Children, gather round
Your second parent calls
A simple box
Wooden and metal
A face of glass
Adorned with two knobs
Take your seats
And take off your shoes--naughty!
Elbows off the table
Legs crossed, hands clasped
Black and white
Levittown
Like your mary janes and stockings
Your president birthed
And mourned
Mother’s in the kitchen
The window outside your little world
Is black and red but not white
Malcolm X, and all the rest
Standing up for their territory
Little girl, the country’s changing
Pick your daisy
We’re not crazy
The bombs come closer every day
Haven’t you seen Castro
And our fiascos by the bay?
Great Society
Social Security
Aid for the old and poor
Dinner’s ready
Mother’s specialty
Credibility on a plate
Crudely disguised
Plastic, fantastic, and uniform
Yet your mind is so hungry
That you eat it all the same
And give it no thought
The window’s widening
Its light reflected
On that glowing omniscient face
Color! Color!
Bright and vivid
Dancing at your fingertips
Brother’s gone off to Nam
Off with your skirts, your stockings,
Your mary janes,
And that awful ribbon in your hair
Burning dope
The rainbow bathes you
In its splendid glory
The birds in the sky
Like rolling thunder
Hawks tearing at the doves
****** falling to the trees
Agent Orange
Fire, death, destruction
Where’s your meal now?
Johnson stumbled,
Faith has crumbled
And so have the foundations
Of your enclosed walls
Bobby’s groovy--
No--he’s gone
And King’s dream
Escaped with his last breath
White rabbit,
Gentle rabbit
Sing your peace
The country’s ablaze
At home and away
Stand your ground
Chicago, Ohio
Each one’s a battlefield
Time for dessert--
Licking lollipops
LSD
Clear your plates
For a second course

You struck the match
You birthed the fire
The room was dark
Our bodies brighter
I was breathless
I was high
From hello,
Until goodbye.

You called me nightly
You let me in
Awakened a sense
Of fun and new
A comfortable
Abode for two.

I didn’t know love
Could be defined
By chinese buffet
And ripened peaches
I didn’t realize love
Was at the door,
In the pool, down
the road at the farm
Or even the dusty
Old piano where we’d
Play the music from
Our favorite games.

You, I,
We never saw it coming
Even though it was
Achingly inevitable.
We were never
Conscious of the bigger
Thing - just good friends,
Great friends, best friends.
I didn’t know our time
Would run short.
You talked of the future
You made me smile
I’d sit beside you
Talking life, sad because
School was coming up
And you lived far away.

I didn’t know I loved you,
Even up until the end
Dragging our feet in the sand
Ocean’s breath on our backs
cold, because the sun
Was setting and so was summer.

I didn’t know matches
Could die and fade.
I always thought they
Led to magnificent flames.
It hurt too much,
The pain, the loss,
The start and end -
I miss you, friend.

You broke the match
You killed the fire
My heart is dark
My outlook darker
I was breathless,
I was high
From hello,
Until goodbye.

I’ve always been drawn
To the artists,
The new greats,
The aesthetes,
The painters,
The writers and the
Ones who dress
Like they’re out of
A low budget
Film from the 90s -
Chic, noir, vintage,
And just so strikingly
Unique. But I am not
Like them, and they
Do not like me - I
Am weird and aloof,
Sloppy and silly,
Withdrawn and witty,
Sporadic in art and
Thought. A nomad
Of culture and crowds,
Too deviant for them:
Au revoir.

There’s no eloquent way
To say
******* or
what the ****.
the immediacy,
the poignancy,
speaks volumes
where fancy words
Cannot.
So here’s a big,
Fat *******
Sealed with
Contempt, sprinkled
With salt, because
Your sugar sweet
Was ******* fake
And that’s the icing
On your cake.

I push and I pull,
I tug and I tear,
Churning and creating
Waves that ripple out
In violent force
But drown me also

These ******* are not mine
They swell and sag.
And the thighs
They, too, weigh heavy
Spreading out across my sheets
Twice as wide as they seem
Pale and pallid -
Loose jiggles run amok.
These arms are not mine
Shapeless chunks with no chisel
Thick and stocky, like sausages.
I don’t know their touch.
I don’t know myself.