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23 · May 2020
Love for Dummies
Acme May 2020
The devils in the details.
  The angels in the wings.
  I loved as hard as I could
  but it was never enough.
  I never saw the manual.
  I never understood how.
  The mechanics were easy
  in and out over and over.
  I needed Love for Dummies,
  ******* all I had back then.
22 · Mar 2020
Struggles
Acme Mar 2020
Everybody struggles.
Rich, poor or in between.
Some have everything.
Some have nothing.
We all fight our demons
and suffer in our own hell.
22 · Apr 2020
Old Runner
Acme Apr 2020
I've run a thousand miles at least.
Am I running to or from I wonder?
Am I chasing youth? Do I run from years?
I run from promises I made and I run
to lovers to make more pinky swears.
I'll chase Her until I die in your heart.
22 · Apr 2020
I Killed God
Acme Apr 2020
I killed my God by mistake.
I thought He was all powerful.
He made everything I loved
a sin. My sins piled up so fast.
I thought I could confess fast
and keep the curve flat but it
became a huge mountain
and my guilt buried us both.
22 · May 2020
Where God Hides
Acme May 2020
There's a sliver of time and space
where God hides. He hates fame
and created His hidey hole.
If you saw Him you'd go mad
by His perfection and Godliness.
Let's just say He's everywhere.
22 · Apr 2020
If I Were Sober
Acme Apr 2020
Would you believe my I Love You?
If I made promises to quit ***** and
quit destroying Christmas and the
kid's birthday and our date night
can you ever believe me? I can't.
I'll never be sober again.
Will we ever make love again?
Acme Jul 2020
1970 I hid in a shallow hole
as explosions tore the earth
around me with impunity.
Communists tried to **** me
and I didn't want to die.
I remembered the fireworks
on the Fourth of July when
we first kissed and held hands.
I have come to doubt what
I once held as true. Wars are
never moral and sinners are
never forgiven for their sins.
22 · Feb 2020
Truce?
Acme Feb 2020
We're at war, you and me.
The damage has been severe.
We hate the enemy!
We've forgotten why.
Both sides are even.
Can we call a truce?
When there's a truce, the two sides stop attacking each other, catch their breath, and try to work out a peace deal.
22 · May 2020
Parable
Acme May 2020
The Postman and the *******

He was dependable in all weather.
She was a free spirit yearning for love.
Lost lovers destined to be,
united against all odds.
The take away is this;
Miracles happen every day
to everyone of us but we're
too blind to see them.
21 · Jul 2020
Day to Day
Acme Jul 2020
The night is ending
   the light is bending
   into another day we  
   live as if we planned
   the whole **** thing
   all along but we know
   we're lost in riptides,
   swept up in tornadoes,
   we're dice tossed in a
   drunken frenzy crossed
   fingers and the house
   always wins. Hangovers
   are our mornings and
   a hair of the dog gets
   me to work on time for
   Friday donuts and smiles.
21 · May 2020
Love Song
Acme May 2020
Hold your fingers like claws
on the guitar neck and stroke
her strings so she'll sing your
love song for silent hearts.
21 · Jan 2020
If
Acme Jan 2020
If
If I were a younger me
I'd steal you from your
so called life and show
you how we could live
without the fences. Lust
would be our guide to an
ending we'd always regret.
The wonders we'd know on
the way would be worth it.
Grand kids would never forget.
21 · Mar 2020
Lambs
Acme Mar 2020
We kissed like lovers.
    We kiss like friends.
    What happened to our
    greatest love story?
    Time is our tragedy;
    just lambs to slaughter.
21 · May 2020
Crooked Aisles
Acme May 2020
I walked down crooked aisles
  to promise our broken vows
  then dragged lovers through miles
  of mazes lost in endless ends.
21 · Jan 2020
When I Saw You
Acme Jan 2020
You were a Vision
in a bar with a halo,
gold hair against
a window, angel's
promise to save
me from myself.
I want to see you
as you are now
every single day
that I am living.
Jayne in Rugby's.
21 · Jul 2020
Junkie's Hymn
Acme Jul 2020
Please don't save me from myself
I have my needs and want them.
My shaking hand will write my song
just a ***** with his sharp pen.
The needle holds the promise
of a heaven and an Amen.
20 · Apr 2020
Homesick
Acme Apr 2020
When did my childhood
  disappear? When did I
  really notice girls and
  dress for their glances?

  When did we tie us in knots
  and end with child, married
  and I was crying, homesick
  not quite ready for this?

  At the drive in movie you
  dried my tears. We carried
  on to our cliched future. We
  split not knowing the why.

