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"trucks" poems
Burning fuel but not to leave, boys circled town, came back to the station where they began. Gas exhaust drifted like spirits above asphalt, dissolving in the night. Girls stayed in the lot, waiting for men old enough to buy liquor, their names claiming the land- long after other names lay buried in the ground. They kept to the faces, legs folded on hoods, lip gloss catching the station lights, bracelets chiming, hair flips rehearsed, laughing at trucks circling back. They wanted to be chosen, and I tried to want that too- tried to be a girl among girls, waiting for the moment some hand would tug me out of the circle. But my eyes kept straying- across the street, to the rise that was not just dirt but a chest under earth, ribs shifting, a hum curling into my throat. Something skeletal in its patience, as if Baykok himself were sharpening arrows in the dark, waiting for breath to break. Built long before us by Ojibwe, still honored as sacred ground. The others smoked, struck sparks, sequins spilling from careless wrists, never thinking how easily flame might travel down, through us, into what we couldn’t see. I could hear bones shifting, a buried drumbeat, the land’s own warning. Every glance of the mound pulled me back into silence. It told me what the others didn’t want to know- that all this circling, waiting, was only the lid of a grave.
0
Oct 3, 2025
Oct 3, 2025 at 12:02 AM UTC
Tumulus
Born to a body I do not know formative years spent in ignorance crashing trucks together, hot wheels running them off the curb outside with my best friend He is distant now same classes, same neighborhood lives spent together running through fields and muddy waters on rainy days my friend Familiar friend reaches for my hand he kisses it, wet lips leaving trails of hope a life spent apart running through absent moments, a blissful craze does he know me? He holds me close, hands on my cheek he kisses my lips, leaving a fire inside of me a life come around recognition a threat to a blissful moment he knows me… …and kisses me again
0
Jun 13, 2015
Jun 13, 2015 at 7:32 PM UTC
Transgender: A Love Story
Another Day Another dollar That's what I get For, I'm blue collar Working hard For all the bosses Sitting upstairs In the office Grab a coffee On the way do the same stuff every day nothing changes It's routine That's the way It's always been I am just a working man Doing the best job that I can Nine to Five, or Eight to Four Do my eight and out  the door Loading trucks to hit the road Get 'em out with a full load Doing just the best I can I am just a working man Twenty minutes and two breaks That is all The time I take Sneak a smoke When I can This is the life Of a working man Old and rusted two tone truck Always busted Just my luck Working hard To make a dollar It's the lot of a blue collar I am just a working man Doing the best job that I can Nine to Five, or Eight to Four Do my eight and out  the door Loading trucks to hit the road Get 'em out with a full load Doing just the best I can I am just a working man
0
Sep 13, 2015
Sep 13, 2015 at 4:54 PM UTC
Working Man
It was the time of my Auntie Bee summers    I was small then    She had a parakeet that landed on my head    and a bathtub too    with water so deep!    and legs and claws!    **** thing nearly chased me down the stairs! She lived in slumbery Windsor Locks    where bugs hung-out in the haze    of teenage August    I played in the tall weeds    with a shoeless Italian boy    who ate tomatoes like apples    and cucumbers right off the vine!    He was ***** free and foreign!    We played— reckless, abandoned    behind the gas pump, under the tractor, in the barn       and through the endless fields    I didn’t know....    His name was Tony    I ate pizza with him—the first time At Auntie Bee’s I had to go to bed at eight    but I could watch night flowers    bloom on wallpaper    She came in to say good night    slippered, shadowy, night dress slightly open    and I peeped her *******    like Tony’s cucumbers!    I had never seen my mother’s wonders.... Night spread its wings from the old fan—    a bird of tireless exhaustion    whipped, whipped, whipped to death in its cage    tireless exhaustion    tic-tocking in time to a wind-up clock    stretched out on the whine    of the overland trucks    Route Five through the night of an open window In the grape arbor below— tremulous incessant    crickets    crickets    crickets tremulous incessant—insides of a child    a summer child    not yet ready for the fall of answers Auntie Bee had a daughter—Maureen    I followed her everywhere I could    I was small then--        do anything for a stick of Juicy Fruit I followed Maureen through my dreams    of being sixteen    and woke to Peggy’s “Fever”    while she tied her sneakers    against the mattress by my head I followed Maureen (in my mind)    tanned and bandanned    to work in the fields of shade tobacco    with all those Puerto Rican boys!    She knew where she was going! I was small then ...do anything for a stick of  gum “Mauney! Mauney! Mauney!”    ...through the goldenrod of roadside    through the smell of oil that damped the dust     I followed Maureen’s white shorts    and chestnut hair...to the corner store I followed the way the boys smiled    the way the screen door slammed    on her bright behind    the way her lips taunted and took    the coke-bottle’s green I followed Maureen I swear, I tried for hours to get that right! Must have been Peggy Lee’s “Fever” Maureen ties her sneakers in my face Flaunts her years above my head She has that look— “We kids don’t know nothin” (Little turds” that we be) …followin’ Maureen through the goldenrod of roadside tic-tockin’, beboppin’ “Fever— in the morning Fever all through the night….”
