The rebellion at the chicken farm
Started with Harley Hen
When she noticed any bird that left
Never returned again
Plus
The **** covering the floor
Air all choked with funk
Out there
Harley imagined
There must be no gunk
Farmer Dave came through
And before he closed the door
The chickens were all upon him
Ready to settle the score
Pecking, clawing, cackling such
Farmer Dave has lost his touch
Covering his eyes and head
Farmer Dave
Posed no threat
Chickens out into fresh air
Running round from here to there
Every direction
All over town
Farmer Dave's chickens
Bullying everyone around
Then the humans
Formed their battle plan
Rounding up chickens
And frying pans
All those uppity chickens
Will surely boil
They'll become stew for sure
But every chicken just
Disappeared
Seen again never more
Of course, this started rumors
Of the spooky
Scary town
In which the local chickens
Ran the humans down

I read the five minute poem
In two minutes
Flat
Not sure what to take from that
Maybe I missed something
Over again
This is how a five minute poem
Turns into ten

“I wish I would’ve wrote this”
A commonplace feeling for a poet
Though just as easy it be
“I wish someone wrote that
About me.”

I had so much to say in that poem that got away
As I went about my day
It came to me
Perfect and true
So many beautiful words
But what’s a poet to do
When out and about
Lots of stuff to do
And the poem disappears
Into the void of my mind
And only reveals tiny glimpses
Teasing me, teasing me “come here and find”
Lost creation, please be kind
Hop right on back into my mind

Guys who wear a certain type of sunglasses
Turn me off
It’s a very specific type
But there seems to be no redemption
Because he’ll always be
The guy in THOSE
Sunglasses
It’s not his fault
And it’s not fair
A sunglass style
Makes me beware
But association
Can’t help but compare

Empty
Just another word for
Clean slate
Full of possibilities
Regardless
Of how it got
Wiped
Clear and clean
Might be the cleanest slate
I ever seen

The first victim of racism
We all know by name
Some worship him
And what he became
Jesus hung from that cross
In the middle of town
Simply because
He was the only white guy around

Anger
Amazing what it can do
In just a snap
It can have power over you
Hero or villain it brings about
Get angry sometimes
You will without doubt
The smartest thing for you to do
Is control the anger
Don’t let it control you

The gift of absence
Against my will
Probably healthy
But torture, still

How long do you fight for
What seems impossible?
Do you hope the desire
Dries up
And goes away?
Do you find something else
To lead you astray?
Does a dream unrealized
Call your psyche home?
Does it settle in your bones?
Ever there to taunt and tease
Staying so far out of reach
Does it approach
And then it leaves?
That probably is the way of dreams

There is no requirement
Of a tortured soul
In poetry
Just because it works for you
It doesn't work for me
And my poetry's not any less
Because I am happy

Wake up, Boo
I wanna tickle your brain
Tease it and please it
Til you feel insane
And give in to
The madness
With gentle refrain
Bliss can be true
If you let the madness
Encompass you
What other option
When only a dream will do

Sunny days
Much loved
Rain
No less important
Under appreciated
We hide from rain
And it still comes to bless us
Despite our rejection
I love you too
Rain

When I am near you
I am lonely in a crowd
Complaining is not allowed
An insult, to you
When I’m not happy
Your esteem is attached
To my mentality
And this is how it came to be
That you only know
The pretend me

There is no
“I really wanted it”
Alibi
Usually delivered
After numerous lies
Desire does not justify
Selfishness, theft, or lies
Some seem to have the
Misguided idea
They couldn’t possibly deny
Themselves the thing they wanted
Or else they’d surely die
Their needs, however
Unnecessary
Twisted in their mind
Become water in the desert
A nap after ten sleepless nights
The mind plays tricks to justify
Accompanying sins
And injured parties
Demonized
Left blowing in the wind
Tricks the mind plays on itself
To avoid admitting sin

I like me
Maybe it’s overconfidence
Or stupidity
But I’m forcing myself here
So you can know me
Assuming you’ll fall in like
With what you see
All this effort put in by me
It’s like somebody passed me a mike
And I walked up on stage
Filled with sass and frass
Confident you won’t resist my ***
You ain’t no fool
You know I’m madd cool
You won’t hold out forever
I have an invisible way with you  
Deeper than surface
Thicker than blood
Time immortal
This union be
Even if you never connect with me
It’s already there
The stone that will never crumble
Art is eternal

I beleive you
Occasionally
That your world is so dreary
I can tell
Your day was bad
But really
What's the difference
Every day is a disaster for you
All at your insistence
You woke up ready to have a crisis
You want to be talked about
You think if your life ain't a mess
You've got no social clout
Nobody's interested in the happy
When you've got no cleavage
But you've traded attention
Of suggestive poses
With suicidal posing
Does the attention
From crying about how you want to die
Make you feel alive?

