August 2024 word harvest
2024.8.1 – I mean well
2024.8.1 – Just saw one leaf slow fall
2024.8.5 – Love as a drug
2024.8.5 – I have no choice
2024.8.6 – Sugar!
2024.8.7 – Days getting long
2024.8.7 – I ache, downright hurt
2024.8.10 – I have true tales
2024.8.10 – Call me Sisyphus
2024.8.12 – It’s said as fact
2024.8.13 – A little danger on the weekends
2024.8.16 – Digging through the night
2024.8.18 – And we’re off
2024.8.19 – Misha & Frankie
2024.8.21 – My well of wisdom runs dry
2024.8.21 – Found Poem Number None
2024.8.24 – Edge walking
2024.8.25 – Write your words in sand or stone
2024.8.25 – There are lifeforms
2024.8.27 – Some are never seen
2024.8.28 – There’s rough blood skin scrape
2024.8.28 – I push my rock up hill
2024.8.29 – Sisyphus and I worship
2024.8.30 – I see says man blind
2024.8.31 – Old dog wants
~ ~ ~
I mean well
but well has many meanings
of which I am one
A well is deep
dark
wet or dry
We wail
at the Welling Wall
against woe
My wall
may well
be wrong
Thy all
well may
be right
All in all
don’t fall
for the small
It don’t smell tight
~ ~ ~
Just saw one leaf slow fall
into sunlight and out again
Sun’s 4.6 billion years old
earth’s 4.5 billion
tree 30 years
leaf a few months
tbe shadows are ageless
I’m 78
What’re the odds?
me go fast in slow lane
~ ~ ~
Love as a drug
isn’t enough for her
she wants coffee too
~ ~ ~
I have no choice
there’s principles and there’s practicality
I won’t hurt myself just to hurt them
~ ~ ~
Sugar!
Caffeine!
Cannabis!
Cruising concrete
sharpening that edge
trying to outrun the end
We’ve met many times
various disguises
know each other well
~ ~ ~
Days getting long
brains getting short
election year
Flowers don’t last long
cacti stay awhile
I’m cactus
~ ~ ~
I ache, downright hurt
why should I get out of this chair?
others
service
need
duty
love
future
past
tomorrow
now
or else
~ ~ ~
I have true tales
tall and tender
tumbling me through time
Yesterdays are never gone
part leach into today
the rest stain tomorrow
What kind of flowers do we make
looping around on the interstate?
Rising sun
setting sun
same sun
Got one shoe on, ready to run
~ ~ ~
Call me Sisyphus
son of Sisyphus
son of son of son of Sisyphus
Sweat in hot bath
a discordant reality
of pains old and new
hard and softer
some going away
some not
sum knot
old man skin
blotches and blood
soon to be soothed in Moroccan argan oil
Walk naked from bath to wife
put fingers both sides foot long belly scar
and say solemnly
“I am two become one for you”
She lost it
~ ~ ~
It’s said as fact
Schrodinger’s cat knows it’s at
but just exactly where is that that?
In my box
horizontal feels good
after upright fight for day
Now night lilac dark, fragrant
as I seek mythical dragon
to soothe plight
Dead cat rotting, live cat well
which one falling, which one fell?
Who’s to tell?
~ ~ ~
A little danger on the weekends
a little discipline for the workdays
Rounding underpass darkness
of Dead Man’s Curve dead car debris
into sudden full Cleveland sun
clouds jumbled majestically
wind temple turbines turning
bad coffee good grass
a long way to go
and right good to be going
Hey brother, can you spare a dead sparrow?
I’ve got an Armageddon to enforce
~ ~ ~
Digging through the night
looking for the layers
needed for the light
Worm warm wonder
moist earth magic
penetration however slight
Greed got us here
and greed’ll get us killed
so sez want and will
Once the race was won
the finish line went wrong
preyed upon the dumb
And now we eat the eaten
beat our meat replete
seek new deals to sweeten
Don’t know much
but been around long
learned some of the song
Keep the worry
work the weary
sharpen wary way up high
~ ~ ~
And we’re off
pain taking the lead by a length
me hurting behind
I’m an angry man
in an old body breaking down
with a good heart
and a skeptical mind
I hurt myself
not on purpose
just hurt myself
cuz that’s the clump of clod I am
hurt myself
then hunker down to endure healing
I am Sisyphus I am rock I am hill
Me not smart monkey
but me not dumb
and me not only one
DNA
what a way
to play
The gaps between the ghosts getting smaller
ghosts of course getting oftener
~ ~ ~
Misha & Frankie
Her purr burble deep in throat
his more motor going
She black shadow 13 summer
he orange rip year’n’half old
She warm in snuggle
he blood for claw
She medium
he big
Her green eye tender, trusting
his alert yellow snake alien
She sweet silk seductress
he pure devil angle
She constant in comfort
he love and the terror
But she oh yes she
she was once as he
And so too can he
be as tender as she
~ ~ ~
My well of wisdom runs dry
my dry humor drips wet
Blue flowers growing in the green grass
small yellow flowers in the green grass
Old paper plate decomposing in the green grass
WTF is that in the green grass?!