0
Aug 24, 2016
Aug 24, 2016 at 11:30 PM UTC
I Follow Maureen
It was the time of my Auntie Bee summers    I was small then    She had a parakeet that landed on my head    and a bathtub too    with water so deep!    and legs and claws!    **** thing nearly chased me down the stairs! She lived in slumbery Windsor Locks    where bugs hung-out in the haze    of teenage August    I played in the tall weeds    with a shoeless Italian boy    who ate tomatoes like apples    and cucumbers right off the vine!    He was ***** free and foreign!    We played— reckless, abandoned    behind the gas pump, under the tractor, in the barn       and through the endless fields    I didn’t know....    His name was Tony    I ate pizza with him—the first time At Auntie Bee’s I had to go to bed at eight    but I could watch night flowers    bloom on wallpaper    She came in to say good night    slippered, shadowy, night dress slightly open    and I peeped her *******    like Tony’s cucumbers!    I had never seen my mother’s wonders.... Night spread its wings from the old fan—    a bird of tireless exhaustion    whipped, whipped, whipped to death in its cage    tireless exhaustion    tic-tocking in time to a wind-up clock    stretched out on the whine    of the overland trucks    Route Five through the night of an open window In the grape arbor below— tremulous incessant    crickets    crickets    crickets tremulous incessant—insides of a child    a summer child    not yet ready for the fall of answers Auntie Bee had a daughter—Maureen    I followed her everywhere I could    I was small then--        do anything for a stick of Juicy Fruit I followed Maureen through my dreams    of being sixteen    and woke to Peggy’s “Fever”    while she tied her sneakers    against the mattress by my head I followed Maureen (in my mind)    tanned and bandanned    to work in the fields of shade tobacco    with all those Puerto Rican boys!    She knew where she was going! I was small then ...do anything for a stick of  gum “Mauney! Mauney! Mauney!”    ...through the goldenrod of roadside    through the smell of oil that damped the dust     I followed Maureen’s white shorts    and chestnut hair...to the corner store I followed the way the boys smiled    the way the screen door slammed    on her bright behind    the way her lips taunted and took    the coke-bottle’s green I followed Maureen I swear, I tried for hours to get that right! Must have been Peggy Lee’s “Fever” Maureen ties her sneakers in my face Flaunts her years above my head She has that look— “We kids don’t know nothin” (Little turds” that we be) …followin’ Maureen through the goldenrod of roadside tic-tockin’, beboppin’ “Fever— in the morning Fever all through the night….”
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82
Time: 7:30 pm Temp.: 68F ~~~ overlooking the runways, festooned by accidental heavenly whimsy, or humanistic whimsical inten-sity, all the the planes and trucks are flashing electrifying speckles, of eclectically synced red and green it is not my holiday, but no matter, like every New Yorker this day, I am happily celebrating its double U, unique, unusual "record breaking warmth" yes, the Fahrenheit is outtasight, and by the dawn of early eve~night, the Centigrade is spiraling in reverse retrograde, as the temp eases on down, just below seventy degrees, on this dewinterized twenty fourth day of December, two nought and fifteen traffic is light, the terminal, an unbusy, slim shadow of itself, the maddening crowds gone, now all are among the dearly departed and either/or, the newly arrived so composition of the observational, brings cheer and smiles to my faith, (I mean my face), the crowning quietude of clear skies, the absence of street smart city  bustle and hustle, the languid atmosphere at the gates, (where seldom is heard an encouraging word)# makes me reconsider the true meaning of the au courant phraseology of this day "record breaking warmth" for there is indeed a calm invisible warmth suffusing all tonite, chests glowing from fireplaces within, contentment chamber containers in both hearth and heart, and I am thinking miracle, about all the human warmth on this celebrated evening, holy night indeed, it is breaking records of recorded human fusion, the united commonality of millions warming his and her stories world-over, that your personal poet is warming to record
0
Dec 24, 2015
Dec 24, 2015 at 8:21 PM UTC
Christmas Eve, 2015, LaGuardia Airport, NYC
Time: 7:30 pm Temp.: 68F ~~~ overlooking the runways, festooned by accidental heavenly whimsy, or humanistic whimsical inten-sity, all the the planes and trucks are flashing electrifying speckles, of eclectically synced red and green it is not my holiday, but no matter, like every New Yorker this day, I am happily celebrating its double U, unique, unusual "record breaking warmth" yes, the Fahrenheit is outtasight, and by the dawn of early eve~night, the Centigrade is spiraling in reverse retrograde, as the temp eases on down, just below seventy degrees, on this dewinterized twenty fourth day of December, two nought and fifteen traffic is light, the terminal, an unbusy, slim shadow of itself, the maddening crowds gone, now all are among the dearly departed and either/or, the newly arrived so composition of the observational, brings cheer and smiles to my faith, (I mean my face), the crowning quietude of clear skies, the absence of street smart city  bustle and hustle, the languid atmosphere at the gates, (where seldom is heard an encouraging word)# makes me reconsider the true meaning of the au courant phraseology of this day "record breaking warmth" for there is indeed a calm invisible warmth suffusing all tonite, chests glowing from fireplaces within, contentment chamber containers in both hearth and heart, and I am thinking miracle, about all the human warmth on this celebrated evening, holy night indeed, it is breaking records of recorded human fusion, the united commonality of millions warming his and her stories world-over, that your personal poet is warming to record
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51
