sheet crumpled not
deeply thrashing
with life as a last night did
dead now dreaming
as dreaming sheets oftenly
boy with toy like
fantasies of apart joints
socketed into unsleeping
hips in the darkest of
night's dreamless deepening

elle n'est pas one hell
of an elle in does
brightly chafe with
dower stocking removal
hastily into thigh as thigh
does improbably hairless
Glide into petite grande
pink pretty pinched heaping
of dryless ****** helping
of **** help needing

A quick drizzle of angles that
unsuddenly with immortal pairing
bare the rude stem of Spring–

which cannot unbarley but to shreak
the tiniest whisper of "please into my
house enter the deepest blooming
of red red red steam   "

being i just could only
that at
the naked perfume
of her
seeping incessantly laughter
but to boom as wide and cloyingly
drunk with open health

as God had said
making the world
by one word: she

said not one word
(making my world)
but two,

               "**** me"

i am
a magnet
for broken things
pieces of boys
forever
clinging to me,
making it hard to
walk

Mouth please listen to me
You can't turn water to wine
Stop trying to convince me of myself

Ears please recover your authority
The world is happening before you
Slow down to hear the earth's axis creak

Eyes absorb each ray of unthinkable
For there will be a time of darkness
And I still need to stay on path

Body don't fail on me now
We are moments from disaster
And seconds from arrival

Self-respect is so hard to come by sometimes
knowing that we cannot buy it because it is
never for sale and it cannot be fabricated
out of public relations either.

Self-respect comes to us when we are alone,
in quiet moments, in quiet places, when
we suddenly realize that knowing the good,
we have done it and knowing the beautiful,
we have served it, and knowing the truth,
we have spoken it.

Blowing out someone else s candle doesn't
make ours shine brighter or give us any
self-respect so finish every day and be done
with it and press on because nothing
can take the place of persistence so make
it work and discover your world realizing
that seldom does an individual exceed
his own expectations.

Know that the best thing you can do
is the right thing, and the next best thing
you can do is the wrong thing but the
worst thing you can do is nothing.

so know that powerful minds always
encounter opposition from simple minds
and if we believe in ourselves self- respect
will follow in our world and we can
stand tall in a big world where we
feel so small.
                                                  Jon York    2015


         Jon York         2015

I brought a poem
Into a room
Of well-to-dos.
They went to
North American schools.
They looked at it
For
A middle-class clue.

It's a poem, I said.

... and I know it.
...and violets are blue.
Said someone who
Said she knew
A poem or two.

To my dismay
And loss of face,
They'd never heard
Of Keats or Yeats,
But everyone knew
Of  Dr. Seuss.

I will write a rhyming verse
About a dog or cat or simple mouse.