June 2019 – Swinging for the fences in Q- Bop City (selected pieces from Seeing Eye Ear/Q Bop City/new work
One for all the Dads 6/16/2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_VMxDkapN0
The Old Man’s Fault
Hallmark defines
yet another contrive
consumer day of obligation
but fails to see the
species, phylum, the role
the basic biological
reality as it exists beyond
some 5 dollars of gaily configured cardboard
with sentimentality nobody really believes
or nasty sarcasm that all most
everyone smugly snickers at and buys.
No.
Closer to the truth
on this Sunday morning in June
is that the once thought of as
Protector
Provider
Patriarch
of the nuclear family
has been reduced
to an atom smashed
pulverized fragment
waddling away down
the aisles in Krap-Mart
in a sad post-modern procession
of the daddy parade.
The fat sad daddies
The trim yuppie daddies
Hung over haunted looking
out estranged vacant eyes
ghosts of father figures
Booze fighter Fathers of
medication
neutered
trivialized
reduced to
being walking ATMs
for their families
support and subsistence.
Big dumb stupid looking
bumbling cartoon cats
lisping along as their
little kitten sons
trail a half a dozen steps
behind them with a
brown paper bag
over their heads
whining…..
“O Father….I’m so ashamed…”
All hail
that worthless drunk
drinking by himself
out in the garage
that fragile shaky
blue veined pasty
pile of protoplasm
who holds his family
together with a iron
willed grip of silly putty
and threat of the liability
of alimony
His manhood
maculated
Balls ?
What Balls ?
He’s been bent over
in a question mark
into a bowling ally
beer gut male pattern
baldness worn down
burnt out shell
surfing porn sites
of the internet looking
for pictures of women
who remind him of
old girl friends.
In nature
Especially the insect world
The male role is
defined only
the biological imperative
Basically ?
He’s fertilizer
after that
it’s off to be eaten.
If he’s lucky.
So here’s to your Dad
The father
once son himself
reduced to a lonely holy ghost
And if he’s not here
remember
your first teacher
the artist who help
create the piece of work
that is you.
Daddy on a lease
Daddy on the skids
Pale wobbly old man
shaking his fist a death
Raging how he still can
even if he never did in the first place.
You want to believe that
you’re here on earth because that worthless
bastard thought about getting laid
one night after too many beers
and conceived your existence ?
Go for it.
But closer to the truth
just maybe you never knew
that once there was a man
who when he looked at you
in the eyes for the first time
in that moment
did see
a world of love
shinning private light
like a gate in heaven
had been left ajar.
Go right ahead.
Curse his name as you try to forget him.
But….. if he’s still around ?
some night
and no not on this day…
crack him a cold one
and put your hand on his shoulder and say.
“ No…..to be fair it’s not all your fault
I would have been so goddamn miserable even without you.”
And then duck pretty quick
as he takes a swing at you….
And he connects square
and plants back on your smart mouthed little ass?
You had it coming.
Sometimes Grief – 6/2010
*
Burning June
Each June sunset
burns like a stick match
struck against balance
left in the calendar box.
Right now I’ve got 15 left.
But who’s counting ?
I am.
New Year Shorts 2019
What Kind of Guy was He ? 7.0
What kind of guy was he?
He was prone to taking victory laps
Before he really had been anywhere
Or even sniffed a finish line in his life.
*
The Georgia Peach
One sports writer of the era
Once wrote that Ty Cobb
would climb a mountain
To punch an echo
*
Merkle’s Boner
After all these years
I’ve earned a place
In the record books
As the Fred Merkle of poetry
*
The Truth about Lassie
*
First off Lassie was a dude in reality
Not a she but a he named Hal
Not especially obedient cooperative or well trained
And in general really disliked children
They had to smother Roddy McDowell’s face
With ice cream so that Hal would lick it
And as for that scene where Hal
Gave Liz Taylor that long loving look?
One of the stagehands
Was holding a steak over Liz’s head
Just out of the cameras frame.
*
Yet more lost Dogs
Nobody refers to them
As Frankfurters anymore.
*
Recalling a NFL Hall of Famer
I still remembering watching him in the bar
Over near the cigarette machine
On August training camp evening
Glowering in disgust at everything & everyone
And I thought:
This guy has the world by the ass
But that look on his puss
Suggested he could only smell shit.
*
Drum Roll Please
It truly could be said of him
That walked to the beat of the length
Of his own plank.
*
Why all the Tinsel ?
–for Boni Iris
When she was a little girl
As we were decorating the Christmas Tree
She asked, Dad why do we have to hang this Tinsel stuff ?
It’s messy and gets everywhere-
And I told her- well that’s the point
You’ll find it all the coming year
Around the house to remind
You of this Christmas past
And hopefully the next one to come.