  Years have let it all play out.
  Many different players yet so
  alike. The parts don't change.
  I'm homesick for everything.
20 · Jan 2020
Scared
Acme Jan 2020
I'm scared I couldn't.
I'm scared I could.
I thought I wouldn't.
Then I finally did.
I followed my heart
and divorced my life.
My lover sets me afire
where we feel it most.
We live modest now.
We eat at home alone
together every night
with black in my soul.
The condo's quiet, no
sons or dogs or her.
Marriage is a minefield but you know where the explosives are buried.
20 · Mar 2020
Engaged
Acme Mar 2020
It's gonna' be a dark lonely
  Sunday alone in Motel 6 with
  the queen who owns my soul.
  We met in the war overseas.
  I brought my darling home.
  She quiets noise, calms nerves,
  fills my empty space awhile.
  We'll marry when I overdose.
20 · Jan 2020
Paradox
Acme Jan 2020
I'm sane and insane.
I'm honest and a liar.
I'm a thief and generous
with things you need.
I love and I hate you
in turns that I can't
understand. I see you
in perfect halo then
your sun blinds me.
I'll never see you again.
20 · May 2020
My Last Poem
Acme May 2020
I was dead all along inside my
chalk outline drawn around my
broke body from 7 floors above
where I wrote my last poem.
20 · May 2020
Surrender
Acme May 2020
I give up. I've tried all my life to find
Love that sweeps me off my feet.
West Side Story Maria and Tony love.
The only thing I find is lust.
It's loves' villain that kills families
and innocence and my hope after all.
19 · May 2020
I Keep Falling in Love
Acme May 2020
I'm a ****** Romantic.
I keep falling in love.
I've been through Love's
terrible pain forever.
I'm 71 but pheromones
spin their magic and I
can't stop wanton desire.
Susan is my target tonight.
19 · Jan 2020
Old Warrior
Acme Jan 2020
Lost love smells of rotting corpses,
  failed battles and the futility of war.
  I wake screaming. I never slept and
  the old grey man in my mirror smiles.
  I think of our magic times. I smell
your perfume. We'll dance in my cups.
19 · May 2020
Seagulls Live Tough Lives
Acme May 2020
They always look torn to shreds
and halfway to dead but never
die. They gather like clouds and
demand attention and food.
They **** on your suit and hair
but pay you no mind at all.
19 · Mar 2020
Uncivil Servants
Acme Mar 2020
Laborers in ties tending computers.
  9th floor and paper airplanes out
  the window. Benny Boo night shift
  games with Joe and Rick and Bill.
  Candy machine our pinata. We clutch
  our essence desperate not to be cogs.
19 · Apr 2020
Love
Acme Apr 2020
It's such a sweet notion after all.
I have an ******* so I'm in love.
I'm jealous so I'm in love.
I'll die if you leave, I'm in love.
You are my breath and heartbeat.
I love love love love love you!
19 · Feb 2020
Wedding Band Blues
Acme Feb 2020
Forever turns out to be a long time.
I devoured you on our wedding night.
You were all I'd ever want to eat again.
Wedding cake got old after a year or so.
Vows so sacred became children's prayers.
We used to always kiss goodnight but
now we sleep in different bedrooms
because I work late and you dream
of a lover you once had who promised
to have and hold 'til death do us part.
18 · Apr 2020
Nobody Believes in Me
18 · Jan 2020
The Butcher's Scale
Acme Jan 2020
As honest as it gets. That scale
gives you your money's worth.
Weigh my love for you. Is it
even? Does your love balance?
Do my tears weigh the same?
Does my misery weigh the same?
Will my suicide move the scale?
Will your tears even it all out?
Love's a slaughterhouse. We
die in chutes always in love.
18 · Jan 2020
What if We Lose Our Love
Acme Jan 2020
It's happened before.
I've fallen in love a million
times and the fire always
dies on beds of boredom.
I want to keep on with it
but I can't fake an *******.
18 · May 2020
Silence
Acme May 2020
I heard you in the distance calling
   to your lover. I'm always so jealous.
   Call me. I'll be whatever you want.
   Silence so loud it breaks my heart.
   I've never heard silence like this.
   I hear silence only the dead hear.
17 · May 2020
Scarlet Letter
Acme May 2020
I wear it proudly on my breast.
Shame the hell out of me if you must.
I scratch my words on your own stains.
I write my poems on your forgiven sins.
17 · Feb 2020
Shhhh.
Acme Feb 2020
Bury truth in the backyard in
the shade of the Deceit tree.
Be careful not to disturb the
skeletons in the closet.
All families have secrets.
Forget the abortions.
Change the wedding date so
she arrived 9 months later.
Uncle Ed never killed a man
and overdosed in a crack house.
17 · May 2020
Heroin
Acme May 2020
She was my most demanding.
  Claws always at my throat for
  attention. She ****** me into
  real dreams. I needed that *****.
Mother's milk and first ****
but always the final shot.
15 · Apr 2020
House of Mirrors
Acme Apr 2020
I wake each day in a house of mirrors.
I stand inside a different me.
I see me leaving a wife
who begs me to love her
for the kid's sake. I can't.
I want a mirror to fool me.
I see my kind friend Joe
who always saw the good
and was killed picking up
a hitchhiker after all.
I want a mirror to fool me.
I see my father still wet
behind the ears flying
a bomber in a war as a pawn
for them who don't care.
I want a mirror to fool me.
I see my cousin with ancient
broken heart, the wound
that never heals, choose
slow suicide by *****.
I want a mirror to fool me.
I see a man who doesn't
know how to love a wife
no matter how many times
he tries. He writes poems.
I want a mirror to fool him.
14 · May 2020
The Day a Poet Dies
Acme May 2020
The letter comes in the mail you've
been waiting your whole life for.
We want to publish your collection
of poetry you submitted and you'll
be famous and the toast of towns.
Women will swoon and you can
be as drunk as you want and
misbehave. You're celebrated.
14 · May 2020
My Loved One Died
Acme May 2020
I'm Okay and all of that.
It was only me that died.
Easier than I expected.
I feel for those poor souls
at my funeral shedding
tears and praying for me.

— The End —