Cold beds hot hearts
neglected garden dies
Hot hearts hot beds
Eden's garden thrives.

I swear broken promises for
entry to your secret garden
I stab your heart once more
and once again beg pardon.

Born into baffling worlds
With double edged swords
Marching from birth to death
Fighting life to the final breath.

I'd nail my madness to the tracks going West
   seeking freedom wearing a Dandy's NY vest.
   How long can we endure the vastest unknown?
   **** Indians and Buffalo and bury us in stone.

We are never prepared
  shock of wrinkled grey
  House of mirrors distorts
  Roger Bacon has been
  lurking in my shadows
  scared I'll be the next
  in the arms of Christ
  on the list of the dead.
  We just got used to us
  for blood and screams
  old men chasing dreams
  live beyond their means
  bursting at their seams
  play their monkey schemes
  nothing is as it seems.
 Life comes and goes
  lurking in shadows.

My first fantasy was a Vargas print
of a brunette in stockings and a garter belt.
She kept me at attention for a year or two
and I still see her at 72 and miss her.
Pantyhose killed a world of lust.
We hate you Allen E. Gant Sr.

We've all gone crazy lately.
I don't wear a tie or cut my hair.
I smoked some hash and lost my
mind a little bit. Save me from
a world I don't recognize anymore.
I dress like a clown and eat drugs
to keep me up and down and level.
Friends are straight or hippies each
seeking their very own Nirvana.
I walk a tightrope above madness.

We grow old in love
fall apart with age
I'm a broken dove
turn the final page.

Naked burned in my memory
I draw your beauty perfectly.
You ask if I would stay Sunday
Times crossword we will play.
Wake Monday sleet grey day.
Cash only when I leave to pay.

Sometimes people
spend their adult hood
getting over their youth
children treated wood.

I misled you from the start.
I adored your kind heart
and your weaker knees
spread apart to please.
We made our Love baby
no if and or maybe.
25 years we downsize
sleep alone realize
these rooms don't fit
sleep in a bed unlit.

I'm insecure
bad boy unsure
born broken
first son token
Dad a war hero
speed freak curio
temper short fuse
love hate confuse
minefield stroll
security was stole.

Time warps are real
God cheats, will steal
minutes become hours
night's stolen stars.
We live in sideshows
freaks nobody knows
the rules to follow.
It all seems shallow.
It's right or wrong.
It's weak or strong.
all crooked rhyme
warped bent time.

Where can I set my pain fears
so as not to upset an apple cart?
I ran away in desperate tears
bleeding out from the start.
6 Alcott Lane disappears
the homecoming heart.

My life is not a page
full of pretty poetry
more like fire of rage
Hiroshima imagery
molten hearts boiled tears
flowers were never grown
countless wasted years
lives were never known.

I will write my first song
play guitar chords along
sing it to myself with beer
in fogged bathroom mirror.

Pristine saints threaten
fingers crossed again
scout's honor weapon
slingshot to the shin.

I've lost 3 wedding rings
frantic looking for last one.
Love is chains lost things.
Wars fought hope we won.
Loveless marriage thorn
so bored with repetition
routine is just forlorn
slaves to tradition.

Keep the killer afloat above
targets through black flack
avoid the deadly white dove
promises never going back.

A carny biography
of ******* photography
married Aunt Glenny
his shiny lucky penny
beauty thin as a rail
hard as a track nail.

Winds of change
always blowing
breathing strange
never knowing
what tomorrow
will finally bring
joy or sorrow
songbirds sing!

With war painted eyes
weapons between thighs
in Boston's combat zone
tempting men all alone
smell the pungent bait
pay the fee for no wait
you always want it pure
no promise nothing sure
no heartache to endure
kiss a wife at the door.

We fell in love
for our ****
anger and dove
hope better luck.
Naked in fields
of summer gold
thunder builds
clouds get bold.
Lightning strikes
nothing but ash
left of love's likes
left in the trash.

I'm 75
still alive
beat the odds
defied the gods.
My libido dead
wet the bed
depends instead
Keep your head.

Hold the present now
it will be precious.
Hug it, and taste it.
Remember it delicious.

Falling in love is easy.
Riding a carousel in
the bed together until
full moon and fireworks
a wedding and a baby
and bills and we get fat
and forget how to laugh.
We want to make love or
even **** but these tired
beasts of burdens forget.
I need Aphrodite.
You need Hercules.

What kind of dust
will my remains be?
What worms taste
in my funeral waste.
Humorous and kind
angry and cruel blind.
Hedonist pleasure
my ultimate treasure.

Please just make
Hello Poetry
kid friendly.
Better for you
and for me.
The heck with
Chuck Bukowski,
Ginsberg's Howl.

Can we pour tears on the page?
  Paint war's horrors in poetry?
  Draw portraits with words?
  Make you feel love? First kiss?
  Broken heart? Pet's death?
  Parent's divorce split in two?
  Anguish of love in back seats?
  Can we poets make you feel it?
Life's butchers pacing beats
always end up eating ****.

I'm a blind man without a sun.
We live in different mirrors.
You have light for everyone.
I live life that never appears.

Stalling is my only move.
We'll really live tomorrow.
One more chance to prove
one more chance to borrow.
Promise to pay my bar tab
with an IOU of pure sorrow.

The thirst never leaves
feed me sate me please.
You brought temptation
a paper bag invitation.
My throat is dry dust
promises die in trust.

Keep laughing
you never cried
at my dancing
all I did was died.
My soul is prancing
pearly gates pride.

It was an antiseptic space. The doctor said
   something I couldn't quite hear because loud
   seconds echoed from recent life I lived instead
   and the waiting room had an infested crowd.

   I heard stage 4, in your blood, invading your
   entire body, maybe 3 months. The noise shone
   louder. Each tick became a bomb in a war zone.
   Deafening. I thanked her and shuffled home.

   My girl just turned 2. Collateral damage.
   What god does this to my wife and our baby?
   I'm smaller each day disappearing in young age
   I smile air kisses goodbye to my fading family.

My libido was off the charts
with Striptease dancer's arts.
15, last row tiny women dance
tempting with teased romance
sweating in worn broken row
they pop balloons and I know
I swear I saw her tattoo thigh,
one more drink staying high,
one more pull from my flask.
Just one last question to ask.

Strip our beds
of all the sheets.
Wash wet dreams
off the ***** streets.
Sleep on warm grates
wrapped in old news
sleep in a needle waits
dream death's blues.

We haven't spoken
since one of us died,
old bonds broken.
The other one cried.

You weren't seen
in my blind spot
too old so young
perfect ink blot
no trouble at all
self absorbed dad
in and out of love
edge of mind mad.
I forgot to care
for the tattered
broken Daughter
always mattered.

I am kind.
  I am cruel.
  I am loved
  and a fool.
  I am guilty.
  I am free.
  You'll find me
  suffering in
Cincinnati,
Ohio.

Spring

We fall in love
fist in glove
a God above
birthing dove.

Summer

Build our nest
for our blessed
birth a ****** mess
she survives distress.

Autumn

Princess on a carousel
Loves knight foretell
parts heaven and hell
down the wishing well.

    Winter

Old bones always ache
cold as hell, a snake
as I die my soul take
to hell, no mistake.

She made me a scarf.
It was Ireland green
France Fleur de lis blue
Germany's sunset red.
She worries about me like
a treasure in her heart
where I feel most at home,
that will be lost someday.

Hospice room's machines
a healthy noise harmony
song of the Opera queens
perfect pitch is the irony.

The end is always near
morphine drip constants
dreams of lovers so dear
death gets what it wants.

The final absolute end
with her infinity reach.
Flowers mourners send
Hymn a buzzard screech.

I stare into my bloodshot eyes.
I count the stains of long goodbyes.
Forgive my sins rosary bead lies.
Let her sleep or the baby cries.

Adolf ****** loved the Jew
Charlie Chaplain. Who knew?
His mustache proudly wore,
he woke the sleeping world.
Allies bombed his bed
suicide with Eva dead.

Somewhere in space time
inside couplets and rhyme.
Naked inside Georgine
New Jersey *** machine
another angel from hell
helps me break a spell.

Mommy works a waitress
I quit my job proud protest.
We walk barefoot to dive bar
a gallon jug to fill with beer.
We watch The Point on TV.
We three just wander free.
Mommy cries real tears
frightened by real fears.

I was 5
insecure
living
not sure
dad was
war torn
bomber
reborn
in flak
no way back.
PTSD
what it be
a misery
die me free
if only
it'd be.

Just leaking sin
my broken skin
a hundred *****
a couple of stunts.
Saturday confession
I never learn a lesson.
I'll try again Saturday
in hayloft get my way.
Linda Hotze  please,
give me your cheese.

You'd never believe what I saw.
Staring into the gaping maw
I saw Rusty's puppy paw
took him in my heart raw.
He died on the 4th of July
bombs exploding in the sky
I held him tight and knew,
it broke our hearts in two.

Eugene O'Neill


  Haunted stern looking playwright.
  Should've married Zelda Fitzgerald.
  Ghosts on the sands of Province town
  looking beautiful in black and white.

  Snapshots define them for generations.
  Always slim and bashful for cameras.
  I have always been the iceman in cold
  shadows of my earthly greedy nations.