Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
Feb 2018 · 154
VOCES
James Floss Feb 2018
Now again, adrenaline
My quest test
Is a go.
Go.

Project‘s launch
Just a hunch–
It’s needed
Now.

Pegs in place
Work begins:
Immigrant stories told;
Truth.
Jan 2018 · 137
ZZZXXXZT!
James Floss Jan 2018
There’s a rumble in my tumble
Upswitch Ipswich overload
Chorus of toads or crickets?

Circuits snapping not yet breaking
Electrical trickle cascading
Wassup? Turn it up!

Tune in, drop mic, turn on!
Jan 2018 · 237
NOT LIKE THEN…AGAIN
James Floss Jan 2018
Rushing into the roaring twenties
A full century later
Hope we don’t crash

Someone pushed the pendulum
Into a crazy mood swing of
The madness of King Tweet-thing

Mobilize, optimize, centralize
Let’s take it back
After, an amusing anecdote
Jan 2018 · 221
2018
James Floss Jan 2018
Gathering of the gaderene
Deep in the region of legion
Headlong rush to destruction
Obfuscation obstruction

World gone crazy political
Satirical take on societal
Evolution of revolution
Time to shake the snake
Jan 2018 · 243
LONG DISTANCE
James Floss Jan 2018
I’d like to phone the past
First to Jimmy then to Jim and
Let them know it will be all right

I needn’t correct the past
Nurture shaped nature
And I pleasantly accept present

What matters is the is
What time matters is the now
Moving forward is the how
Jan 2018 · 261
BANANANANA
James Floss Jan 2018
Finally, I have an enemy!
No longer fraught for naught;
A nemesis! A right to fight!

****, you Clam-man!
You bivalve bloviator!
Super Slug to the rescue!

Cape, cup, spandex on!
Superslime secreted!
Slugman off!

Faster than a seasonal change…
More powerful then the breath of breeze…
Able to traverse 100 yards in as many days!

Super powers:
Eye stalks pivot independently
*** changes not infrequently

Just you wait, Clam-man
And wait!

And wait!
Jan 2018 · 181
SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE
James Floss Jan 2018
There is a middle place
Between OK and sad
Between fact and fiction

There is a middle place
Between you and me
And us and them

There is a middle place
Between what we know
And what we want

There is a middle place
Between "FAKE NEWS!”
And actual truth

Twixt there and then
Visualize better zen
Grow from the middle
Jan 2018 · 199
DREAM
James Floss Jan 2018
The space between expectations
And real-world realizations
Pinning hope upon a star

So far

Desire sires hope
Hope molds chance
But then circumstance

Twisted dance

Legislative ping-pong
An absurd, wrong, sing-song
Maintain a sense of self

Them, not you

Be the best you can
Rely on those you love
Have a back door plan

This land is your land,

Too…
Jan 2018 · 132
TANGO
James Floss Jan 2018
Common space vs.
Personal space vs.
Marriage space—

I waited for you to…
“No, I waited for you, too!”
No, I wanted from you to…

I thought we both want…
I believed we both should…
I thought we both might…

Dance

It’s a tango:
Slip, slide, dip,
Marriage is a wild ride!
Jan 2018 · 233
KER-PLUNK
James Floss Jan 2018
Jimmy junior
Doesn’t exist
Might’ve been
Hiccup echo

Purple lump
Passed
Surpassed
Gone
Jan 2018 · 127
OPTIMISM
James Floss Jan 2018
Everything here is for the best
Full of glitter and gaiety
We forget the nasty past

WWD was good for me; a
Worse fate should have followed
Pan gloss the past and be here now

The rat, the crocodile, the fly
Fulfill their natural function
Indeed, as Candide

We built our home
We stacked our wood
She made our garden grow

We’ve travelled the world
Had picaresque adventures
Au contraire, Voltaire

Happiness is possible
Enjoy it as it happens
Make it the best of all workable worlds
Jan 2018 · 267
REFEREE
James Floss Jan 2018
I am my own goalie
Sometimes I swat the puck out

Eventually it camels back to me
Because I made that call

Every second base stolen
Every accolade bestowed

I’ve run the games and won or lost
The benefits exceed the cost
Jan 2018 · 134
KITTY
James Floss Jan 2018
Mr. Nixley, last chance to negate the process.

