More Ink Pantry Poems

City Limits Publishes Love Poems

more writers egg poems

two drops of ink

Two Drops of Ink has published another one of my poems, “Just Enough for Coffee” which is a poem about the plight of the homeless.   They will publish some of my other poems over the next few weeks.

Just Enough for Coffee

A homeless man
Stood on the street
Counting his change
From panhandling all morning
Just had enough for a cup of coffee

 

 

 

 

All in all
A good start

He ambled off to his favorite coffee shop
Where the owner
Was kind to the homeless

 

 

Sometimes
Treating them to a meal
On the house

The man said
I was in your shoes
Once years ago

And you never forget
When you are down
And out

Everyone forgets your face
No one knows your name

For you are now
Invisible
Almost a ghost

The old man tried to pay
The owner said

Keep your change
You need it more than me

Have a meal with me
My friend
On the house

He ordered up
The homeless man’s favorite
Lumberjack special

Eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon
Cornbread
Lots of hot black coffee
To wash it down

The old man
Often had just one meal a day
Usually, a late breakfast

Sometimes if he were lucky
He would have dinner

And on a red-letter day
He would have three meals

The homeless man
Had been on the streets
For too long

Barely remembered his life
Before early-onset Alzheimer’s
Robbed him of his job
His dignity

His wife
His life
His money

Now he drifted
Waiting for the grim reaper
Any day now

He prayed nightly
To a god
That he no longer believed in

Ink Pantry, Scarlet Leaf, Spill Words, Synchronized Chaos, Two Drops of Ink, have published 15 of my recent poems. The poems are posted below along with audio and photo clips.

Spill Words has published ” Hitch Hiking Tales”

 

Prior Publication

1. Just an Unhinged Lunatic Howling at The Moon
2. Howling at The Moon
3. One Crazy day*
4. God’s Confession
5. Wild Thoughts Run Amuk

*previously published

Just An Unhinged Lunatic Howling At The Moon

On a moonlit late night

I sat in a bar

Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew

Just an unhinged lunatic

Dreaming of howling at the full moon

 

Watching the world walk by

Looking at all the fine looking babes

Walking by the street

Thinking wild, erotic thoughts

Of endless wild libertine passions

 

When into the bar

Walked the most beautiful women

In the Universe

So wild, so free

So wonderfully alive

 

I did not know what to do

As this vision of delight

Sauntered through the bar

In a skin tight leather pants

Looked so fine

That my eyeballs hurt

 

And finally I had to say something

So I gathered up my manly courage

And walked up to her

And she looked at me

And instantly bewitched my soul

With a devilish grin

I lost all reason

And became a raving lunatic

Unhinged lunatic

Howling at the moon

 

Foaming at the mouth

A wild, free werewolf

Howling at the lunatic light

Of the full Moon

 

 

Howling At The Moon

He  stood outside

Between the trees

In a field

On the outside of town

 

Beneath the lunatic rays

Of the blood red full moon

The lunatic lights of the moon

Casts a wild primeval glow

On him

 

The hormonal chemicals are unleashed

The wild beast within

Escapes it chain

And he howl with delight

A werewolf

Free at at last

 

To run amuck

Free of its civilized restrains

Throwing off its clothes

Stripping naked

 

Running wild

Naked and free

A wild man

Enjoying his freedom

 

As he  sits

Under the lunatic light of the full moon

Of the blood red lights of the moon

Full of wild passions

The lustful beast stirs again

 

And starts running and running

Howling at the moon

Riding into the new dawn

On a demented Harley Davis cycle

With two naked babes on his back

Riding into the sun

90 miles per second

At the speed of though

He disappears into the lunatic light

Of the full moon

 

And he  wake ups

Alone,

In my bed

Saying, man that was quite a night

 

I better not go there again

the Wild man

Laughs

He has heard that before

 

And he joins him

In howling at the moon

One Crazy Night

One crazy night

Last night

I could not get to sleep

At all

 

Last night

I could not get to sleep

At all

 

I looked up

Looked out at the window

At the full moon

Saw by its lunatic light

 

Your face

Was in the moon

 

And I looked up

At the light

 

That crazy light

And dreamed last night

 

I was with you

Again

 

And I woke up

Alone in my bed

 

Dreaming dark dreams

Of You

Wishing it were

Other than it was

All alone

All alone again

In this world how are you

 

God’s Confession

I was sitting along

In a god forsaken bar

Somewhere on the lunatic fringes

Of society

 

On the bad part of town

Over by railroad tracks

 

I was sitting alone in a godforsaken bar

Heading to hell

As fast as I could drink it down

twenty drinks too sober

 

