all these people are trapped on the A train
they look half dead
maybe from the jobs they came from
or the subway
or the lives they’re heading home to
trapped head to toenail
but like all animals in captivity
open the cage door
pull them out
and they’ll hop right back in the cage
and call themselves happy

you think anyone was looking
out the window of the World Trade Center
9/11, 9:03 am?
she’d see a mammoth jet
zooming directly at her
becoming colossal in a split second
and she wouldn’t believe it
until she did

judgmental and uninformed
as enticing as bad teeth
but i would be too polite to point this out

we live in a world we do not understand
we navigate the surface
the superficial layer
without a clue as to what lies beneath
doesn’t slow us down much

just got a $1.11/hr raise
the rich get richer!

what’s happening in the Ukraine seems clear to us
but not to much of the world
World War I started because of a global chess game
hard to fathom from today’s perspective
if there are any survivors in the future
they’ll be scratching their heads
about why China/Russia and America
decimated the planet with World War III

biking to work at 5 a.m. on sunday morning
i see some malevolent ***** on saturday night
has dragged the sign YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS
from the sidewalk to the middle of the road
what was going through this idiot's mind?
"this is gonna be epic
have another beer and let's wait for the crash"
i drag the heavy base and flattened sign
back to the sidewalk
someone did indeed smash into it
but it's still dangerous
if that ******* had half a brain
he'd have seen that the only way to avoid the sign
would be to swerve head-on into the opposite lane
but maybe i'm mistaken about his motivation
maybe that was the point
maybe a car hadn't yielded to this pedestrian
and this is his revenge
"**** the world
starting with the ******* in this car
and all cars"

what happened?
what will happen?
where are we really?
and the why is a lost cause
why does that man have only one arm?
we will never know
we’re sunk in a swamp of boundless mystery
but we’re rolling fine without any answers
it effects the price of beer
but we’re gonna pay it anyway

he held a bullet next to his chest with his left hand
with his right he smashed it with a hammer
which is why he’s missing *******
he still has a chest and beating heart though
and glistening red toenails
this fellow does things his way

regarding Plato’s Ring of Invisibility

what could be ventured with invisibility?
Plato ponders filthy ***…  unbridled thievery…
well i tell you
when i think about invisibility
i say i’m already there
as are we all
i’ve got my body
which hardly instigates much commotion
but my thoughts are unseen
ulterior, inscrutable, out of sight
buried in a concrete bunker
i’m a secret agent on a secret mission
which keeps me busy far beyond thievery

this morning in the ER i met a large fella
who jumped out a second story window
escaping his girlfriend and her knife
he landed on his feet
unfortunately for his feet
dude should have cleaned the cat box

gotta give it to the New York Times
every week they blindside you
with a new apocalyptic scenario
that you had no idea existed
when armageddon arrives
the only mystery will be which way we’ll respond
"didn’t see that one coming"
or "we knew but didn’t do anything about it"

ginger is the star of these movies
fred is a special effect

the patient is quadriplegic
he has epilepsy, cerebral palsy
seizures, chronic aspiration
and he's blind
but mom has it down
she's always been on top of it
from day one (24 years ago)
why mom isn't running the world
instead of these evil bozos is beyond me

i live for music
but it’s undeniable
music is manipulation
roll over beethoven
roll over taylor swift
"i want to move people"
uh huh
move them to do what?
spend a few bucks?
worship you?
but i'm not talking to you
jeff beck
the man just wanted to play guitar
and **** did he

started three 12-hour shifts in a row
the hospital is home for the next three days
my actual house is now a hotel
sympathetic wife, cozy cats, comfy bed
but my interest and energy
my life force is here
it's a weird freedom
no one cares what i think or say
or even do
decent food, the soups are good
thrills and spills, dueling with disease
juggling the maladies of the patients
trying to make a dent in their suffering
smoking females underfoot
flashing eyes above masks
snug scrubs showcasing enticing rumps
fantasies on every floor
ahhh, the days of a healer
home again

as i play with the building blocks
of my perceptions and conclusions—
of course i’m an existentialist
i didn’t make the road
but i’m in the driver’s seat

gotta keep my eye on the ball
the big picture
i helped a bunch of folks to breathe
probably helped a couple to live
at least for one more day
so i worked too hard and long for a shift
no choice, boo-hoo
my skills were sharp
and my back was strong
i was worthy

a couple of homicide detectives
just showed up for my patient
his daughter shot him
he can't get an MRI
due to fragments from a previous gunshot
i wonder who shot him that time?
his mom?

today i'm in the ER
trying to treat an 89 year old woman
babbling in an obscure urdu dialect
that baffles her translator
her grandson found her so annoying
he locked her outside last night
in zero degree weather
first pushing her down
giving her a subdural hematoma
well, she is kind of annoying

the 85 year old man only fell down three steps
but he fractured everything and has a brain bleed
either he spends the rest of his life in pain and immobility
or there’s not much left of that life
either way
it all over for him

shootings, stabbings, drunken beatings
car accidents, covid, RSV
all in the last day and a half
gotta love working the holidays
in the emergency room
oh and here's a cardiac arrest
** ** **

it's very clear that i am the genius of me
it's also quite obvious that my uncanny insights
do not extend to anyone else

when i was a kid
i wondered what it would be like to be 40
now i can't remember being 40
i STILL don't know what it's like

drop a sock at 4:30 in the morning
soft landing, no damage
my wife sleeps on undisturbed

