November and December 2013 K Poems
You're on the highway to what?
"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's
self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do
things. You simply must do things."- Ray Bradbury
This is the madhouse
and I’m confined within
its puke green painted walls.
This is the drunk tank
watch me fall onto the
hard concrete floor and sleep
covered in puke and blood
until the jailer calls me
to come meet the judge.
This is the bar
looking at me forgetting
what I said when I was
locked up about never
drinking again if I got out.
Armageddon
He had ten thousand cans of baked beans
and a loaded 45 in the closet and told
his wife that they were ready for the end
of the world. He took all his money out
of the bank and hid it under the mattress.
He paid up the newspaper subscription
for several years because he wanted to be
informed of what was going on while things
were going down. He had a multitude of
copies of his favorite movies stashed by the
TV in the living room. He put up a fence
around the yard and bought a couple of
Dobermans. He had his eye on an AK 47
and planned to place lots of ammo for his
guns in the house. He subscribed to Warrior
Magazine. He bought Army fatigues. He
stopped paying his
credit cards. He was
ready for the end.
Momentary Vulgar
In a bad moment
I cussed in front
of the priest. He
said he wouldn’t
forgive me, that
I was going to Hell.
In a bad moment
I cussed in front
of the policeman.
He said I was going
to jail. Oh well.
In a bad moment
I cussed in front
of the judge. He
slammed the gavel
down.
I was gone for
several years
and the first thing
that I said when
I got out was
“Fuck yeah.”
…………………………….
GSU/Everyone needs love
No one needs a fist to the jaw.
No one needs bills they can’t pay.
No one needs a car that breaks down.
No one needs a kick to the knee.
No one needs ants in the kitchen.
No one needs wasps on the porch.
Everyone needs love.
Everyone needs love.
No one needs their team to lose.
No one needs to blackout on booze.
No one needs a hurricane.
No one needs a tornado.
No one needs a fire.
No one needs their lover to be a liar.
Everyone needs love.
No one needs a parking ticket.
No one needs a cop to catch you speeding.
No one needs a drive by shooting.
No one needs a home invasion.
No one needs to be carjacked.
Everyone needs love.
No one needs a heart attack.
No one needs live damage.
No one needs cancer.
No one needs diabetes.
Everyone needs love.
No one needs aids.
No one needs mental illness.
No one needs traffic.
No one needs dandruff.
Everyone needs love.
Refugee
I will never tango, but hopefully
I'll never find myself blacked out
in a drunk tank ever again.
Throw a loser drowning a cement life preserver
How can you break someone whose
already bent like a twig trying to stay
together at the hands of a man who
needs a toothpick?
That’s punk rock
The label tried to get them
to be other than they were
so they broke up.
Why does he smoke on the cover of his cd?
Is he still smoking or is he like me who
smoked a pack a day for twenty years,
but, now, has nearly twenty years off of them?
One of the dogs always lays in front of
the heater, whenever and wherever I hook
it up, stealing from me the full warmth that
the machine could be emitting on me. I don't
like to be cold, but I love my dogs, so I don't
push them away from the heat. I share.
Mick Jaggar is a lot broker than Bill Gates,
which should, somehow, put it all in perspective,
but it doesn't. There is no rhyme or reason
to anything.
The heathens, it seems,
have given themselves
a new name. Like many
varieties of cola, if they
didn’t have a label, you
couldn’t tell which one
was which.
Dollar store candy is often stale.
I love the beach, to stand in the sand
and let the crashing waves hit my feet
I'm a Kodac moment
I'm in all of my pictures.
That's me smiling; flash
or not.
Survivors pleaded for food, water and medicine
Can you imagine living through a typhoon
that wiped out almost everything around you.
Tambourine got my back.
I’m at the driving wheel
headed to another destination.
Gas keeps going up
but I can’t seem to stop.
Car breaks down for good;
I stick my tongue out
put my thumb in the air.
I’m going to get there
no matter what is going on.
Have you got a water?
I left the booze back
several decades ago.
Man, it sure feels good to see
all you folks out here at the show.
CALL NOW
NO MORE TAX PAYMENTS.
NO MORE STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS.
CALL NOW.
CALL NOW.
Submission
I’m pounding the pavement
Making sales calls.
My poems are my business cards.
Mostly they come back to me
with the word, “No.”
I know that that, “Yes,” is out
there, so I won’t quit until I find it.
Luscious Chocolate Cake
She said that it was too rich for her,
but that I should bring my half a slice
and her whole slice home. I said no
cuz I was diabetic, but they came home
with us anyway and right now I am glad
that they did because I am eating some
now and it is delicious. Blood sugar be
damne, I must have chocolate!!
Should it bring a tear to me?
Ghandi didn’t eat meat
but he ate his young nieces’ pussies.
Kennedy was a good family man
when he wasn’t in bed with hookers
and starlets,
funny how it goes; heroes are never
what they appear to be.
Paint It
Paint your pretty little pictures.
Post your pretty little poems.
Put the pretty ones on tv, movie,
and magazines.
I Love Sushi
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love rock and roll.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
I love sushi.
