The Small Misfortune Of A Rum And Coke

Sometimes one thing
insufficient in itself
is not improved by addition
of a second thing

noxious rum
in a glass of ice

a person
seeking love

This is a such an evening, my friend
so sit by me
in the dimmest light we can find
and drink.


nothing prompted me today but the desire to produce something. well, and this rum and coke i have here, and a sense of melancholy. and, yes, the unsettling but gratifying knowledge that somebody's actually reading this damn thing. though, knowing this, i have also had to ask myself if i shouldn't be trying harder to write something that might actually be edifying to read...oh well! clearly i have resisted the impulse, so, no need to worry. :)

I gather a deck
of self-concepts
and choose one
and go up to you.

Have you seen this person?

Your face is hard to read.
I go home to consult
my records, check my thinking.

Who was I?
Who can support this story?

Surely I didn't just
ask you, just like that.


for/from poetry instigator?

Slowly, He Turned...

I've never seen a man change.

Ask him to reconsider.
Ask a pear orchard in winter
to feed you now.

The cycles are baffling
to short-lived, hungry things
like love.

Staring upward
through the placid limbs
I waited for flowers to bloom.

By now, who knows?
He may be on a hillside
in Provence,

sharing everything, smiling at the sky.


for Totally Optional Prompts

Risks

I did not hide
sewing scissors
in the laundry

or set a bucket of water
by my screen door
to invite the rain in

I spoke of love, but did not
insist upon it, least of all
to myself

and I ran out of money
for all the extra fees
so I retrenched, literally.

I am peeping out of a hole, expecting
mortars to fall, and I think I am smiling.

I haven't gone
to the place where flowers are taught
what colors to display

but I pass that garden every day.
And there is a strict jungle of offices
and so much more that I do not know.

It's all in books. The library is the most dangerous
place in the world, and is, I think,
the door that leads in and out at the same time.



for http://totallyoptionalpromts.blogspot.com

My animal's all dressed up
in frothy, languorous petticoats tonight,
in bright hard glitter and a beat of blood.
She's been to a party, she's been talking with you.

She's been leaning up against the fruit trees
in the garden out back, full of coarse stars.
Give me, give me, she says.

She hitches homeward
from the night of tossed-up crinolines
eyelashes and bare arms--

She comes home with hot coals,
to me.

I fall into bed, disconnnect
the fiery diodes,
play my heart with a spoon,
chew on foil--

waiting, shiny with the fanaticism
of a new affair.



for http://readwritepoem.org