No, I’m ready. She pushed me away you know.

Pardon?

I reached over—and was pushed away while she opened the covers to let the cat in…

Mr. Nixley?

Yes; I‘m ready.

Do the straps hurt?

Not really.

OK. There will be several sensations. First your body will tingle. Then, and this is the hard part, you will feel consciousness slipping away as if going to sleep but different. Fear is natural. To you, no time will pass but the process will take 20 minutes. Ready?

Yes.

OK…
.
.
.
.
.
.
Mr. Nixley?

Rrrrrrrow?
Jan 2018 · 1.8k
THUS SPAKE FREDATHRUSTRA
James Floss Jan 2018
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!­
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Meow­!
Meow!
Meow!
Jan 2018 · 199
FIRST DAMNDMENT
James Floss Jan 2018
*******!

It’s a new word.
**** it!
I first heard it on NPR.

I read it then in the
SFChron then the
NYTimes.

Word.

Language evolves,
Some people don't.

What *******
Coined that term?

Which wounded *****
Will take this ******* down?

Semantics matters–
Vulgarities smatter.

Good luck to us all.

(me too)
Jan 2018 · 117
NOT EASY BEING
James Floss Jan 2018
Honestly,
What did I miss?
Dissed?

"Honesty
Charity
Love…”

The homily
Spoke of family
Realities

There is blue
And green and in between:
Yellow. Hello.
Jan 2018 · 169
VITAMIN P
James Floss Jan 2018
a poem a day
what a way
for neuron sway

brain elastic
language plastic
a bit sarcastic

word play
what a way
to start or end a day
Jan 2018 · 215
STRESSED? UNDRESS
James Floss Jan 2018
Under my fleece blanket
Conventions scorned
I’m naked.

Yes, surprise!
My organs are contained in skin
Contours, grooves; holes in.

*****, ****, eyebrow, *******
You will have to imagine all the rest
As you, too, undress

We really are silly creatures
Dressed in frilly fabric features
Mine is this, yours is that.

Truth be told
Body bold
Is sacred.
Jan 2018 · 300
PORM FOR YOU
James Floss Jan 2018
I really can't hear your words
As you walk away

I CAN BE LOUD
When I can't hear you

I can be an *******
As an excitable boy

When did we skid off the tracks?
Did you hear that coming?

I miss being touched
That doesn’t happen anymore

You are full partner
To all the the button pushing

I’m tired of this twisted tango
I just want to be felt and heard
Jan 2018 · 159
ME TOO
James Floss Jan 2018
How do you know if (hashtag)
You are an abused man?
Is it *** only with your right hand?
Claiming the mattress cliff on the left?
Falling to sleep without falling off?
The one who promised to be your lover
In your vows, now
Only berates you
Negates you
No touch
Nonsuch
What?
Jan 2018 · 112
SEVEN-LINE-HEAVEN
James Floss Jan 2018
So it begins
Nearly a century in
Over 500,000 minutes
Of every year
Times 24 hours
Times 365

And so it ends
Nearly a century in
53-to-the-tenth smells
Tells, shells, tactile sensations
Tens of thousands of likes, dislikes

X-numerous memories
X-thousand relationships
X times X being you
X-ed.

We spend some time here.
We do some things here.
We hope we’ve been here.

Times runs out
Life re—

Starts.
Jan 2018 · 135
PROPERTY
James Floss Jan 2018
Masters
Of illusion
Is that a ——

I see before me?
Or glue-gun
Construction

**** death camp ledger?
Oh! kay…
Guns, too?

******* battering ram?
And swords and helmets?
Ok.

We are making
A redwood grove?
A spiral galaxy?