Manila, Manila, Your bustling streets vibrate with the rumbling of the jeepneys and the hollers of the drivers as they say, “Pasahero diyan, kasya pa, kasya pa!”; (Any passenger there, some seats are still free!) Your nights twinkle with the Christmas lights that surround every tree around the Meralco building when September begins; Your endless traffic jams keep McDonald’s and KFC alive twenty-four by seven where traffic enforcers dodge cars and vans trucks and tricycles and jeepneys and bicycles while dancing to the rhythm beating in their own ears with a smile and a salute to all the drivers from dawn to dusk; The noise awakens the outskirts of your city filled with people who never fails to smile even when the storm pirouettes like a tempestuous ballerina, where children watch the roads transform into this ocean of black water and small wooden boats become the means of transportation; paddling in between houses as the adults try to go to work; where chickens waddling upon roofs and cats chasing rats become the best forms of entertainment but Manila, your lingering smell of cancer comes with the dark blue starless sky telling people to grip their bags until it merges with their bodies. Manila, say good night while they hold it tight protecting it from the dark humid air where thieves come out to thumb down unscrutinised objects from shallow pockets by the flickering lamps across the blazing red and emerald green lights you see less and less and less faces as the Sun sinks and says good bye. Stop and try to tranquilise yourself. Your city is now lead by a blood-thirsty leader. Apologies from gunshots overpower the cries of help from your people. Manila, ignore them and sleep well. Let the truth decay while lives burn and vanish. Prayers cannot save your mutinous ignominy. Halcyon days are over but Manila, you are still a beautiful city. Your resilient people overflows with hospitable hearts. Their faces plastered with big smiles as they welcome us for you and say, “Mabuhay!” (Long live!) proud and mighty. Offering their minds on banana leaf plates to everyone who visits, Giving away their hearts in small loot bags to everyone who leaves, The Pearl of the Orient Seas was my hood. Manila, despite your lack of snow and intense weather swings, You are and will always be my home.
0
Apr 7, 2017
Apr 7, 2017 at 4:54 PM UTC
Pearl of the Orient
Manila, Manila, Your bustling streets vibrate with the rumbling of the jeepneys and the hollers of the drivers as they say, “Pasahero diyan, kasya pa, kasya pa!”; (Any passenger there, some seats are still free!) Your nights twinkle with the Christmas lights that surround every tree around the Meralco building when September begins; Your endless traffic jams keep McDonald’s and KFC alive twenty-four by seven where traffic enforcers dodge cars and vans trucks and tricycles and jeepneys and bicycles while dancing to the rhythm beating in their own ears with a smile and a salute to all the drivers from dawn to dusk; The noise awakens the outskirts of your city filled with people who never fails to smile even when the storm pirouettes like a tempestuous ballerina, where children watch the roads transform into this ocean of black water and small wooden boats become the means of transportation; paddling in between houses as the adults try to go to work; where chickens waddling upon roofs and cats chasing rats become the best forms of entertainment but Manila, your lingering smell of cancer comes with the dark blue starless sky telling people to grip their bags until it merges with their bodies. Manila, say good night while they hold it tight protecting it from the dark humid air where thieves come out to thumb down unscrutinised objects from shallow pockets by the flickering lamps across the blazing red and emerald green lights you see less and less and less faces as the Sun sinks and says good bye. Stop and try to tranquilise yourself. Your city is now lead by a blood-thirsty leader. Apologies from gunshots overpower the cries of help from your people. Manila, ignore them and sleep well. Let the truth decay while lives burn and vanish. Prayers cannot save your mutinous ignominy. Halcyon days are over but Manila, you are still a beautiful city. Your resilient people overflows with hospitable hearts. Their faces plastered with big smiles as they welcome us for you and say, “Mabuhay!” (Long live!) proud and mighty. Offering their minds on banana leaf plates to everyone who visits, Giving away their hearts in small loot bags to everyone who leaves, The Pearl of the Orient Seas was my hood. Manila, despite your lack of snow and intense weather swings, You are and will always be my home.
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76
Once I undertook a journey, upon the very face of our entire world. To view for myself the many pictures, and written descriptions in all the geography books and History Classes, National Geographic magazines and movies seen. A Quest to see with my own eyes what I had only experienced second hand. In my mid twenties, like a dream, one foot in front of the other, I went about exploring. I sniffed and tasted the scents of foreign lands, Incense, Sage and Frankincense, fish curry, fried snake and even monkey brains. Walked in lush Jungle Bush and Desert sands, Along the shores of Islands and the coasts of many lands. Heard the voices of 30 divergent Dialects and cultures, smiling and laughing with the families and children of all of them. Set beside the fires of primitive tribal men, heard their chants to their gods above, the moon, stars and the sun, the ocean, the land. Clapped my hands and moved my feet in their ancient mystic dances. Drank their tea, Kava or whatever they shared grateful for their offered unselfish brotherhood. Stood on the flanks of the tallest Mountains in the world, on my toe tips, to try to see the face of the God of my youthful teachings, disappointed when I did not see him, or Her. Found instead an inner tranquility, imparted to me by Red robbed Monks from within their chants of Peace and wise earthly enlightenments. Strolled the cobbled streets of two thousand year old Cities. Walked among the ruined remnants of nearly forgotten once great Civilizations. Explored Modern European Citadels' of wealth and learning. Over time rode on planes, ships, buses, backs of open trucks, Horse pulled carts and human drawn rickshaws, taxis, subways, rented motorcycles and cars.  Walked perhaps 1000 miles. In all a journey of the mind and heart lasting three years. And why you might ask, "What qualifies you as a pilgrim of any kind, to travel so far, and wide?" "What was I looking for, what did I hope to find?"   All indeed, fare questions. When a boy, I read a simple five word line, “Seek and thee shall find". Curiosity and Horizon Lust compelled me.   The next obvious question you might ask is, after all that; “What did you find?” That answer is very simple, I found myself.
