("Rainbow Body" detail, 2018, original encaustic)
Today I noticed on a website I use for book reviews
All eight of my poetry books
Suddenly have a fresh new one star review.
Sadly though there is no content to these reviews
Nothing to sink my teeth into and learn from
Just a single star
Which simply means, “I hate it.”
But these are the first reviews or ratings
I have ever received in ten years now
Of publishing poems
So I will take it
Mostly because I have no choice.
It is a free world after all
And so if we engage with it
We shouldn’t be surprised
When it engages back.
The beauty of getting only one star reviews
Of course is it doesn’t get my hopes up
Hopes of becoming rich and famous
Influential and significant
Because I know, especially now,
None of that would be true.
(9/15/25)
The Decimals Point
David J Walker
Therefore
He put forth
Before
the court
Of public opinion could
Possibly adjourn
Claiming to be friends
With the man in the moon
Claiming to be the father of
The color purple
Claiming to have taught
Pterodactyls to fly
Claiming to be a
Grandson of Methuselah
Claiming to have inspired
The theory of relativity
Claiming his image was the first to be
Carried into deep space by television
Claiming he turns wine
Back into water all the time
Therefore
He proposed
The only question is about
The placement of the decimal point
female collaborator,
passionate romantic lover,
despicable and unforgivable traitor
or cringing victim of horrendous war-rape
they know not.
shave her head
in a grotesque ceremony
of humiliation
they do
nevertheless.
such are the ways of the human,
despicable morally
in group
as she is.
An Accusation has been made,
They rush it on the front page.
Presumption of innocence long since lost;
Guilty as alleged, freedom the cost;
The nature of evidence be damned;
The seriousness of the charge demands;
An investigation must begin;
Repeat, repeat, repeat the charge;
Thus, the perception is at large;
There is guilt of wrong doing;
This is not at all amusing!
You've finally got it, just the right rhyme
The words flow like a river, rhythmic in time
Imagery galore, knitted deftly with metaphor
A simile here, an allusion there -- a poem to adore
You post it with aplomb, contentedly sublime
That applause and kudos will greet your new rhyme
The thunderous roar of the silence that follows
Hurls you back to your id, bravado rung hollow
Public Opinion by Mike Lee
public opinion is
just more internet noise
leather masks, word whips and
promises
fish mouth judges
squeezing their tounges in the press
shark skin suits
lawyer lies
telephone crackle
media mush
cry and criticize
melting soul soup songs
metaphors and similes
in dark dusty closets
long library books
with wordless pages
meanless and mean
thick tongue devils
feather words
and apologize
from broken pages
while word winds spin in the windmill
whirlwind electronic
sound bites
blowing us up like
stiff balloons
up into the clouds
and back again.