He takes me there
To the break
Before the waves
Crash in on themselves
He can almost hold back the tides
If I heard he did it, one day
I wouldn’t be surprised

He strips me bare
With his words
And I look full-on
Beautiful
An image of me
I never could see
Until it was so
Master fully  
Presented to me

I might be too happy
For poetry
Bemoaning the past
Just isn't for me
I don't happen to have a tortured soul
With demons hiding about
I laugh and cackle
Like a witch with no cares
And scare all those demons out

I was an optimistic child
I watched Gilligan’s Island
Every time
Thinking they were going to finally make it off that island
This time

As a pessimistic adult
I wonder why they would want to

Lots of bruises
Cuts and scrapes
Pound of flesh
Life will take
Healing anyway
Just to spit in trouble’s face

He got supa dupa playa status
Got me off twice this week
And we ain’t even met
Yet

There they go
The lives you hold
You've got all sorts over there
With all the shared selfies
Committing a crime
Or the man with the melting hair
They're all on the grift
Living luxuriously
While looking down on you and me
Yet this is the leaders we
Chose to be
This craziness goes deeper than
Envy or greed
It's more primal than just the need to
Compete
When twisted by puppeteers
It's a blind zombie fleet
Balling their fists
And kicking their feet
Moaning and wailing
Realization of failing
Staring them right in the eye
Looking aghast at a madman
And admitting
"I followed that guy."

We have gotten quite accustomed to being
Strangers
I only think of you once in a while
I prefer it
Than to forget you, entirely
The good things about you
I try to take with me

Mister
I'm not sure how you don't
Appreciate
The wonderful wacky
Being that is me
I suppose I could try harder
But it's not my fault that
You can't see

You didn’t break my heart
You taught me to
Protect it
Thanks
I guess

At some point
I must accept
Against my will
That he finds me
Resistible

Why'd you come in here lookin' like that
In your cowboy boots and your painted on jeans
All decked out like a cowgirl's dream
Why'd you come in here looking like that
Here comes my baby
Draggin' my heart behind
He's drivin' me crazy
Who says love is blind
He's got a wanderin' eye and a travelin' mind
Big ideas and a little behind
Out with a different woman every night
But I remember when he was mine
Why'd you come in here lookin' like that
In your high heel boots and your painted on jeans
All decked out like a cowgirl's dream
Waltzing right in here lookin' like that
Why'd you come in here lookin' like that
When you could stop traffic in a gunny sack
Why you're almost givin' me a heart attack
When you waltz right in here lookin' like that
I just can't stand it
To see him on the town
He's out slow dancing
With every girl around
I'm a softhearted woman he's a hardheaded man
And he's gonna make me feel just as bad as he can
He's got himself a mean streak a half a mile wide
Now he's dancing on this heart of mine
Ooh, Why'd you come in here lookin' like that
In your high heel boots and your painted on jeans
All decked out like a cowgirl's dream
Why'd you come in here lookin' like that
Why'd you come in here lookin' like that
In your cowboy boots and your painted on jeans
All decked out like a cowgirl's dream
Why'd you come in here lookin' like that

Man cannot build
Anything that lasts forever
Except an idea

The distance between what boys actually mean
And what we girls hear in our minds
We hear “I love you”
When he says “I love you,”
But he means “I like you just fine.”  
He says “I’ll be there,”
We hear “I’ll be there,”
But he means “I’ll come around sometime.”
He says “we have a bright future,”
We hear “we have a bright future”
He means “let’s take it a day at a time”.
The distance between what he meant
And I heard
Is so far apart that it is absurd
No harm and no foul
Lesson learned

He got me dreaming
Feening
For a taste
His little bit of nothing
He breaks off to me
Feels like a **** buffet
I’m caught up in his wave
On it all the way
To the break

Old Father Time checked, so there'd be no doubt
Called on the north wind to come on out
Then cupped his hands so proudly to shout
La-di-da, di-da-di-dum, 'tis Autumn
The trees say they're tired, they've born too much fruit
Charmed all the wayside, there's no dispute
Now shedding leaves, they don't give a hoot
La-di-da, di-da-di-dum, 'tis Autumn
Then the birds got together
To chirp about the weather, mmm
After makin' their decision
In birdie-like precision
Turned about and made a bee-line to the south
My holding you close really is no crime
Ask the birds, the trees, and Old Father Time
It's just to help the mercury climb
La-di-da, di-da-di-dum, 'tis Autumn
It's just to help the mercury climb
La-di-da, di-la-di-dum, 'tis Autumn