Enjoying my lonely drink

Drinking by my lonesome self

 

With my partners

Jimmy Dean, and the Walker brother

And his old Grand Dad

 

Just drinking and hanging

with the Jack Daniels Gang

having one bourbon, one scotch and one beer

 

A crazed bum

With a thousand year stare

Walks up to me

 

He begins

Muttering to himself

Nutty nonsense

Crazy words

In a lunatic’s voice

 

He had the look

Of one possessed

 

By his own demons

That only he can see

Or hear

Possessed by a secret knowledge

Only he knew

 

Despite myself

I was fascinated

By this lunatic’s tale

 

So I stopped him

and said

So what’s your game

Anyway

 

The short little dude

Stopped his insane prattle

Starting at me

With that thousand year old stare

 

Just another washed up

Lunatic

 

Too many drugs

Too many bad nights

Just another acid causality

from the 60’s

who never came back

 

stuck in his own wonderland

On the wrong side of life

 

He looked at me

And proclaimed his story

He reared up

And filled up the room

 

And lifted the bar

On his finger

And stared down at me

From the sky

 

And said

Since you asked

I am God

The alpha and Omega

The real deal

The original dude of dudes

The sultan of Swing

God of hosts

And father of that Jesus dude

 

But no one knows me

Any more

No one cares

 

They think I am irrelevant

They think I am dead

They think I am a fairy tale

From some olden, ancient time

 

Some say I am dead

Others think I should be dead

That my work is done

 

I looked at him

Carefully now

And what did I see

 

An old man

With that lunatic look

But there was something else

 

He was crazy

Sure yes

But perhaps he was the real deal

 

I mean why not

Why would not God be

A lunatic wandering around loose

Talking to low lives like me

In a bar

On the way to hell

 

So I looked at him

And invited him to share

His tale of woe

 

God tells me

Well, it’s like this

 

Many a year ago

People believed in me

But one day

They quit believing in me

And they went on without me

 

As they left me

My powers got weaker and weaker

And so eventually I became

What you see today

 

A broken down drunk

Hanging out

Looking for a hand out

Looking for some company

Or at least a free dinner

 

And he laughed and laughed

 

And I looked at him

And saw the beginnings of the end

And the ends of the beginnings

I saw a million planets

Flash by

 

A billion people

A trillion sentient beings

Thinking all at once

 

Thoughts filled my head

Lights flashed

And I knew

He was telling the truth

 

But it did not matter

In this day and age

Of materialism

 

God has no role

God is truly dead

And so I bought him a drink

And walked out of the bar

Profoundly father that Jesus dude sadden by what I had seen

 

God was dead

And we had all conspired

To kill him

 

Wild Thoughts Run Amok

 

Wild Thoughts

Wild fantasies

Fill my head

Running through my brain

Like electric currency

 

My eyes are consumed

By the burning fires

Of unquenched desire

 

She still has that thing

That wild crazy thing

And she still impresses me

Compels me

Inspires fear

 

And I am on fire

All over again

 

The wild infatuation

She caused in my heart

 

But I was not prepared

The sight of her

Inspired dreams

Of nights of love

That was not to be fulfilled

 

My heart filled

With wild erotic fantasies

And I want  her

All over again

Still has that thing that wow crazy thing

That love Jones thing

That wild love Jones thing

Creeps its ugly head

Out of the dark recess

Of my demented soul

 

I’m on fire over again

Sniffing an opportunity

To cause chaos

Yet again

 

And so I prepare

To run away

Ere I get consumed

By unrequited passion

Again

 

Dreams of possible love

And lust

Come bubbling out

Out of the swamps

Of my fertile imagination

 

And I pray to the gods

To give me wisdom

To avoid taking

The path that leads

To my destruction

DRAGON FLY IN MY MIND

Dragonflies of my mind

dragon flies
of my mind
fly above
the garden of my mind

Floating amid the flowers
And the weeds

Tracking butterflies
and demon flies
That infects the garden of my mind

The flowers bloom bright
Attracting butterflies

The demon weeds
Sprout here and there

Screaming

Look at me
Look at me

Trying to spread
Their poisonous thoughts

That is the mind
In the temple
That is the body

The body
Of a man
Made in the image of God

The dragonfly
flies above
The chaos

and the sonic soup
That makes up

The inner sound

The dragonfly
Is majestic

In its indifference
To the turmoil down below

It floats above
The sonic soup

The bugs and cockroaches
Crawl out of the weeds

Trying to spread
like wild fire
Through the mind

And at night
I can hear them

Crawling among the web pages
Of my mind

Be gone
Oh difficult, negative thoughts

Be gone
Like the bugs

I’ll squash you like
The evil creatures
You really are

The sweat music
Invades my soul

Driving away
The evil bugs

And I soar
Like the majestic

Dragon fly
Far above

The chaos below
Only seeing the beauty

That fills up
The garden of my mind

One can choose
To be the dragon fly

Or to be consumed
And turned into the cockroaches
Of death, despair and hate

And I fly
Far away

Above
The sound of silver trumpets

Silver sound
Suspended forever

In the pink crystalline sky
Of my mind

Let us fly away
Into the deep night

On the wings of the cosmic dragon fly
And leave behind, forever
The cockroaches of my mind