Not holding the bag
We got screwed out of the story
by the man who left us behind.
I’m waiting for my Govt. check
She’s got money for Sunday dinner.
I’m waiting for my Govt. check
Lead role in a cage
She’s always the other woman
the one who leaves by the back door.
Will you be my only friend?
I wander out here in the wilderness.
I’m alone at a crowded mall.
I’m alone on Christmas day.
I’m alone and it’s always been that way.
We all have our challenges
Sometimes, our challenge is
getting along with someone
who is challenged.
I might have been
writing about you.
I might have been
writing about me.
I might have been
writing about no one.
I might have been
writing about everyone.
Snowball fights snowmen and igloos.
The rain, out there, this morning
is not as bad as I perceived
the weather folk on TV, last night,
to be saying that it was going to be.
That said, I am glad that I don’t
have to go out in it because it is cold
out there. Cold weather is, pretty much,
one of the bigger banes of my existence.
When I was a kid, living in Connecticut,
snow was a welcome thing. Snowball
fights, building snowmen, and igloos
were all great kid in the cold things to do,
but, as an adult, I am not into snowball
fights, snowmen, or igloos. Once, a bunch
of us kids were throwing snowballs at cars.
A cop showed up and we ran. I remember
my heart pounding as I ran through back
yards. Escape in such a situation is a very
exhilarating thing.
Dandruff and other afflictions
I am flawed in many ways.
My teeth are coffee stained.
I have dandruff and several
other afflictions that I won’t
bore you/gross you out with,
but I have the gift of life, the
most precious thing that I can
have, so bitching or being
extremely bothered about
things that are really insignificant
is stupid.
Whats up with tomorrow hon?
Will we have as beautiful a day
today as we did yesterday?
Shouldn’t all our days not be cloudy?
I won’t piss in your jar.
Eliminate my face.
Eliminate my place
in this human race.
You can’t do it.
I won’t let you.
Piss in your jar
for seven bucks an hour.
You’re the one that’s high.
(Inspired by listening to
the band Death).
Not so all alone
I was down and out.
I was depressed.
I was angry.
I was drunk.
I was on drugs.
Then I found
a band called The Restraints.
They were down and out.
They were depressed.
They were angry.
They were drunk
and they were on drugs
and the people on their scene
and in their audience were, too;
and many of them became my friends.
Then I was still down and out,
still depressed, still angry,
still drunk and on drugs,
but I didn’t feel so all alone.
We’re not all cuckoo either
You can’t do what this man does.
You’re not Super Man,
but if you look inside yourself
you just might find you have
a bird in your hand.
You go right I’ll turn left
You do what you want.
And I’ll do what I will.
We don’t have to climb
the same hill.
The lines blur sometimes
Am I breaking out
or am I breaking in?
Am I holy or am I
making sin?
Am I the jailer
or the jailed?
Am I the crazy
or the insane?
Am I the cop
or am I the criminal?
Is my goose cooked
or am I the chef?
Am I better
or am I worse?
Am I thankful
or am I bitching?
Am I A or B?
Let’s make up a word
Let’s make it a verb
that says, “We can.”
What’s a fair game
think about it too much
you might go insane.
Track Nine
I’d rather head to the mountains
than let your point of view influence me.
I got my own copy of the c.d.
and two ears to see.
There will be no revolution
The punks have all settled down.
They take their kids to school.
They have a mortgage to pay.
They face the challenge of not
being the parents who they rebelled against.
There will be no revolution
but perhaps an evolution of thought
as punk thought gets handed down.
Tortured
Tortured by me.
Tortured by you.
Tortured by what I know.
Tortured by what I don’t know.
I’m tortured, how about you?
“You’re a bum. You’ll always be a bum.”
I was maybe twelve when my dad said
this to me, repeatedly. How a man can
call his kid a bum is, now, beyond me.
I could never see to call my kids bums,
but thinking often changes from one
generation to another.
Daydreaming
I’m sitting right here in front of you
but I’m a million miles away.
Come on baby light my fire
Once, back when I was doing LSD
and, as usual, drinking a lot I lit
a piece of paper in my typewriter
on fire and watch the flames jump
onto the curtains in front of me.
I was catatonic and my love of the time
had to take me to the loony bin
where it took me five days to remember
what day it was and who was the president.
It seems amazing to me, now, that that
was me then. I am super blessed to have
lived through all that. Oh yeah my love
was able to put out the fire before I
burned the apartment down.
To become a beatnik
He quit his job.
He quit his wife.
He quit his children.
I feel like a thief.
I’m going insane.
I’m scared that
I’ll wind up
at that place
where you’ve got to
know your name.
All you got to have is that wake up call, girl.
All you need, Mister, is that wake up call.
They call it hitting your bottom. Your bottom
sucks. That's when you legitimately can't take
it anymore, and something has got to change.
And change can hurt like Hell, but it's leading
you to a better world.
Inside again
I'm a charmer.
I put out my own light.
Just one world we are all to share.
How am I to make it, if you just don't care?
If you get back to October
you will have been so blessed
as to have lived another year.
"Bad credit can hurt good people," said the lady
on the radio, and I thought so can alcoholism, and
heroin addiction, and homelessness: they can hurt
bad people, too.