A multi-platform space
Suggesting the
Heinous oppression of…

And what is in their hands?
What thing belongs there?
The colors again?

Hey, Mikki,
I miss you
And the work.
Mikki and I were property masters for the Humboldt State University Theatre Arts Department for a few years a long time ago. The shows referenced are, in reverse order, (everything else) In Pursuit of the Song of Hydrogen, Redwood Curtain, Lysistrata, and a student play about Raol Wallenberg. And the play whose name remains…
Jan 2018 · 157
WWD III
James Floss Jan 2018
WHAT?

Shell shocked

Trying to be nice, bombed

I saw you feel hurt
I know I was part of that
Not sure of the how of it

You tell me to make the sky orange
I can't make the sky orange
Nothing rhymes with orange

I try to be a good man
I reject the role of bad man
I am the man I am

What you feel is yours
But I colored it
Cause it? No.

WWD at 3:41 am
In the trenches
Here to stay.
Jan 2018 · 261
SUESS SAUCED
James Floss Jan 2018
Did Descartes say
"I’m drunk, I thunk:
Therefore I am’nt, Sam…?
And is that now a can of spam, Ma’am?”?

Here and now and then besides
Later perhaps, sometimes betides
Then once again I hunger for:
Tinted eggs and ham once more.
Jan 2018 · 130
PHOTOGRAPHY
James Floss Jan 2018
The light strikes
Moment illuminated
Frozen in time

Snap the shot
Then think you got
That moment in mind

Scintillating shafts
Floating through past
A memory of mine

Not really then
Not really there
Memories be kind
Jan 2018 · 165
ROLLER-COASTER
James Floss Jan 2018
You must be this tall
To ride this ride
The man clangs you in
And the ride begins

There is a bar holding you back
As clanging gears strange you up
And up and up
Clackety-clack

Apex of apostasy
Seeing clearly
Holding on for dear life
As the real ride begins
Jan 2018 · 213
AMENDMENT
James Floss Jan 2018
Bubbles from below
Urges, regrets, shame…

Id, ego, super-ego:
Take your cape off—

Relax; sit down a spell;
We’re not going to hell.
Jan 2018 · 179
TRAVELLER BLUES
James Floss Jan 2018
Time travel
Wears a body down
All that back and forth
Up and down some Jefferies tubes
Forgetting what’s been remembered

No cousin conundrums…
Thank goddess!
But I’ve seen me—
Gleefully pulling kitties tails
Splashing in a kiddie pool

The past is easy travel
The future most hard
The worst is what we don’t know
But we let it happen:
Super moons, king tides
Jan 2018 · 186
POETRY
James Floss Jan 2018
Doesn’t come easy
I have jars on the shelf
Filled with
Jarring metaphors
Sparring rhymes;
Poems aborted

Dead ends.
Some just clumsy fumblings
Some un-clementine Frankensteins
Some too painful to finish
Some too personal to post

But for me, a life-line.
Dec 2017 · 126
GRAYCE
James Floss Dec 2017
I had a wonderful mother
She’d be aghast with
Internecine dealings

Sister against sister
Then again against brother
Nephew, even, against uncle

Stop it now
Be good to each other
Think the best

Belay the Kraken!
Stable the dragons!
Breathe before acting.
Dec 2017 · 250
TONY AWARD
James Floss Dec 2017
Mrs. Maisel is
Marvelous!

Set design:
NYC, 1958.

Repurposed speakeasies,
Basement comedy clubs.

Wig, hair makeup:
Yes.

Period props:
Yes.

Costume design:
Fifties fabulousness.

Sound design:
Classic jazz,

50s smaltz,
Faux folk trios

Finger snapping
Beatnik poets: yes.

Acting:
Everyone.

Envelope, please…

And the special acting award for
Above and beyond
Goes to no shlemiel or shlimazel
The Monk with the Funk:

Tony Shalhoub!