REFLECTIONS

One lousy, lonely, loathsome demented night

In a god forsaken bar

In the global south

In a tropical hell hole

Drinking my way to hell

As fast as I could

Drinking alone with my buddies

Jack Daniels, Jimmy Walker

Wild Turkey and Old Grandad

 

I sat alone in the bar

Alone with my dismal thoughts

Full of somber thoughts

Dismal reflections

Thinking dismal thoughts

Of what I was going to do

twenty drinks too sober

 

Where I was heading to

Where I was coming from

I had no clue

No idea at all

Where my futur set alarm in the bar I havee path lay

So, I sat

Drinking alone in the bar

Twenty drinks too sober

I considered my beer

Just another middle age looser

Crying into his beer

I saw my reflection

In the glass of beer

I saw an old man

Staring back at me I have

A lonely man

A stranger staring at me

I looked at this man

 

This stranger

That I had become

And wondered

What the hell had happened to me

During my life

I stared at the old man

In the beer glass

Wondering to myself

Where did this old man come from

What the there’s a lot of fans hell did he want from me

Who the fuck was he

And what was he doing

In my god damned beer

So I decided

To speak my god damned mind

I said

Say old man

In my beer glass

Come on out of there

Come to life

Old dude

And talk to me

I want to know

Who the fuck you are

And what you are doing

In my beer

Come to life

Let me see

Whom I am going to be

The old man grinned

And laughed the laugh where is coming from I had no clue

Of the insane

The laugh of the newly Enlighted ones

Who finally realized the absurdity of existence

And then he looked at me

With a thousand-year stare

And transformed himself

Morphed into a hideous snarling beast

A werewolf stared at me

And he growled

So punk

You want to know

What I am doing in your beer

Well it is like this

Dude

I am the ghost of your past

And I am here to show you

What you have done

And what you have failed to do

With your miserable life Cologne in the van 20 things to Solvang insert in my mirror me just another middle-age music binder is very

So, let the show begin

I saw one by one

Parading across my beer

All the people I have known

All my friends

All my enemies

All my casual acquaintances

And most importantly

All the women I had ever know

All the women I had ever lusted after

All of them came out lonely man stranger Alicia me look at this man

One by one

They stopped and told me

What they really thought of me

Of my foolish pride

My foolish behavior

My folly

My sexual desires

MY lust

And one by one they judged me

A jury of my peers

And they found me guilty

As charged

SS came by

My first r hang in there stranger and become and wondered what the hell and have an amino my lifeeal love

MM too

SG as well

CP was there

Miss K

Miss CDN

The perfect lover of the east

Who fled away

From my protestations of love

And Angela

The one and only

Who married me

And still is proud

To be my wife

And the parade continued

Nameless bar girls

With whom I had consorted

Spent a night of aimless sex

One by one they came by

Commending me

Laughing at me

SB came by

Khun J

She with the great voice

Came by

Khun M

As did the GM

And on and on and on

The four A’s in Bombay

The one I almost had

The ones that broke my heart

And allowed my creative juices

To run wild

And others come alive

Who remains nameless

By choice

The boss came by

As did the other ones

Everybody looking at me

I stopped

Stood up

Scream

Stop this torture

Stop it right now

Mr. Beer God

Or Devil

Whoever you may be

Nothing but the laughter

Of the damn

Echoing across the room

I looked up

They were all there

In the room

Looking at me

I stood up

And tried to touch the oh noon and talk to me I want to know what the fuck you are and when you were doing in my mirror come drive let me see who am I going to meanm

Nothing but illusions

Nothing there

I cried into my beer

The anguished cry of the damned

Just another fool

Crying into his beer

Did I have the courage

The wisdom to make amends

Did I know

What I had to do

Did I have the courage

To quit lusting

Over what I cannot have

To accept

That all the love

I need

Is in my wife’s eyes

And in her heart

And so I looked the beer god

In the eye afternoon saying I have Internet line

And dranked my beer

And walked out the door finally realizes her Geneva sister

Confidently facing the future

Free of doubts

Full of love

And proud of all I had done

Knowing that I was not guilty

Of the crimes charged

 

the Bench a Short Story

 

One November afternoon, about 5 pm, Sam Adams, an white man in his late
60s was doing his usual daily walk in Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon. Sam had retired to
Oregon after serving in the U.S. government as a diplomat for many years. He had grown up in
Berkeley but had visited Ashland over the years. He and his wife, Linda, were big fans of the
Shakespeare festival. Linda was worried that Sam was showing signs of Alzheimer’s but Sam
was not worried. He told Linda every day he would always remember how to find his way back
to her.