Sunlight fades
as do I
All hail En
Tropy
~ ~ ~
Found Poem Number None
(Improv #1)
(Down A Dead End Street)
(When Jesus Takes Me Home)
(Woman’s Dance)
(It’s Love)
(I’m A)
(No More)
(Not Was)
(We Don’t Need This)
(You Need Meat)
(Peaceful Heart)
(Arabian Dance)
(Shelter In A Suitcase)
(Gurkaran Waraich)
(Black, Brown and White)
(Give Me Peace On Earth)
(He Gave Me Gasoline)
(Make Me Wanna Holler)
(Earthlings On Fire)
(Daddy Kill a Chicken)
(Woman Smarter)
(New Traditionalist Man)
(Body is the Scar of Your Mind)
(Hades Finds Out)
(I’ve Got Someone To Kill)
(A Deal With God)
(And Super Creeps)
(A Nocturnal Emission)
(Till You’re Not Happy)
(Don’t Don’t Do It)
[title frags from shuffle pool]
~ ~ ~
Edge walking
quite a costly way to go
but that one wave
where you walk on water
without even trying
way worth the broken bones
the torn flesh
the shredded heart
the shrunken ego
the air is fair up there
~ ~ ~
Go write your words in sand or stone
you still age and break
likely die alone
No matter who or what pulls the strings
God or plot naught before or after
you have to pay the rent
You’re born and washed in bowl
you die and are washed in bowl
it’s the dirt between that matters
You wanna play you gotta pay
you wanna pray you gotta pay
go or stay? – pay
Me, I’m making memories
to keep me moist
in the near hereafter
~ ~ ~
There are life forms
beneath us
around us
on us in us
above us
beyond us
we can’t see
or even fathom
life miles below sea surface
in darkness deep as a grifter’s heart
or life covered in miles of ice
colder than a preacher’s art
life is what life does to life
in self serving circle
eat to be am
die to be eaten to be am
I am what I am when I’m eaten
me myself the lie
~ ~ ~
Some are never seen
yet they pay the price
for this be that’s never been
which isn’t very nice
You can be whatever do
at least that’s what they say
but only through fluke of fool
or bending knee to they
There’re the they who own the streets
the they who run the lights
the they who take your treats
then double dare to fight
Let ’em kiss each others’ ass
as they serve their shilly shite
while they sneak faux pass
I seek sight
They’ll come back again
do their dirty twice
offer gain for pain
spin their just not nice
But we know better
been burned before
debt and debtor
unhealing sore
~ ~ ~
There’s rough blood skin scrape
And deep down bone pain
looks like I’m being me again
~ ~ ~
I push my rock up hill
watch as hill falls down
In empty want of will
I’m too stupid to go around
Dancing light distracts me
from my terror time
Shows a better be
a finer fine to find
I turn in search of lovely
leave lonely in the lurch
Seek some truths beyond me
weigh the man . . . and church
Both are judged and wanting
says the writing on the wall
Must be sort of daunting
God’s middle finger and all
Rock and hill and finger
keep messing up the page
But as long as my luck lingers
I’ll survive this culture cage
~ ~ ~
Sisyphus and I worship
at the cat box
we kneel
bow to clumped piss
and clayed shit
when done
we smooth the sand
with Zen
then
do it again
and again
and again
we are happy
we have a steady job
it reminds us of eternity
~ ~ ~
I see says man blind
from group meld mind
I hear says tin ear
it helps me cheat rhyme
I feel says faux real
hard heart unkind
Lizard brain sets bind
eat yr friend or help unwind?
~ ~ ~
Old dog wants
but doesn’t know what
so stands in existential angst
glancing at door
at kitchen
at me
I am an old man with an old dog
I don’t know either
~ ~ ~