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My friend asks
me where I get
the fodder for
writing my poems.
I tell him, life.
He says that's too
simple.
He isn't satisfied.
I tell him that
sometimes, I sit at
my desk and open
the window above the
litterbox, and look
outside at the
orange daylilies and
wait.

He says he writes
from a small place above
his left ear.
It tickles at times, but
often it's painful.
I nod and make a
note to call my
doctor about the
headaches I've been having.

He reads his posey at
the coffee shops while
drinking espresso and
chatting with the other
young poets in sweaters.
I tell him that I used
to live under a bridge,
I read my poems to the
savage river and the
Mallard ducks, and the
drunk friends that
wandered in for a drink of
***** or a beer.
He says the little place above
his left ear is beginning to
hurt.

I walk him to the door and
tell him goodbye.
He asks if I will come
to the coffee shop to
hear him read his poetry.
"Sure", I say, smiling blankly.
After closing the door,
I sit and smile at the view from
my window.
I can smell the freshly cut
grass, and hear the
grinding whine of the
lawnmower.
A woman across  
the street is lying in
the sun.
She's wearing a turquoise
bikini and big sunglasses.
Just then, a slight hint
of coconut wafts into my room.
I get hard and pick up the pen.
Here's a link to my you tube channel where I read my poetry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjeCroHYQxU
Trapped on a raft
headed straight toward the falls
Unable to jump
without drowning then mauled

The current unyielding
the banks close but far
New crafts sit there waiting
as destiny gnarrs  

The raft builders pointing
their fingers of blame
From one to the other
in shouts that disclaim

Till that final moment
when lost in the mist
Goes down in the mayhem
— as lackeys insist

(Goodbye Joe: July, 2024)
"What is your aim in Philosophy?”

“To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle”
(Philosophical Investigations) – Wittgenstein
--------------------
Tell them that I lived as long as I could,
then I died, thinking this was all new to me.

If they line up at the portal from then to now,
tell them to remember, any fly can find its way.

Go on, thinking that said it all.
Go on, knowing it said nothing new now.

The way into the bottle is the way out,
flies all know that naturally…
kitchen windows, though,
those can cause fly insanity.
Wittgenstein's nearly last words were "Tell them I had a wonderful life," so I thought, what might the fly think... the one he attempted to show the way...
..then the lights came on and it was all over which was peculiar in that the lights usually go out when it's all over, but this was a film I watched at the Odeon Cinema, the one with the Wurlitzer that rose up from out of the floor, can't remember which Odeon it was nor what the film was about, I only remember the lights coming on at the end and thinking that it was strange, now I think that thinking that was strange,

maddening how memories come at you in a random order, some to encourage you, some to attack you, some to caress you and others to slap you.

But it's Friday so it doesn't matter.
do not be afraid
I'm here

I will defend you
have no fear

I have a weapon
I can fight

I will walk with you
in the night

I can look
around the corners

no trouble
it is my honor

I don't care
how long it takes

I am here to keep you safe

rest assured
and fear no more

let me walk you
to the door

I am here
I will defend you

throw a spider
out the window

I defend
and I pretend

I am the one
who is so brave

it makes it harder to admit
I am the one who is afraid
I fell in love with a dream,
and then I woke up.
It felt like a gut punch.
I wanted so badly for
the dream to be real,
but it wasn't.

The antonym for
dream is
reality.
And the reality
was
that she could
never love me
like I loved her.
Here is a link to my you tube channel where I read my poetry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjeCroHYQxU
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