They had been married for 45 years. They met on a bus in South Korea when Sam was
teaching there for the US Army before joining the State Department. Linda Lee was Korea. It
was love at first sight and they got married two months after meeting.

Since retirement they were inseparable but Sam often went for his walks alone. He would walk deep into Lithia Park following the Lithia creek upriver until he came upon his favorite bench and sat there a while. The bench was a simple wooden bench, surrounded by Japanese Maple trees which were in full color display that afternoon. It was a pleasant spot and Sam had been going there every day for almost two years.

Soon, as usual, he was lost in thought, dreaming of his past life, thinking of his past loves, thinking dark thoughts preparing mentally for the coming end times of his life. Sam had a premonition that death was stalking him and that his time was near. He never told his wife that because he did not want to worry her. But he had insisted that they had gotten their estate plan completed, and he felt ready to go any day now.

Sam had plenty to think about – he and Linda had had an eventful life. He had lived in over ten countries around the world and traveled to 50 states. After retiring he had become a blogger and worked on that off and on. But lately, he felt that time was slipping away from him. As he sat on the bench, meditating on his past life, something strange occurred. The bench woke up and spoke to Sam.

“Sam, how are you doing? Old friend of mine. I am delighted that I can speak with you.”

Sam looked around and could not find out where the voice was coming from but realized that the chair had spoken to him. Sam laughed and said,

“well chair if you can speak tell me what you know.”

The chair spoke of Sam’s life and of the life of others in the community that Sam knew. The chair said he knew everything that occurred in the lives of the people that sat on his bench. And the trees knew too as did the cosmic cat and even the squirrels knew. But people, well they just did not know how to listen to nature and to the world around them. In a way, it was too bad because the bench had so much wisdom to implant.

Sam and the bench began talking. Soon a black cat appeared. He said that he was a cosmic cat as most cats are. Cats he explained are special creatures – not originally from this planet and descended from great warriors that crashed landed on earth millions of years ago. Cats were so often dismissed by humans as alien freaks or as annoying pests. But cats were really man’s best friend. And all cats had a sixth sense about death. They knew when it was time to go. The cat said the Grimm reaper was coming to Sam’s place that night and that Sam would be gone the next day.

Sam said,

“Cosmic cat do you know what will happen to me? Will I go to heaven or Hell? Is there a heaven or a hell?”

“Sam, that is beyond my pay grade as they say. I do know that life continues after death but heaven and hell I don’t know much about. It is different for us cats. We come back to life as cats again and again can’t seem to escape our karmic fate. Humans well the move on to the next level of existence and we never see them again. Oh, here is the Grimm Reaper himself.”

The Grimm Reaper walks up to Sam and introduces himself. The Grimm Reaper was a handsome man dressed in all black clothes, with a black hat and tie on. He said that he is just part of an army of Grimm Reapers and was breaking protocol to talk with Sam. He was so impressed that Sam had developed the ability to talk to animals, trees and the cosmic bench that he had a deal to make.

Sam intrigued said,

“What’s the deal?”

I will give you one more month to live but you let me into your life like in the movie, Joe Black. Always wanted to try that. At the end of your life, God may grant me my wish to be a mortal for a few years. Here’s how it is going to play out. I will introduce myself as your long lost son from an affair long ago. You will welcome me into your life and Linda will eventually accept me as your son as well.

Every day we will come back here and continue our conversation. At the end of the month, you will go on to the other world and I will stay behind as your son and stay with your wife to comfort her until it is her time to go and then you will be reunited. For you are special true soul mates and will be together forever. Do we have a deal?”

Sam said “sure.”

The bench smiled, the cat was happy, the squirrel came down from the tree after getting assurances that the Cat would not eat him that day and congratulated him as well. The Maple tree finally spoke and blessed the deal as well.
As night deepened, he turned slowly towards home, accompanied by the Grimm Reaper who decided to call himself Joe Black, and the cosmic cat.

He said goodnight to the cosmic bench in the park, acknowledging that he would be back
same time, same station, day after day until Joe released him from this mortal world.

The end