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Best Poems Written by Jon Epstein

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Details | Jon Epstein Poem

Silent Screams

My heart torn apart by a love gone south, poorly taped together with blow and green,
Methaqualone was the only spackle of my survival

Lori was smart to leave, for her own safety, health and welfare, the blue eyed boy’s
corneas now gray, his soul was no more

When it’s too late, it’s too late, good intentions and lofty promises, even on the best
parchment, are hardly grounds for a revival

Escaping from an illicit, illegal, immoral web of dysfunction and dishonesty, she needed
to run, for her I was a man just to abhor

In deep denial	 was I, awaiting for the sun to drop, before I opened my special jar of Rohr
seven fourteens, I didn't really have a problem, just lonely despair

A broken heart mended with ludes, is just a valve-less pump, intoxicated, numb and still
broken with no hope

So soon a new life she had, word got around her name was to change, A big diamond and a
picket fence, so quick was her repair

Self pity…delusion…and lonely sadness, I could barely go on, my life changed not, the
contraband I slang lined my pockets, no more was I, than a selfish mope

Ten more years of the same old crap, a new love, romance, a hostage here a hostage there,
until they figured out a looser in disguise was I

Once on a spiritual quest, the blue eyed boy wasn’t all bad, just got high to ease the
pain, a pain that knew no salve, in the end so gray had the forsaken son become, shrouded
in the free base cloud

A change of zip code, incognito and ashamed, different climate and different trees, oh so
lonely and alone, sadness, madness, tears and fears…no one really knew, not even I 

A quick Xmas holiday visit, I was back in town, upon the Greyhound I arrived, not wanted
around, my showing up was the party’s dread, my silent screams could be heard aloud

Friday, January 86, on death’s threshold, one last deal, one last gram, one last cloud,
paranoia, paranoia, paranoia
I awoke that morning, He was in the room, I heard His beckon, He held my hand, Providence
was found, a moment of clarity had I, I am now free

Copyright © Jon Epstein | Year Posted 2007



Details | Jon Epstein Poem

Tight Skin

September noon was hot
I sat alone in a crowd

My counterfeit leather boots were cheap vinyl,
Like traces of gas in a puddle,
They shone an iridescent rainbow

I wanted faded “501’S” but wore
“Monkey Wards” counterfeit denim

My skin no longer fits; I was alone in a crowd

The bleachers flanking the Hollywood High Sheiks 
were unfriendly that hot September lunchtime

Not only did my skin not fit
it crawled with self-disgust

Eric wore long hair and a tie-dye tee shirt
His answer was correct…he knew…I followed him to the palace

The walls were decorated in 70’s black light contemporary

Quadraphonic stereo held the 8 Track Tape, 
As the Juke holds licorice pizza

Dark Side of the Moon was the wedding song

Mary Jane became my wife, John Barleycorn my best man

I settled into the warmth of the altar, my skin fits better

Copyright © Jon Epstein | Year Posted 2007


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry