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Steve Matthews Sep 2022
Vet
He survived the firefights
and near misses,
so many that his brothers-in-arms
thought he was charmed,
invisible to Death

Came home after
his third and final tour
and died with a gun in his mouth
Steve Matthews Sep 2022
In this one, the psychopath isn't Hannibal Lechter,
instead he's intellectually challenged.
But that doesn't stop him from causing mayhem.

Feel free to go with it.
Steve Matthews Sep 2022
It's an event and you're fully invested:
the gala at the museum,
the marquee match-up at the arena,
opening night at the theater.

You circle the date on the calendar.
You buy tickets close to the action.
You listen to commentary.
You cheer and follow along.
Yes, you're fully invested.

Just don't look away.
If you do, you'll realize,
it's already over.
Steve Matthews Sep 2022
Just double the regular price,
slap on a Fifty Percent off sticker
and call it even. Hah!
Steve Matthews Aug 2022
What do I know about horses?
What do I know about the female point of view?
What do I know about how mathmaticians think?

What do I know about Quantum Mechanics?
What do I know about the Appalachian Trail?
What do I know about a mother's rage?

"Write what you know," advises the manual.
Okay.

So let's forget about the horses.
And the article on Reverse Transcription.
Oh what the heck!
Let's just forget about the poem altogether.

Forget it.
Steve Matthews Aug 2022
I said, "it's not that I'm lazy,
it's that I don't like work."

He said, "it's not that I don't
like work, it's that I'm lazy."

We pondered that
for a while, then decided it was
a "po-tay-to/po-tah-to" type of thing.

So we shook hands,
wished each other well,
and went our separate ways.
Steve Matthews Aug 2022
So, yeah, Lear
had three lovely daughters . . .

And, yes indeed, Ahab
was obsessed with a white whale . . .

And, sure enough, Scheherazade
feared for her life . . .

And, uh-huh, Lucifer tried
to stage a revolt . . .

And so it goes,
mixing the sacred and profane,
the sublime and mundane,
in prose both fancy and plain.

Offered up to you, the listener,
the reader, the consumer

by various authors
with their various agendas

"Friend, lend me your eyes,
your ears, your undivided attention,"
they implore

It's up to you whether
to accept the invitation or not
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