0
Dec 10, 2013
Dec 10, 2013 at 7:14 PM UTC
. . . . . . . . Seek . . .
Once I undertook a journey, upon the very face of our entire world. To view for myself the many pictures, and written descriptions in all the geography books and History Classes, National Geographic magazines and movies seen. A Quest to see with my own eyes what I had only experienced second hand. In my mid twenties, like a dream, one foot in front of the other, I went about exploring. I sniffed and tasted the scents of foreign lands, Incense, Sage and Frankincense, fish curry, fried snake and even monkey brains. Walked in lush Jungle Bush and Desert sands, Along the shores of Islands and the coasts of many lands. Heard the voices of 30 divergent Dialects and cultures, smiling and laughing with the families and children of all of them. Set beside the fires of primitive tribal men, heard their chants to their gods above, the moon, stars and the sun, the ocean, the land. Clapped my hands and moved my feet in their ancient mystic dances. Drank their tea, Kava or whatever they shared grateful for their offered unselfish brotherhood. Stood on the flanks of the tallest Mountains in the world, on my toe tips, to try to see the face of the God of my youthful teachings, disappointed when I did not see him, or Her. Found instead an inner tranquility, imparted to me by Red robbed Monks from within their chants of Peace and wise earthly enlightenments. Strolled the cobbled streets of two thousand year old Cities. Walked among the ruined remnants of nearly forgotten once great Civilizations. Explored Modern European Citadels' of wealth and learning. Over time rode on planes, ships, buses, backs of open trucks, Horse pulled carts and human drawn rickshaws, taxis, subways, rented motorcycles and cars.  Walked perhaps 1000 miles. In all a journey of the mind and heart lasting three years. And why you might ask, "What qualifies you as a pilgrim of any kind, to travel so far, and wide?" "What was I looking for, what did I hope to find?"   All indeed, fare questions. When a boy, I read a simple five word line, “Seek and thee shall find". Curiosity and Horizon Lust compelled me.   The next obvious question you might ask is, after all that; “What did you find?” That answer is very simple, I found myself.
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53
it's been raining all day and the trucks passing in heavy rain on the road behind my little house sounds an awful lot like the thunder that dominates my little patch of sky
0
Jul 8, 2014
Jul 8, 2014 at 10:03 AM UTC
thunder
Every couple 'a years or so Our family reunites It takes a couple 'a years or so To recover from the fights A family like our'n Doesn't party like most do Ours gets a little out of hand That's why we have so few It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's daisy dukes and forty Lukes They're racing trucks and burning rubber There's jugs of moonshine everywhere And at least a hundred bubbas There's a smoker fired for the food the size of two large trucks It hold 4 cows, and fourteen pigs And at least a hundred ducks It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's pickled this and pickled that And things you just can't swallow That used to live down in the swamp Way back there in the hollow There's at least ten shotgun weddings there And the groom might be rail roaded But, the wedding isn't legal If the shotgun isn't loaded It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's greased up pigs and muddy runts And at least ten bobby sues and when they all get greased up You can't tell which is who There's horseshoe pits for tossing shoes And games of every sort Most of them aren't legal And would get you into court It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball But, it's the way we like it Drinking shine and acting out Tossing things that aren't tied down And wrassling about There's music there of just one kind It's country and that matters Any other sort of sound Sets the crowd off like mad hatters It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's always someone who's so drunk And it's normally the preacher Last year we married him off To the back up first grade teacher There's Chevy trucks of every kind And one covered in sod Mary Lou showed her tattoo "Jeff Foxworthy is my God" It's the best time of the year for us And it's sad when it must end but, you gotta haul your *** away When the cops come round that bend It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball
0
Jul 23, 2013
Jul 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM UTC
Redneck Family Reunion
Every couple 'a years or so Our family reunites It takes a couple 'a years or so To recover from the fights A family like our'n Doesn't party like most do Ours gets a little out of hand That's why we have so few It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's daisy dukes and forty Lukes They're racing trucks and burning rubber There's jugs of moonshine everywhere And at least a hundred bubbas There's a smoker fired for the food the size of two large trucks It hold 4 cows, and fourteen pigs And at least a hundred ducks It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's pickled this and pickled that And things you just can't swallow That used to live down in the swamp Way back there in the hollow There's at least ten shotgun weddings there And the groom might be rail roaded But, the wedding isn't legal If the shotgun isn't loaded It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's greased up pigs and muddy runts And at least ten bobby sues and when they all get greased up You can't tell which is who There's horseshoe pits for tossing shoes And games of every sort Most of them aren't legal And would get you into court It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball But, it's the way we like it Drinking shine and acting out Tossing things that aren't tied down And wrassling about There's music there of just one kind It's country and that matters Any other sort of sound Sets the crowd off like mad hatters It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball There's always someone who's so drunk And it's normally the preacher Last year we married him off To the back up first grade teacher There's Chevy trucks of every kind And one covered in sod Mary Lou showed her tattoo "Jeff Foxworthy is my God" It's the best time of the year for us And it's sad when it must end but, you gotta haul your *** away When the cops come round that bend It's a redneck family reunion everybody has a grand old time eating grandma's cooking and drinking grandpas shine You never go home hungry If you make it home at all You go home bruised and battered And you surely had a ball
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100
Trucks Trucks Trucks foot on gas. Trucks Trucks Trucks oh so fast. Trucks Trucks Trucks oh so big. Trucks Trucks Trucks wutta sweet gig!
