Pan-Rand-led

Emaciated…Disheveled
Desperate…Bedeviled
“Homeless”…the sign said
“Will work for food”
“Faceless”…better off dead
Many Americans…attitude
I gave two dollars
He mumbled, “God Bless You”
BMW behind me…”Lady” muttered
“God Damn You”
He was sick…I hoped… it wasn’t too late
As she passed… middle finger
And a “Me”…license plate

Services will soon... KKKomence

Poor but proud, strong and unbowed
Forty revolutions…wrong side track conclusions
Low wage job…she never sobbed
‘Til she hit a bump…hard, unyielding lump
Planned Parenthood had been abolished
Cancer spelled a life demolished
Her existence reduced…to infinitesimal speck
A Pink Ribbon cinched tightly
Ever so “Rightly”…’round her cold, expendable
Neck

Trip to the Woodshed

God watches, morose and angered from afar
Illuminated by the glow of first gestating star
So given all they needed to survive, the tools
The evolving process, from which they might thrive
Now Glass and steel, once caves and thatches
“Jesus Christ!…excuse me son
I should have known…never let kids play with matches

Affirmative Faction

100 grapes upon vine
1 became Chablis, leaving 99
100 apples suspended from tree
1 chosen cider, 99 behind her
100 melons floating flooded ground
1 was saved, 99 left to drown
100 salmon spawning frigid river
1 got coat, 99 left to shiver
100 Americans in monetary jail
99 got life, 1 got bail

Bi-Ped Cul-Prints

Celestial Detective Agency…Time: 2125 A.D.
Interplanetary survey…Location: Earth
Fragmentary Translated Investigation
“The entire planet a wasteland
Marine life…non-existent
Vegetation…dead or dying
All animal and insect life…annihilated
Atmosphere…highly toxic…do you read?”
“Affirmative…any clues as to nature of destruction?”
“Negative…however Detective Zojak is currently checking
Fingerprints”

Wilde Child

One key…obscuring fabric
Cold D.C. …musty attic
Aged picture…Gilded frame
Long concealed…debauched shame
Threadbare suit…translucent skin
Carnal mouth…drooling sin
Wispy hair…Lurid eyes
Sanguine lips…shaped by lies
Yellowed nails…rotting teeth
Yet still it smiles…Soulless thief
“Uncle Sam”…What can one say?
You’ve been revealed…Mr. Gray

To Emily, Where e'er She May Be

The Bard proved hard, Poe was woe
And Wilde’s wit assailed
Upon the balladry of Wordsworth
I set forth with pen and sailed
Bloomfield inked the joys of farming
Shelly’s nature…quite disarming
Browning’s “Meeting” oh so charming!
Tragic, Magic, Toil, Fun
Yet I shall ne’er be Dicken’s son
Perchance one day to meet Dickenson

Trinket, Trinket ... My Little Star

She is beauty incarnate
A “charm bracelet” anthropomorphic
Her eyes soothing sapphires
Lips yielding, coral in firelight
Golden haired, torrents of champagne
Upon shoulders of pearly moonstone
Flecked in summer by sunstone’s red gold
Her garnet heart beats ever gently
In rhythm with unsullied diamond soul
And we kiss, ‘midst the tinkle-tinkle of love

Ain't No Cable TV

Last Stop Hotel…Detroit, Michigan
Fifteen frantic floors…one elevator
Cockroach “reality” show nightly
Cold and colder running water
Rush Limbaugh “Fathead” in every room
Cozy “Norman Bates Mother’s Bed’s”
2012 Mayan calendar in each closet
Daily 700 Club wakeup call
Bible and loaded pistol in all nightstands
“Hey, room service…cancel that parachute request”

Tequila ... Por Favor

Sagebrush Arms…Noplace, Nevada
“I’m checkin’ out”
The tarantula reading the Wall St. Journal
Raises one unshaved leg, says,
“You owe me Seven bucks”
Six minutes later… a screaming carburetor
Five hours past…flat outta gas
Four miles back…heart attack
Three day sun…ribs are done
Two mourners deep…one’s asleep
Sagebrush Arms…Vacancy

