Short Des Moines Poems

Sweat down my back
Smelly glands. 
My energy gone
Cannot remember feeling comfortable
Des Moines in August...

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Candice is a candid candidate.
Her honesty harvests heretics’ hate
Not to be outdone
She creates lots of fun
Debunking deceivers during Des Moines’ Debate!...

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There was a shy man from Des Moines
Experience-less but with coin
Dragged to a whore house
He said to her blouse
Watch out Ma’am, your bloomers are showing....

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Mankind Alone

Reality…
humanity’s myth

(Des Moines Iowa: January, 1992)



Samsara

The music of the soul…
is truth

(Des Moines Iowa: January, 1992)...

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There once was a rich man from Des Moines
Whose profile was engraved on a coin
He was so proud
He crowed out loud
It was money that kept him going.

Written July 18, 2021...

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Dangerously and dramatic, delightful diamond-clad damsels from Delaware
deviously dazzled dashing dapper dweebs from Des Moines.
Deliberate dallying drained the dullards of their discerning dendrites.
Deeming them deliriously and dubiously devoted....

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On a road trip to Des Moines he bought a sidecar with wheels.
Filled it with cheese and peanut butter, mice favorite meals.
The mice had a heyday, jumping aboard, eating their fill, having fun.
Too fat to run off, they sat there, while he ate gobbled them up one by one....

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Hidden Face Man of Des Moines was carrying his steed to Derby Town.
It’s the oddest sight, agreed a jokester, a monkey, a duck and a clown.
Onlookers wanted to take a peek, for it is not a matter of course
When you see a man in a turban carrying a brown upside down horse....

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Dear neighbor Snark, can we please build an ark?
We could use little McCark’s elm tree bark.
I don’t know Marc, is this a trick or a lark?
Not if we include my cousin Clark.
The one Des Moines police use as a nark?
Yeah. Meet us behind blue skateboard park.
And be sure to include Shark and McQuark....

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There is a party for three with a whoop and a whee
We sit high above most in a bogey woogie banyon tree
The tea is orange plus lemon with a shot of pistachio
They devour it eagerly, three ladybugs with dots that glow

Best tea I have ever drank says one!
I agree says third cousin on his wife’s side, Mr. Fun.
Is this Des Moines tea? Asks the third lady bug man.
Don’t know but it is tasty straight out of the can....

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She was a Terrier
so sweet was she
always chasing cats,
until one day finally
caught up with one.

From then on she
would stop before
she got to it and
just bark at them.

Tina many years since
we left you, do
miss you little girl,
never will you be forgotten.

wrote 5-29-07   in memory of a dog we had from October 1972 until June of 1977, we had to give her away when we moved from Des Moines Iowa to Denver....

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never smoke she said,
cigarette dangling from her mouth.
ashes falling into my oatmeal
I nodded my head, dutifully.

always tell the truth, he said,
he called in sick to his boss,
we went to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

don't ever gossip, said my grandma.
before telling us all the rumors she had ever heard
about the neighbors.

never generalize people, Uncle Louie said,
unless they are Irish, English, or Swedes.
You cannot trust any of them....

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Hammy the Hamster had no particular talent that he knew.
He did have a long fat tail that spectacularly grew and grew
One day he fell into some paints, and his paws turned out blue.
He made the cutest prints on a canvas, then slid in some glue.

You are an artist! His mother and father said, admiring him so.
They told every hamster from Des Moines to KoKoMo.
He has been featured in Art Magazines and has had a show.
His favorite paints are the psychedelic acrylics that really glow....

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We were paired up by Teen Town
A TV show from Des Moines
Nancy and Ed were there, our idols

They had us all line up.
No one thought about height.
They lined the boys on one side
The girls on the other

I was in seventh grade.
My sister got a nice short guy
I got the tallest boy ever born
Worst time ever

I was staring at his belt buckle
Frankly I do not know 
Which one of us 
Was the most horrified

Written March 14, 2020
Contest: Dance with Me
Sponsor: Kim Rodriguez...

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