(Please do season 2)
Dec 2017 · 141
MISSING YOU
James Floss Dec 2017
Grief is a bowling ball
Ripping down the lane
Leaving few pins standing

The map of grief
Has blue states
And blue states

Grief is a state
Of emotional tsunamis
Crashing ashore

Waters recede
Pins are realigned
We proceed apace

But with longing
And remembering
And the long tail of love
Dec 2017 · 255
PRECIOUS CARGO
James Floss Dec 2017
Driving
Long way to go
Life is involved

Driving
Responsibly
Life is involved

Driving
Slow the **** down
Life is involved

Driving
Don’t cut in front
Life is involved

Driving  
Cut and then pass
Life is involved

Really?
Three seconds less?
Life should evolve
Dec 2017 · 870
#TRUST
James Floss Dec 2017
When a cat
Splats
Flat on your lap

(That black cat
That first heard “****!"
But came right back)

With no care in the world
Dives deep into cat nap
On your lap

Pray a poem of thanks:
This stretching feline
Trusts you
Dec 2017 · 126
PHOTOGRAPH
James Floss Dec 2017
Coincidence incident
A million to one fun
Reliving long past moments
At years end

We find similar photos
Millions of moments later
Hundreds of miles apart
At tears end

Non-believer conundrum?
Mathematical non-sum?
Chance happenstance?
Or just friends?
Dec 2017 · 263
ARRIVAL
James Floss Dec 2017
Boat overturns
Immigrant swims
Trauma begins

Risking all for family
A life a little better,
A strange future

In a strange land
Living step by step
A survival dance

Different chance
Risking all
To be safer
Dec 2017 · 182
TIMESPACE
James Floss Dec 2017
Andromeda comes
From two million years a away
Collision is cert-



NON HAIKU VERSION:
Fasten seatbelt
Grab towel
Don’t panic
Dec 2017 · 102
WHAT HAPPENS
James Floss Dec 2017
**** happens
Sometimes sloppy
Sometimes with
difficulty turds
Painfully pressed

**** happens
Directives dire occur
Hold on, strap in
Lend a mask to
That other poor *******

**** happens
No wipe away
No walk away
Get up, regroup
Deplane
Dec 2017 · 167
GRIEF
James Floss Dec 2017
Grief is cousin
To depression
But darker
More leaden

Grief is heavy
Under water
Time slowed to
Sluggishness

Grief is a degree
Of despair
That goes deep:
The cost of loss
Dec 2017 · 128
EULOGY
James Floss Dec 2017
Now the hard part begins
Living with a hole in our hearts
While digging a hole in the yard

"Just a dog” some would say
But if he liked you ten years ago
He’d be happy to see you yesterday

Buddy boy endured five different cats
They bugged him as they loved him
Their fierce protector in Freshwater

6AM and 6PM
He didn’t understand daylight savings
His stomach kept time

Happy to see us
Worried when we‘d leave
Of that now, we are bereft

Sweet boy, we will miss you
Biggie boy, you biggered us
With your unconditional love
Nov 2017 · 189
REQUIEM
James Floss Nov 2017
I think about my Dog
All the time
The omnipotent one;
Maker of Chihuahuas and Bernards;
Distiller of EVERY smell we LOVE to smell
HE who NEVER NEEDS to eat grass.

Oh, Boy, Good Boy,
Why, oh why, don’t we have thumbs?
We can’t open the ***…frigging doors
To answer the NEED of nature!
We can’t even open any food container
Or answer the phone when they are away.

Don’t get me wrong—
I like being on all fours, Dog, stability!
I like my nose knowing and showing!
I LOVE doing it *******:
On a manmonk leg, on the couch, with a bi—
(Sorry, the manmonks think I shouldn’t say that word)

Speaking of manmonks,
Could you help them understand us better?
Don’t they know they STINK?
They take me out to play, yeah!
Then, I bring the stick back not once, but twice, thrice…
That’s just not nice.

And why can’t I EAT all day?

That thing around my neck itches.
And the metal thingies are crazy jangly; but
Thank you, Dog for allowing me to scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch so well.
And lick where I like to lick.
And lick where I like to lick.
And lick where I like to lick.