0
Jan 8, 2013
Jan 8, 2013 at 12:37 PM UTC
Truck Tranquility
There is something magical in the whirring of a midday laundromat. A cessation of pride, maybe. People all dressed in sweatpants the air full of detergent smell and the sound of coins clicking against great tumblers as they go round and round and round and round... The people smile back, no use pretending superiority here. Whistlers twitter on, folding towels and socks into neat, organized piles. The children are well behaved, their hands full of potato chips given by their parents as a pittance for their patience. The patient patrons ponder on, their empty hands crumpling receipts. This, with the crunching of chips and the distant whistle over the percussion of clicking coins clattering in a dryer compose an unintentional opera, an ode to humility. Humility's honorable honesty heals humanity's hubris. Noisy trucks pass outside the floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows, Where the hot air wreaks its violence and men make their ways in spite.
0
Oct 6, 2014
Oct 6, 2014 at 5:00 PM UTC
Ode to Humility (laundromat)
Your laugh was a cloud Loud Enveloping Mist which covered me without the slightest resistance insistence I needed assistance to breathe Your laugh shows I'm useful shows there's a need For us as I feed on the delicious awkwardness we shared Caught unawares by being liked It's a shame your laugh was the cloud which hid a trucks headlights crash shared spent Your laugh a narcotic cloud I refuse to repent
0
Jan 12, 2015
Jan 12, 2015 at 4:13 PM UTC
Your laugh was a cloud
Once it was garbage, refuse, trash. A jumble of foul-smelling detritus hauled to the curb And removed by sinewy men Contributing a harder day's work Than anyone else in the city. Our energy now removes its entropy. Sorted and classified into coloured bins, We add order to our rejected matter. Specialized trucks arrive to collect The date-synchronized bins Emptying them into functionally compatible mechanisms. Most desolate is the black box of paper and cardboard. Brochures and flyers, old magazines and letters. Annual reports and cereal boxes. Once these were enameled with crafted sentences, Painstakingly typed, edited and debated, On the monitors of copywriters. Now they are just millions of words printed on flattened fibre substrates, Jumbled into the bruised and scarred black box, Entering into the recycling stream. The nouns and adjectives, Prepositions and gerunds, All jumble together. Fragments of precisely-crafted sentences and paragraphs Are gradually broken, shredded and pulped. Incomplete thoughts, broken phrases Like those of a rejected stranger In an lonely, unknown country. Then words without context. Then just disparate letters Are all that remain. Their  M  ea  N inG G  r a Du all y is re mov e d .
0
Aug 2, 2013
Aug 2, 2013 at 10:26 AM UTC
Waste Disposal
it ain't easy, when you relate, restrict and delegate, when you draw a narrow lane on a highway that says only left footed poets need apply <> it does not say **slow cars stay to the right, only trucks, or oddly even, no trucks** I love seasonality, without thickly thinking you take a break from the poetry writing one day I'll figure out a way to monetize my love poems, publish them as Shakespeare's couple(t)s, "new edition plus a couple of newfound poems!" maybe some fools will buy some thinking Shakespeare has been, resurrected! *love grows goes hot all over and grow slower older and grow colder, in between those fine ticklish teasing moments* when the miracle of resurrection repeats itself something is said a gesture is made a finger strokes the cheek, unexpected and it all comes rushing back again, overfilling that coffee cup mug she bought just(ice) for you *ain't gonna check how long it's been since last I declaimed, disclaimed, inflamed, these pages with an only love poem but I do know this: it is something I think about, It is something I know about, it is something I feel about daily even on the nothing days, when routine takes over I know you couldn't remember of its passage, is the waking up and the lying down to sleep* but the poets eyes are always open his emotive secret senses, always alert, what's that thing they always say, his heart just wasn't in it! (🥴if they only knew the truth😘)
0
Jun 25, 2025
Jun 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM UTC
when love grows old
Millennials at Work and War Scorn not the snowflake who stands watch for us Now thrown into the existential struggle Surrendering their youth and taking up life They muster in the fields and factories And in their elders’ undeclared, shadowy wars Uniformed in an unappreciated sense Of duty and dignity while scorned by those Who take their ease upon the couches of sloth And fling cheap mockery at millennials Who take up tools and work and love of life Sometimes to die in deserts still unmapped While generals dismiss their casualties as light Despised as snowflakes by keyboard commandos Who never got closer to any war Than a John Wayne ketchup-bloody movie. Some work long double shifts through university In a sawmill, shop, or fast foodery Only to be dismissed as slacker layabouts, But expected to trust those who condemn them For not being the greatest generation As defined by those who never served at all And while being criticized they will grab A quick cup of coffee for the night shift Staffing the hospitals and police patrols That keep their sneering critics alive and safe They drive the trucks, they man the ships, they work They drill for oil, these useless millennials While idlers lounge long in the coffee shops And YooToob computered jokes about them Millennials have no time for coloring books Or comfort animals or revolution For they are weary with study and work The best of them make no demands, but, sure A little respect, hard-earned, would be nice If only the scripted singer-songwriters Would pack up the tired old stereotypes And see millennials as they truly are But darkness falls – they must go back to work On the eleven-seven, the graveyard shift They do not burn draft cards or Medicare cards Instead through work they illuminate this world And build it up with continued sacrifice Scorn not the snowflake who stands watch for us