Deathbred

Weeping willow…weeps no more
Armadillo…knows the score
Owl, the bear, the beaver…lion
The meadowlark is slowly dying
The end portends for animal life
The din remaining…gross human strife
The spider’s web in morning dew
A dolphin’s cry in ocean blue
‘T will be a very forlorn place
Save reflection of inflamed face

Dear Ruth

Mercy aloft upon an angel’s wing tips
Mercy requested by pain ravaged lips
Mercy supplicated on trembling knees
Mercy in form of “please, oh God, please”
Mercy so granted…Mercy denied
Tombstones oft’ testament…where Mercy has died
What is man without Mercy?...A dispassionate shell
Whose voice clamors Heaven
Whose soul will know Hell

Bronx Misdate

Rippled coffee courtesy of the rumbling “El Train”
The soft incandescence of the Zenith in murky twilight
“Another scorcher today”…Coney Islanders staking out “sand parcels”
Friday!...Two “short beers” at Smiley’s Place
Me and the Missus “nose to noodle” at Giuseppe’s
Orion from the fire escape…”The Inner Sanctum”
A few “breathless” feet away

Puh-leeece!

Shootings, stabbings, robberies too
Official police protection?...”Sorry, can’t do”
Burglaries, auto thefts, assaults on you?
“The Marshall Plan” from downtown…”Sorry, can’t do”
I-Phones ripped from kid’s pocket
Old men punched in eyeball socket
Sound after midnight is simply “cock-it”
What the hell can the police do?
Hey!...clean up Mormon Slough!

Delineations of Frustrations

The configuration of a doorway
A “foundation” for algebraic equation
Vertical boundaries delineating vehicle storage
Graceful curves of a soaring arch
Drawn on paper, on asphalt, on behaviors
Imaginary, Bordered, Furrowed…Faults
Lines…Drawn in the sand
I’m in one now…the unbroken queue
No need to “cut in”…I’ll hold your spot for you

Hell-a-Globe-In

A big shot… a hot shot
From the first day he had a slingshot
But the upshot was he overshot
Hooked on gunshot…then mug shot
Met Delilah, her of straight shot
With eyes of bloodshot…died from pot shot
And Mom was overwrought…clutching snapshot
A forget-me-not…’midst taped off parking lot

1-800-Humanity

The roar of the crowd…Punic Wars
Mongol Hordes…Roman Coliseum Barbarism
Tiananmen Square…Million Man March
Bolshevik Revolution…London’s “Globe”…alive!
Army-Navy game…Rape of Nan-Jing
Aztec sacrifices…”The Giants win the pennant!”
Day’s on the Green…Night’s under stars
Roar recedes...Earth slumbers…and
Only the “voice”…of the heart…remains

Cherished Cavity

Went surfing on a Popsicle stick
Blew smoke rings from a candy cigarette
Savored the slopes of a root beer sno-cone
Dueled a Three Musketeer
Took a stroll to a Fifth Avenue bar
Smacked lips with Suzy-Q
Played tetherball on a Pixie Stick
Did a diddly with Sugar Daddy
Kidstuff…Bazooka Joe blast

Off My Rocker

“Who sang that song…I’m asking you?”
The answer so clear…Willie knew
“Who played guitar on that great tune?”
My retort for you…Willie knew
Stockton’s rock ‘n’ roll family weeps today
The doors are shuttered…no more Replay
‘T is sad reflection…finds me writin’ these lines
Saluting the Maestro of vinyl…Willie Hines

Every Second Tuesday at the Metaphysical Bar and Grill

“Revolution” played backwards…78 RPM
Circumnavigation of the eight ball…Venutian in proportion
One-legged men sat on three legged bar stools
Eleven bartenders poured seven and seven’s…upside down
She inhaled pale grail of her exhale…blew me a heart-shaped smoke ring
A “leaner” on my pool cue…second hand smoked…uh huh!