She’s just a chick
Greenfield said
they don’t amount to much

as he saw you gazing
at the girl whose name
you thought was Jane

walking alone
down the school passage
in morning recess

you need to get your head
around something serious
like who’s going to win

the school football trophy
or take on Big Brophy
in the school boxing finals

but you saw her hips
move ever so slightly
and her grey school skirt

go sway like caught
by some unseen wind
and you imagined maybe

you could have walked
beside her
and taken her hand

and have said
hey Sweetie
how about a kiss?

but getting back
to reality
you knew you’d say

**** all and your tongue’d
get stuck to the roof
of your mouth

and you’d stutter
like some **** fool
hey Greenfield said

you coming
or are you going to watch
the chick’s sweet ***

going over the horizon?
and he laughed
and you both

walked on
to the woodwork room
where Chiselhead

would be waiting
and the smell
of wood and glue

and unwashed bodies
hung in the air
and you imagined

she was on her way
to the gym
for the workouts

and climbing frames
with other girls
in their gym wear

and you stuck
in the woodwork room
with glue and wood

and tools and boredom
not watching her
not being there.

to be honest, I'm exactly what i wanted to be
i came here looking for the truth
and to find someone else out there
who holds something i want
more than anything else in the world,
someone else who breathes diamonds and electricity.
i have an audience now,
and its time i came to grip that
you all are more important to me
than any girl i've ever touched,
i'm ready to admit that.

Each time you turn and walk away
I find myself searching
for the sunny days
I know
once ran through my veins.  
Until I wish
I could dip my fingers
into the places
where your teeth bit into my heart
once again.

I think of all those conversations
where I believed
that every shadow
lying on the floor
made our lives exciting.  
Like an ocean of wine
one drinks within a dream
full of memories,
capturing all
we have been fighting.

Reality seems to lie inside
everything I forget
about loving you
when it blends inside my heart
then hides.
And I can't tell
what is black or white
each time you walk away
and leave me feeling
only........
gray inside.

The trees stood there amassed,
huddled like a tribe on the edge side.

Facing towards the water,
they looked forlorn,
as if they had just sent a burial out to sea.

all my stop signs
     are draped with pearl necklaces
and my headlights
     caress wounded kittens
i am the dunce
     carusading thru the blues
the moon is emblazoned
     with indignation over
crowds of unemployed people

(nodody notices the white elephant)
     stealing
the hacksaw, the cookies, and all the money
     i saved for a haircut
all in all, a ***** is
     hitchhiking toward a pontiac
in the desperate desert sun
     counting
his thumbs with a switchblade


"anything temporary can be used for money reasons"

If Polyhymnia could be
a winter afternoon’s great beauty,
or night, as it fills the moon’s girth
with still translucence restored from earth…

If Polyhymnia could be like the sleigh
we got for last year’s Christmas day,
not so  hot for winter’s snow,  but good once spring’s
trapeze and high wire act started up…

If Polyhymnia could be a spider moved
up from creation’s mold to sewing skirts
for dandelions… Polyhymnia, who likes shedding gowns
for scales, who never sings, who never clowns,

who never tempts the winter’s night with a serenade—
Polyhymnia, disinterested, disinterred, delayed.

© Jim Kleinhenz

Her name’s Jane I think
said Jupp

standing beside you
in the school hall

as the ******* the school bus
went by with a slow walk

carrying a bag
over her shoulder

and her dark hair
flowing down her back

anyway he added
how are you getting on

with that maths work
chisel face gave us?

You watched
until she disappeared

into a crowd of other
girls and boys

like watching
the sun go down

on a fine summer’s day
and entering

a dull night
huh? Said Jupp

how you coping
with the **** maths?

All Greek to me
you said

carrying the image
of the girl off with you

as Jupp and you
made your way

along the corridor
to double metalwork

and this metalwork
Jupp moaned

it really ****** me off
what do I care

about making
a frigging tea caddy spoon?

And passing by
a print on the wall

of some Manet dame
you thought

how you’d love
to have a print

of the girl
to carry about

or have pinned
to your bedroom wall

at home
huh? Said Jupp

what’s with spoons?
I’ve no idea

you said
all part

of the brainwash
I guess

and did the girl
move you?

you asked inside
oh yes

oh yes
oh yes.