0
Dec 13, 2016
Dec 13, 2016 at 4:39 PM UTC
Millennials at Work and War
Millennials at Work and War Scorn not the snowflake who stands watch for us Now thrown into the existential struggle Surrendering their youth and taking up life They muster in the fields and factories And in their elders’ undeclared, shadowy wars Uniformed in an unappreciated sense Of duty and dignity while scorned by those Who take their ease upon the couches of sloth And fling cheap mockery at millennials Who take up tools and work and love of life Sometimes to die in deserts still unmapped While generals dismiss their casualties as light Despised as snowflakes by keyboard commandos Who never got closer to any war Than a John Wayne ketchup-bloody movie. Some work long double shifts through university In a sawmill, shop, or fast foodery Only to be dismissed as slacker layabouts, But expected to trust those who condemn them For not being the greatest generation As defined by those who never served at all And while being criticized they will grab A quick cup of coffee for the night shift Staffing the hospitals and police patrols That keep their sneering critics alive and safe They drive the trucks, they man the ships, they work They drill for oil, these useless millennials While idlers lounge long in the coffee shops And YooToob computered jokes about them Millennials have no time for coloring books Or comfort animals or revolution For they are weary with study and work The best of them make no demands, but, sure A little respect, hard-earned, would be nice If only the scripted singer-songwriters Would pack up the tired old stereotypes And see millennials as they truly are But darkness falls – they must go back to work On the eleven-seven, the graveyard shift They do not burn draft cards or Medicare cards Instead through work they illuminate this world And build it up with continued sacrifice Scorn not the snowflake who stands watch for us
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I Grew Up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was king My friends all liked the Beatles But, that was not my thing I liked to hear the fiddle To hear the joy burst from the strings I Grew Up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was king I remember me and Grandad Listening to the radio We would listen to the Opry While my friends went to the show Johnny Cash, The Gatlins, Grandpa Jones, and Old Hank Snow I was raised on country music I just wanted you to know I loved the feeling I would get when I heard a country tune Singing about trucks and girls And a golden Tennessee Moon Charlie Daniels, Jimmy Dean The Judds, and Roger Miller Willie, Waylon, Tom T. Hall and Jerry Lee...the Killer I Grew Up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was king My friends all liked the Beatles But, that was not my thing I liked to hear the fiddle To hear the joy burst from the strings I Grew Up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was king Country lost it's western and Rock it lost it's roll But, still old country music Those tunes just made me whole I learned all of the lyrics And I love to hear them sing I grew up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was King I Grew Up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was king My friends all liked the Beatles But, that was not my thing I liked to hear the fiddle To hear the joy burst from the strings I Grew Up on Country Music When Rock and Roll was king
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Sep 17, 2013
Sep 17, 2013 at 1:34 PM UTC
I Grew Up On Country Music
Hello Chicago Flat carpet-town of corn meal steel spears at the northern junction of Cahokia and some unknown dream No lillies grow here sir, no tulip fields though there are many Dutch a little up north Wisconsin, dontcha' know? Family blood rains through the Chicago river named of the blood of a slain tribal wonder wanders with the roaming buffalo I sat at the top of Sears (Willis) Tower and peered into the foggy distance and made out the shores of Michigan through Indiana the leftover rains of a continental freeze churned the earth to butter and carved the arteries and bowels of today's earthly body And when we drove in from O'Hare in the late hours on incessant stoplight highways counting down the streets thinking maybe they'll go all the way to Mississippi just a long row of Concrete I saw the brick tower of a decrepit Frito-lay plant where they cooked their corn and potato into succulent can't eat just one little snacks for the whole of america to enjoy in backyard barbecues and convenience stores and grocery outlets All across the planet Now with the trucks they come and go up to and whizzing past Chicago on to greener states with greater relief with hills and lakes and winding streams Different sections of the sculpture Cities eroding into the pleasant coasts quaking and breaking into tiny stones a monumental David cracked in the gallery bird **** corroding the silicates unpolished and immortal words Chicago! oh you mighty city you built from sod and sweat and dew of new morning I see your towers you dreamer, you But your towers are in Dubai, and Shanghai now The world moved on and forgot everything about that magnificent mile burned to make you earn new toys and fancy things from far beyond your winding river streams But you didn't die amazing, how much they tried to rust you out to bleed you dry no, Chicago, you keep your ***** rivers flowing all the way to the Mississippi flanked by modern Roman concrete all the way to the great green sea out into the puddle that surronds the Amerigo Chicago don't you give up that river dream
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Jun 14, 2018
Jun 14, 2018 at 3:26 PM UTC
O'Chicago
