October 2018- Either it’s coming for you or I am with a Seeing Eye Ear in Quattro Vox
From Q -Bop City
Education
For Sarah
They were the Teachers
They were the Vehicles
The blunt object
That forced their door open
Just a crack so could think escape.
They were the spark
The enablers.
Telling you on a fog shrouded
Far away beach one afternoon this-
That everything was only not permitted
Forbidden and questionable-
But possible.
So I let you
And you let me
So much that followed
Was a dream that
Came true
To some degree.
Some pay up front
For all to see
A reason
A lesson
A curse
Rendered ransom relegated to some stray verse
Some pay up front
For all to see
In the face of what we once
aspired to be.
Vincent Quatroche 5/2017
The Colleagues Talk 2.0
Kafka on Kampus (for K)
As he was pulling out the parking slot on a sweltering Thursday noon
His colleague came running up flagging him down waving his arms
With this wild look in his eyes and breathlessly exclaimed
The administration has sold the naming rights to the college !
He immediately pulled back in and cut the motor
Got out and stood before him and replied- say what ?
Catching his wind gasped that’s right– the bastards just posted the news
On Prof talk- it’s official starting this Fall Semester this school is
Now named Kafka Kollege –a yes that’s Kollege w/ a GD K
No Shit he remarked are you kidding me ?
His colleague shook his head emphatically and continued……
And that’s not the half of it- all of the buildings on Kampus have been renamed
As well as part of the agreement-
All the Dorms are now called The Penal Colony
The Kampus Center is The Castle
The Theater Department is The Hunger Artist
Academic Affairs? The Judgment
English ? Parables & Paradoxes
Science ? The Metamorphosis
Public Safety ?-Before the Law
Human Resources ? The Trial
Student Affairs ? Give it up
We stood in stunned silence sweating in the oppressive summer heat
Then my colleague broke into this really strange serene smile
And purred out-
But I do have some rather good news-
Seems all the Administrators, Deans & Chairs even the President
Have been transformed into Ungeheuer Ungeziefers( literally “monstrous vermin”)
like Cockroaches and Dung Beetles
and are hiding in their offices under the desks.
Vincent Quatroche 6/18
Swinging for the Fences in Q-Bop City
Of Odds & Pitch Counts
Some people are born
With two strikes on them
Others start out with the count 3 and 0
And go through life
Always content to just take that walk
While the former keep swinging at that one in the dirt.
If Only
If you could only
just write one poem
that sounded like
Ben Webster’s
Tenor Saxophone
Then maybe
somebody might
listen to you.
I bet infinity
is just endless talk
or worse yet….
Discuss.
Burning June
Each June sunset
burns like a stick match
struck against balance
left in the calendar box.
Right now I’ve got 27 left.
But who’s counting ?
I am.
How the West was Lost
Have we all become a race
Of distracted cyber pioneers
Too embarrassed to admit
All that we never knew is
the only remarkable thing about us
Remembering the trivial
Forgetting the essential.
*
Hearing Aide
Received a postcard in the mail yesterday
Offering either an agnostic apostle
Or generic prosthesis-
And I didn’t hear a sound
Or a leap of faith.
*
Fuck Waste book
Listen here
You can just skip the Like Box
And the dislike Box
Heading straight for the
I don’t give a shit Box.
Vincent Quatroche 6/2018