i’m suddenly in a ****** up situation
the patient is brought in tripping
the word is he took peytote
stopped his car, got out and proclaimed himself god
now he resides in the ER
he’d been tied to the cot but his nurse let him loose
"there’s no doctor’s order, i can’t restrain him"
strict regulations
he crawls out of bed and wobbles unsteadily down the hall
i get in front of him to block and redirect
but he’s not going for it
which puts me in an uncool position
he could start swinging on me
and he’s a big fella in good shape
if i respond he could fall and hurt himself
either way, i’m *******
i push him back into his crib
and strap him up anyway
a nurse who knows what she’s doing
says she’ll get a doctor’s order for restraints
once in bed, the guy is docile
"you want some ******?" he offers politely
"no thanks," i say
"i’m working"

admiring of the ladies
cordial to the fellas
dismissive of the management
indifferent to the work
on line for the coffee

what the world chooses
to reveal about itself
to any individual
is highly selective
idiosyncratic
you might call it a tease

if you decide to only worry
about things you can change
and when you analyze it
that’s not much
your worries shrink drastically
goodbye weather
goodbye world news
goodbye *******
goodbye fate

i can't say i've had infinite pleasure
but i've had pleasure an infinite number of times
and it does add up

the problem with aging
is that most things
that were inspiring in youth
are not relevant anymore
and the things that are relevant
are not very inspiring
pop music, for instance
yuengling, nursing students
jumping off a bridge
to reach the honkytonk downriver
they've lost their torque
gears are slipping in every direction
mayhem and pandemonium lose their spark
when they're not a choice
but an inevitability

she does the crossword puzzle
with such skill and intensity
it MUST cross over to other dimensions
she’s saving countless lives
on some transfigured planet
she has to be

john cougar mellencamp
jettisoned “cougar” long ago
it served its purpose
now it’s up for grabs
beyonce cougar knowles
mark cougar zuckerburg
donald cougar trump
the ***** cougar poet

you know what i like about the Atlantic Monthly?
many Important Articles on Important Subjects
when i read it, i'm Important

your bad habit is a problem
only if it's a problem

five minutes into our morning shift
in the emergency room
we get a fella gunshot to the chest
it might be 7:05 am sunday morning
but it's still saturday night around here

express yourself, write what you want
god knows i do
but if you have no talent
and want me to pay attention
show some wit or humor
and you know what?
that’s true even if you do have talent

she was SUNNY FLOWER
a happy ukranian four year old
she had down syndrome, just learned to speak
she loved to push her own carriage after school
through the park, next to her mom
mr. putin
why did you guide your missile
to that beautiful little girl with her winsome smile?
why did you mince her to jelly?
don't you think
you should cut your own ******* throat
in penance?

gastrointestinal doctors
must be appalled by the **** people eat
the ludicrous cuisine of fast food
they witness the cataclysmic consequences
which they’re supposed to clean up
it’s like filling your car’s gas tank
with cat litter, seaweed and yoo-hoo
and expecting a smooth ride

make no mistake
this is a country
where men blow the heads off little children
beyond their parents’ recognition
where republicans will not allow democrats
to win an election
where we haplessly strangle the environment
to a breathless end
make no mistake
it all means something
but what--
besides the obvious?

the way we look is window dressing
a distraction to others and ourselves
not our bodies – they ARE us
but the way we APPEAR
****** blondes do it for me
but you can’t base a philosophical system
on a great set of ****
though you might be tempted

i could have been this, but i'm not
i could have done that, but i didn't
tantalizing, torturous thoughts
and complete baloney
you can only be what you are
you can only do what you did
all detours and dead ends
are built into that one highway
you ride

i work in a hospital
throwing all my resources
into keeping a 97-year-old breathing
the next dweeb brings an assault rifle
into a texas school
and murders nineteen 4th graders
as far as i know we have free will
but maybe not
maybe that’s an irrelevant illusion
maybe we’re drones
on a battleground of karma
programmed by generals
we might call good and evil
though maybe that’s just as irrelevant

mom, dad and Uncle Money
he's YOUR uncle because it's THEIR money
now in later years he's a bully
a fairy godmother, an annoying obsession
he obliterates imagination
you wanna love him but you can't trust him
he's here, he's gone, he's up for a good time
even while kicking your feet out from under you
and he always has a better argument
doesn't know the cool tunes but he plays the hits
Uncle Money gets all the ladies, in the end
he paints a binary picture, in a bad way
but he forever gets his *** kicked by Grannie Luck

i'm my best audience
engaged, attentive to nuance
amused by my dry wit
dazzled by my intellect
astounded by my intuition
i am entertained!

if you can walk away
nothing happened

while cause and effect is inviolable
there is no beginning
there was always before

as i walked down the hall to the cafeteria
at the hospital where i work
it hit me
i will NEVER get what i want
i had a big laugh
and got a cheeseburger with extra pickles

let's see
russians annihilating ukranians for no reason
china supporting them for cynical advantage
india itching to massacre its muslims
republicans dismantling the electoral process
while their paranoid millions load up
a mass shooting in the pittsburgh north side
another ***** acts out in the NY subway
with smoke bombs and bullets
the devil visits an elementary school in texas
one fifth of reptiles are about to disappear
goodbye birds and bees
the environment disintegrates
and we crank up the heat

it's speeding
accelerating
you can taste it
the fever is peaking
exhilarating
detonation is imminent

he’s so sharp
and gets everything wrong
like a superb computer
without enough information
for its calculation