Hello Chicago Flat carpet-town of corn meal steel spears at the northern junction of Cahokia and some unknown dream No lillies grow here sir, no tulip fields though there are many Dutch a little up north Wisconsin, dontcha' know? Family blood rains through the Chicago river named of the blood of a slain tribal wonder wanders with the roaming buffalo I sat at the top of Sears (Willis) Tower and peered into the foggy distance and made out the shores of Michigan through Indiana the leftover rains of a continental freeze churned the earth to butter and carved the arteries and bowels of today's earthly body And when we drove in from O'Hare in the late hours on incessant stoplight highways counting down the streets thinking maybe they'll go all the way to Mississippi just a long row of Concrete I saw the brick tower of a decrepit Frito-lay plant where they cooked their corn and potato into succulent can't eat just one little snacks for the whole of america to enjoy in backyard barbecues and convenience stores and grocery outlets All across the planet Now with the trucks they come and go up to and whizzing past Chicago on to greener states with greater relief with hills and lakes and winding streams Different sections of the sculpture Cities eroding into the pleasant coasts quaking and breaking into tiny stones a monumental David cracked in the gallery bird **** corroding the silicates unpolished and immortal words Chicago! oh you mighty city you built from sod and sweat and dew of new morning I see your towers you dreamer, you But your towers are in Dubai, and Shanghai now The world moved on and forgot everything about that magnificent mile burned to make you earn new toys and fancy things from far beyond your winding river streams But you didn't die amazing, how much they tried to rust you out to bleed you dry no, Chicago, you keep your ***** rivers flowing all the way to the Mississippi flanked by modern Roman concrete all the way to the great green sea out into the puddle that surronds the Amerigo Chicago don't you give up that river dream
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The posters said tomorrow At eleven on the dot The Mishkin Brothers Circus Would be here ....on this spot There would be no carnival or midway Just one tent and three rings And all of the excitement That a good old circus brings There would be elephants and lions Trapeze artists overhead Dancing dogs and ponies And zebras painted red Clowns of all description Answering to just one man In the center of the circle Was Mishkin brother....Dan He'd run the show for twenty years Gone from town to town to town In one day they would get set up And in two, they'd tear it down One day to show the locals The circus still was an event With magic, form the Barnum Days All housed inside one tent The sideshow barkers and their geeks Were not with this fine group Dan Mishkin had assembled Only the finest circus troup From Russia he had jugglers Knife throwers, just the best ******** riders from Decatur Along with all the rest Fourteen trucks and trailers Pulled into town the night before Breaking ground once they arrived Working right through until four Just old time entertainment No travelling gypsy band was this It was the Mishkin Brothers Circus It was something not to miss The show was started promptly At twelve o'clock, like the sign said A parade of all the players And the zebras painted red Two shows and it was over The whole routine began anew The field was once more empty Gone was the Mishkin rolling zoo A year from now, we'd see the signs And we'd all go to the tent To see the Mishkin Brothers Circus The best money ever spent
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Jun 13, 2015
Jun 13, 2015 at 4:48 PM UTC
The day the circus came to town
The posters said tomorrow At eleven on the dot The Mishkin Brothers Circus Would be here ....on this spot There would be no carnival or midway Just one tent and three rings And all of the excitement That a good old circus brings There would be elephants and lions Trapeze artists overhead Dancing dogs and ponies And zebras painted red Clowns of all description Answering to just one man In the center of the circle Was Mishkin brother....Dan He'd run the show for twenty years Gone from town to town to town In one day they would get set up And in two, they'd tear it down One day to show the locals The circus still was an event With magic, form the Barnum Days All housed inside one tent The sideshow barkers and their geeks Were not with this fine group Dan Mishkin had assembled Only the finest circus troup From Russia he had jugglers Knife throwers, just the best ******** riders from Decatur Along with all the rest Fourteen trucks and trailers Pulled into town the night before Breaking ground once they arrived Working right through until four Just old time entertainment No travelling gypsy band was this It was the Mishkin Brothers Circus It was something not to miss The show was started promptly At twelve o'clock, like the sign said A parade of all the players And the zebras painted red Two shows and it was over The whole routine began anew The field was once more empty Gone was the Mishkin rolling zoo A year from now, we'd see the signs And we'd all go to the tent To see the Mishkin Brothers Circus The best money ever spent
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the bane of my existence here now is all of the incessant noise.   the city encroaches ever outward, gobbling up the suburbs like the great big Blob contributing layer after layer of noise.   a new metro line opened last year disheartened the morning realized it was the trains i heard as my puppy and i walked so early.   trash trucks, back up beeping noises, leaf blowers, mowers and trimmers ... all conspiring to drive me mad. the birds and owls, snakes and deer, hawks and rabbits toads and trees and flowers, puppies all other creatures divine, tempering this man-made chaos this man-made hell keeping me hopeful that i will have some respite    some respite from this hideous cacophony, this man-made hell, in the future, not too distant. of course there are some benefits from all the city life but i prefer the silence the solitude of nature. the Taoist recluses who speak to me, whose poems paintings writings and silence are balm to my soul.   some day soon, i too shall join the recluses far away far far away in the mountains. but for now, i am only a modern day taoist recluse stuck in suburbia, doing my best, living in this noisy hell.