I’ve sold out
I’ve sold out, but I still look at things
the same way.
I’ve sold out, but I still see and hear
things that way that I always have.
I’ve sold out, and everything is still
the same in my life.
I’ve sold out, and I haven’t profited at all.
I was the leading man.
I was the champion
in the ring blood on his
gloves, gloves raised
above his head. I was
the rocker taking my
band to the top. I was
the poet who wrote
the book that they are
still reading to this day.
Is the insanity behind me?
Is it in front of me? Is it with me
right now?
What about the idiocy. Is the idiocy
behind me? Is it still with me?
What about the loneliness? What
about the depression. Are they now
things of the past. Will I see them
in my future? Are they a part of my
present?
I can't shake the sleep from my eye.
I can't kill the desire to lay my head
back down on the pillow.
The Stage
I always thought that I wanted to be there
but I never felt comfortable once I got there.
In the end there is no fairness
I wonder if I will be able
to accept the news of my
impending death any better
than I handle the news of
the impending death of people
who I care about. I mean,
I think that I handle the news
of someone’s death fairly well,
because I know that in
the end we all have to die
and that there are a myriad
of ways in which that end
can be achieved. It never seems
fair when I get news of an
impending death, no fairer,
than to receive news of a death
that has already occurred.
I’m off the hook
but I wish that
I was on the hook
trapped and bleeding
like a fish taken from
the water.
As abstract as time.
As nonsensical is existence
things get structured
in the most bizarre ways
and yet you are here
and the best thing you
can do with it is not fail.
I want to be a person of principle
but, sometimes, I’m not sure what
those principals should be. Am I
supposed to look out for you, or
am supposed to look out for me?
Don't try to die (while you're still living).
When I die
I will give you
all that you have not.
When I die
I will forgive you
for what you have done.
When I die
will you miss me
wish you had kissed me
one last time?
When I die
will it have mattered
that I lived?
Will I have made a
difference to anyone
including my kids?
It's stupid worrying
about dying when
you still live.
Somebody is dying.
Somebody is being born.
I’m a bard
not a bartender
or a bouncer.
I use my hands
and my mind
to create strings
of words that
hopefully
make sense
to you.
Long after
my feet have left the ground.
Long after
I am no longer part of the crowd.
Long after
the last time that I was feeling down.
Infraction
I create my own dilemmas
like feeding my dogs
outside of their bowls.
My life is full
not running over
like it used to be.
Juxtaposition
If I was an eagle.
I'd wish that I was a dove.
If I was down below,
I'd wish that I was above.
I will always miss you
I’ll never see the smile
on his face, again.
I won’t hear him play guitar anymore
There will be no more paintings
from his hands.
I have to believe that he is in a better place
and that we will jam once again in a different way
in a different place that is better than here.
He was a great friend, a wonderful husband
and father. I miss you Clark Vreeland.
I will always miss you.
The gosh darn good ones always go first
It seems highly unfair
that they disappear into thin air
and we will never see them again.
The gosh darn good ones always go first
and I’m not sure who to complain to
or if complaining will do any good.
Bury the hatchet
Life is short
no time to hate.
Clark
He was a luminary
a light at the end
of the tunnel of life.
Just let me be
Just let me smile.
Just let me sing.
Just let me be with my children
and my grandchildren
for another day.
Just let me think.
Just let me see.
Just let me hear
for another day.
Lord, I don’t know why
you take the people that you do.
I don’t mean to accuse you
of being unfair, but that is
somehow how it seems, sometimes.
Just let me be.
Just let me breath.
Just let my heart beat
for another day.
I never got around to it
I meant to be good
to myself
but I never got around to it.
I meant to be good
to my neighbor
but I never got around to it.
I meant to be good
to my kids
but I never got around to it.
I meant to be good
to my country
but I never got around to it.
Something always got in the way.
I meant to be good
to God
but I never got around to it.
I meant to be good
in so many ways
but I never got around to it.
And now it’s too late
I’m lying in my grave.
I could have made a difference
but I never got around to it.
I’m an addict
I’m addicted to love.
I’m addicted to my gal.
I’m addicted to my kids.
I’m addicted to my grandkids.
I’m addicted to my friends.
I’m addicted to feeling good.
Whoa
Whoa, that love be ubiquitous.
Whoa, that love be yours.
Whoa, that love be mine.
Whoa, that love be on time.
Capture
If I could capture one moment from my past
it would be the minute I met you; who knew
that it would last forever, but here we are still
under the same stars, still under the same
setting sun, and rising moon.
The grim reaper awaits us all
There is no escaping him,
so the best thing that we can do
is to make the best of every moment
that we live.
Mi amore es para usted
Under the city lights
Under the stars so bright.
When the sun is out.
When it is cloudy.
I love you.
Because
Because I’m not gay.
Because I’m not Islamic.
Because I’m not what you are
doesn't mean I have a better way.
Everybody has the right
to live in peace.
He has broken on through
to the other side. Someday,
I will break on through, too;
and we will share a smile
again together; I will, once
again, put my words to his
guitar.
