shaken---
when there’s a fire in the theatre
when there’s word of an epidemic
when there’s been a car accident
when there’s been a fight in the parking lot
when a plane...

Read More

Swords, knives, switchblades and more
Assassins circling by the score,
No-where to run, no room to breathe,
All I can do is watch them and seethe.

Little they know these cowardly hyenas
Drooling at the mouth spitting subpoenas,
That just as...

Read More

SOYLENT FUTURE

Always left to pick up your pieces
HAIR AS FIRE
Words fly like lead
Stares sharper than switchblades
And when did you end up dead?
Where did I lose you? When did I become a liar?
Laying in screaming
Grass blades
Blood...

Read More

We have to buy our own black leather jackets,
sharpen our words like switchblades.

Poems are dangerous things.

We shoot them up.
Our tattoos read:
              ...

Read More