I presume you find begging unattractive
(Who wouldn’t?)
So I’m trying to do it with style and grace
Prancing  around in a tutu
Pretending that I don’t have egg on my face

He blows his nose on tablecloths
And wipes his *** with the decorative hand towel hanging on the rod
Then, he tries to flush it
Overflows the toilet, but hides his ****** evidence
He brings a boom box into church to listen to ol’ ***** ******* and NWA
He gets ejected from libraries because he wanks off into encyclopedias
He wears cleats on the basketball court
He turns the batteries over in every remote he encounters
He drives around neighborhoods in the summer, blasting ice cream truck music, carrying no ice cream, or even ice
He covers rocks with snow, and throws “snowballs” at little kids
He secretly walks up behind old ladies and puts gum in their hair
He dines and dashes at every restaurant, after being incredibly rude to the waitstaff
He puts superglue on flies, and dangles them in front of frogs
He brings dandelions wherever he goes, so he can blow them all over every well-manicured lawn he sees
He takes all but the last four squares of toilet paper out of every restroom he enters
He never refills the ice trays
He dumps all the juice out of the pickle container, and leaves the pickles with the lid off
He slits long openings into window screens
He cuts the wicks off too short on candles
He goes on the office morning coffee run, and gets everyone decaf
OK.  I’m lying
He doesn’t do any of those things
But he’s still a ****
For unnamed reasons

All the ladies craving a moment of
Attention from you
You are such a gentleman
This you gladly do
You are beautiful
It’s probably objectively so
I never heard someone say no
You’re the rare gem
In the sea of men
A pretty boy
Raised right
An amazingly precious delight

The other day
I realized
All my teenage crushes
Now have wrinkles
But I've yet to realize
I have wrinkles too

It is like looking for small roaches in full
Ashtrays
Your hands are gonne get *****
But it will probably be worth it
And the stain washes off
Easily
With soap and water

I spill my guts out
In case you don’t see
You might only get
A stomachache from me
I give you madd props
For risking it
….that fall from the tops .
                                           .
                                           .
                                           .
                                           .
                                           .
                                           .
Maybe you see
All that worthwhile in me

Here now
Hopefully
Comes a celebration of
The ordinary
The man who doesn't
Entertain or incite
The righteously unright
The overly uptight
Armed and angry
It's a disease
The blinding need
To think self righteously
While blaming the needy
For your extra unmet "needs"
But now you live vicariously
Through those you envy for their greed
Out of shape and out of steam
And this is who
You
Choose to envy
We need to look up to
The ordinary

I see your loyalty
Pushing your dad
In his wheelchair
Every day
Meandering up the street
And back again
I hear the patient tone in your voice
As he asks you
For the hundredth time
“Where are we going?”
“Just for a walk, dad.”
“Where are we going?”
“Just around the block, dad.”
“Where are we going?”
“Checking the neighborhood, dad.”  
Dad will not remember the walk
But you take him
Every day
He must have been a good dad
For you to turn out that way

Better be careful how you treat me
I can eviscerate you
Through poetry
A timeless critique
Of you
By me

A concrete poem is one that is in the shape of it’s subject.  This is my concrete poem ab-
out a slab of concrete.  Pretty neat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot describe the small feeling
Terrified, uncomfortable
When a beloved elderly person’s
Handwriting
Starts to shake
It is particularly painful
Watching them
Watch it happen

It was like in the cartoons
When gravity doesn't work
If you think you're standing on Something solid
And then I looked down
And realized I wasn't on ground
And you had no wings to be found
Not sure how we got up here
But it's painfully clear
We're about to fall down

What does one do, and how does it go
When they fall in love with a man
….
Named Waldo?
Is it appropriate to say
“Mister, the name is a no no?
Can I call you James, instead
Or maybe Paul or Joe
Or Ted?  
Maybe I can even agree
To call you by the name Wally
Waldo was an ok name
Until they came up with a find that boy game

If I Were King Of The Forest not queen, not duke, not prince
My regal robes of the forest would be satin, not cotton, not chintz
I'd command each thing, be it fish or fowl, with a woof and a woof, and a royal
growl
As I'd click my heel all the trees would kneel and the mountains bow and the
bulls kowtow
And the sparrows would take wing, if I were king

He sang her a song
Anonymously
And she was heard to say
“I wish that was for me.”

It could happen one day
Maybe even tomorrow
That Hellopoetry goes
FREAKING VIRAL
And suddenly
We become cool
For a few minutes
All the secrets we told
In virtual anonymity
Since nobody in our family
Bothers with poetry
BOOM!  
Mainstream
Attached to our names
I don’t know if it’d be a dream come true
Or curse
For most of us

I put these here
Little shards of who I be
One day
There won’t be
A part of me
You did not see