Oh Dog, dear Dog,
Please hear my lamentations.
Grant me my thumbs!
Let me open the door!
Remove the collar!
And finally use the holy

Can Opener!
Nov 2017 · 86
THREE-WAY
James Floss Nov 2017
We are emotional beings
And physical beings and
Psychological beings

Trisecting

One of them
Two of them
Or all three of them

Scared me today

Sorry to the man at Ace
And the other man at the other Ace
Thank you to young Sear’s guy

You might have thought me high
As I gripped the counter, red faced;
I’ll keep the ninety-nine cent four-way keychain screwdriver

It may have saved me
Nov 2017 · 98
STORIES
James Floss Nov 2017
I want to be a Supershero, a
Wikipedia entry with a
Book of poems trending

I want to be that melody, the
Friend you hum right to the end
And think "what a mensch!”

I want to be the
Brother, son, lover
Friend to another

I want to tell a story
Writ large where you will
Gasp, clasp hands, laugh

You might even cry
Or at least
Have a tear in your eye
Nov 2017 · 185
HANDLE CAREFULLY
James Floss Nov 2017
Tommy Tumescent
Made a claim, man
By the left hand
That’s right’s been
Unrighteous with you
Making advances
Asking for finger dances for
Tactical enhancements to
Grow slow, Joe;
Remove the hoodie
Show the woodie
Stick your neck out
Turkey ****
Someone loves you
Enjoy
Nov 2017 · 220
NATURE’S NATURE:
James Floss Nov 2017
The tenacity of life,
Said the atheist,
Is evidenced enough through
The resurrection plant a
Centenarian centurion not
Unlike the tumbling pebble toad
Bouncing downhill
All for a drink of water;
It lands, unfolds, and lives.
Life begets life
While still leaking away.
Nov 2017 · 193
YEAST
James Floss Nov 2017
Prepare the feast
Bread stuff has to bubble
Or you’ve got trouble

Pumpkin gave its life
Add eggs and allspice
And enough butter for crust

Free range young turkey
Neck and giblets included
Need ‘em for groovy gravy

Boil stock down
Rosemary and sage
Just in thyme

Cooking together
Three days on
Now that‘s thanks giving
Nov 2017 · 189
CAT’N DOG
James Floss Nov 2017
Yellow buddy Gunther meets
Ginger Fred the red

Nose touch and sniff
Yep. You. ‘K.

(He eschews those black cats—
Snubs uncomfortable loves)

But boys will be boys
Meeting nose to nose.

We just feed them.
Nov 2017 · 197
PAR-AR-DEN ME
James Floss Nov 2017
It ser-erves nothing
This hic-coughing
Day two of three

But (hic) but (hic) it happens
Every fi-Uk! five seconds
Diag-FRA-AM! (****!) explodes

Count back=ak=wards

Hold your breath

Get some sil-EEP!

Pa-ay!-per bag

Sca-are me, please

Drink water
Little swa+ah+llows

I’ll Just wait it “awht”
Out
Nov 2017 · 107
SEX
James Floss Nov 2017
***
Every touch toward flesh affection
Could be seen as male aggression
What’s a poor boy to do?
The first move begins with you?

Stroke my ear?
Look me in the eye?
Your hand strokes my inner thigh?
Hey Venus, that’s my *****!

Who said you could grab that?
Not to say I don’t like it—
Difficult tango this, Isis.
Physical crisis. Your move.
Nov 2017 · 140
SNOWFLAKE
James Floss Nov 2017
I’m a solid bronze snowflake, baby
Shiny, showy, pointy
I don’t melt

I’m here for the love, the dove
I’m here for the queer and the trans
And the newspaper delivery man

My heart is on my sleeve
Always beating never bleeding
For what‘s right, the good fight

This liberal for liberty
Leans so far to the left
It’s hard sometimes to walk

Disregard me at your peril
Think me mushy meek then
Meet me feral
Next page