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Aug 8, 2015
Aug 8, 2015 at 2:37 AM UTC
Modern Suburban Hell
there was no way I could sleep last night traffic kept me awake all throughout the night trucks trundled down my street in an endless convoy they had no consideration for the noise they did employ I finally got to sleep at ten past four as the trucks ceased rolling past my door this afternoon I shall catch a few winks of sleep I shall curl up on the lounge and count sheep
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Apr 20, 2013
Apr 20, 2013 at 8:36 PM UTC
Truck Convoy
It was a hand me down, An old Chevy that grandpa didn't need, It was just a little truck, But it would do, Blue and silver, with rust sprouting up here and there, A creaky tailgate, No ac, but a sunroof, Comfy seats that held you like a race car, The smell of dust wafting from the vents It had a little engine that needed work, It had old tires that needed to be replaced, A layer of dust that needed to be washed off. But I didn't care, It was my first truck! New engine, New tires, A deluxe wash at the co-op, And a black ice air freshener, This truck was born again. Spinning tires and dust flying, Rolling down the streets and tearing up the gravel roads, This truck purred like a kitten. I didn't care if people had bigger trucks, Newer trucks, Fancier trucks, This was my first truck And I loved it!
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Jun 9, 2014
Jun 9, 2014 at 11:49 AM UTC
My First Truck
The blackened skies will send you warning but you will never listen The wind will scream a frightening story but you will refuse to hear it The falling rain will cry tears of agony as the sky opens up in pain All the while you never imagined the sight unfolding on the plain And with only your cameras, cars, and trucks you face the hand of God To warn the world of what's to come, remembered and not forgot Respect the fury of the sky; something we may never understand To us Mother Nature is the universe; To her we are but a grain of sand
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May 5, 2014
May 5, 2014 at 12:51 PM UTC
Tornado Alley
Citrus trees, tomatoes, and fertile soil Garliconiongingersoy and ant spray Contentment Cigarettes and hate Aqua Net White school paste Bitter slimy spinach and blue ditto ink Confusion Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Baseball glove Mown grass Fresh popcorn Sadness Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cramped, stale cars Claustrophobia and Cat litter Loneliness Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Petroleum Locker Rooms and Perfume Indifference Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Cigarettes and hate Smoggy skies Salty beaches Beer trucks at each end of the block Love And... Blessed... Divorce
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Nov 20, 2011
Nov 20, 2011 at 3:13 PM UTC
Life, in Smells, Part One
Rusty dusty pick up trucks Old Fords and busted Chevys Trucks that tear the road apart And some stuck down the levy Showing off at the truck show All polished up and nice When an old man in a beat up Ford Looked us over once or twice It don't matter how the cover looks It's what's beneath the hood You may look awful pretty But, with no power...it's no good You wanna get the ladies Remember, it's what's beneath the hood Although they like a real good ride There ain't no ride, if there's no wood I smiled and I watched the gent Walk and laugh and smile some He'd mumble something to the girls And they'd follow to where he'd come His truck, was old and battered Wasn't tricked out like the rest But, when it came to having girls around This old man was the best It don't matter how the cover looks It's what's beneath the hood You may look awful pretty But, with no power...it's no good You wanna get the ladies Remember, it's what's beneath the hood Although they like a real good ride There ain't no ride, if there's no wood A truck may last a long long time But you've got to use it right You've got to check the engine And try to run it every night I remember what the old man said It's about what's there beneath the hood The girls don't want it pretty The girls, they want it good..... It don't matter how the cover looks It's what's beneath the hood You may look awful pretty But, with no power...it's no good You wanna get the ladies Remember, it's what's beneath the hood Although they like a real good ride There ain't no ride, if there's no wood
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Sep 9, 2013
Sep 9, 2013 at 11:34 PM UTC
It's what's beneath the hood....
Rusty dusty pick up trucks Old Fords and busted Chevys Trucks that tear the road apart And some stuck down the levy Showing off at the truck show All polished up and nice When an old man in a beat up Ford Looked us over once or twice It don't matter how the cover looks It's what's beneath the hood You may look awful pretty But, with no power...it's no good You wanna get the ladies Remember, it's what's beneath the hood Although they like a real good ride There ain't no ride, if there's no wood I smiled and I watched the gent Walk and laugh and smile some He'd mumble something to the girls And they'd follow to where he'd come His truck, was old and battered Wasn't tricked out like the rest But, when it came to having girls around This old man was the best It don't matter how the cover looks It's what's beneath the hood You may look awful pretty But, with no power...it's no good You wanna get the ladies Remember, it's what's beneath the hood Although they like a real good ride There ain't no ride, if there's no wood A truck may last a long long time But you've got to use it right You've got to check the engine And try to run it every night I remember what the old man said It's about what's there beneath the hood The girls don't want it pretty The girls, they want it good..... It don't matter how the cover looks It's what's beneath the hood You may look awful pretty But, with no power...it's no good You wanna get the ladies Remember, it's what's beneath the hood Although they like a real good ride There ain't no ride, if there's no wood
Continue reading...
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