Category: latest poetry

  • Down in the Dirt Poems

    Down in the Dirt has published a number of my poems in 2017 and 2018. Check it out.

    Charles Bukowski Road Not Chosen

    And Other Poems

    By Jake Cosmos Aller

    Published in Down in the Dirt

    Charles Bukowski Road Not Chosen

    John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller

    While reading Charles Bukowski poetry
    On the metro ride home
    Listening to Buddha bar music
    On my oh too hip IPod

    I begin to see myself as I was
    Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
    A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem

    A wild young underemployed intellectual
    Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
    Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
    And characters out of his kinds of haunts

    A mad poet bard of the underground
    A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
    That nightly played in his head

    Then one day I met the women of my dreams
    And went down a different path
    A long slow path to respectability

    And now 30 years later
    I am no longer a wild man
    I am still a poet at heart
    But I am now also a bureaucrat
    In a button down suite

    Doing the people’s business
    Working for the Government
    I’ve become the Man

    Sometimes I wonder
    Would I have been better off
    Going down that another path

    Would I have ended up
    Somewhere else
    Doing something else

    Would I have been as happy
    Would I have been as successful?

    There is no answer that satisfies
    The longing in my heart
    For that wild thing
    That still lurks beneath
    It’s civilized cover

    And I know that I am still
    A mad poet at heart
    Railing against the injustice of the world

    As I work day by day in the belly of the great beast of State
    I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
    “Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
    Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
    In the true American Upper class patrician tradition

    I close the book and look out the window
    Get off the train, and walk slowly home

    And realize I had no choice
    But to take the path that I’ve trodden on

    And so I put aside my misgivings
    And say goodbye to my “Bukowskian”desires
    For another night of domestic contentment

    Was it worth it all to take the conventional path
    And not take the bohemian road to hell and back

    I look at my wife and realize
    I had no choice, had no choice
    But to follow her to the ends of the earth

    And beyond by her side as we walked our path
    Of shared destiny

    Goodbye Charles Bukowski wherever you are
    May I meet you in a bar in the next life
    And figure out where we should have gone

    Until then the drinks are on me.

    Order this writing in the book
    Negative Space
    (the 2017 poetry, flash fiction
    & art collection anthology)

    natural light text
    natural light
    liteary calendar 2019
    2019 Scars Lit Calendar

    get the 298 page poem,
    flash fiction & art
    collection anthology
    as a 6″ x 9″ ISBN#
    paperback book:

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    Fallen Dreams Litter the Ground

    John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller

    In the fall weather
    As I walk amid the falling leaves
    I see the signs everywhere

    Of the fall of America
    The once great and mighty Empire
    Everywhere signs of the fall appear

    The dark skies mirror
    The darkness that settled over our land

    Death, destruction and random acts of chaos
    Are all around us
    Surrounding us with visions of doom

    Nothing can stop the bloodletting
    No one seems to be in charge

    As the leaves fall
    And the darkness descends
    The fall of America continues

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    My Name Is Nobody

    John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller

    My name, it is Nobody
    No one cares who I am
    I am just a nameless clone
    In the cold unfeeling bureaucracy

    Just one of the army
    Of civilians who flood into and out of the city
    Every day

    A non-entity,
    A ghost
    A govbot
    A cyber
    A spook
    A faceless automan
    A bureaucrat

    Just a grey suited cog in the machinery
    And no one cares
    No one knows who I really am

    And I am legend
    Everywhere and nowhere

    Just the way this modern world
    All shred of humanity
    Crushed beneath the cruel wheel of society

    In the cold harsh world
    There is no room anymore
    For true human feelings

    We are just robots, clones, machines
    And so I go to work
    Put on my mask

    And no one hears my inner screams
    And no one will ever care

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    Strangeness in the Air

    John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller

    There is a strangeness in the air
    A sense of cosmic unease
    Hangs silently in the purple crystalline sky

    America woke up
    And decided it was time
    To quit following like lemmings
    Over the Clift

    As the pied piper chants
    Stay the course, stay the course
    We were like lemmings following him
    Dying to save his wounded pride

    Today there is that strange difference
    In the air
    As Americans woke up
    And threw off their chains of fear

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    “My name is Nobody” and, “Strageness in the Air”

  • poetic rants

    Driving to the End of the World

    Driving to the end of the world
    The end times approach

    Driving through the smoke-filled air
    North of Mt Shasta
    Heart of Bigfoot country

    End of the world images
    Fill my head with dismal
    end of the world visions
    the apocalypse is upon us

    The wicked evil as hell
    blood red sun
    Leers at me with an evil grin

    Screaming at me
    What fools these mortals be

    Global climate change
    Is as real as the smoky fires
    That Burn and burn and burn
    As our leaders turn turn turn away

    They Can’t handle the truth
    They will sacrifice all life on earth

    So the oil and coal barons
    The so-called masters of the universe

    Can make their obscene profits
    Sending the rest of us to hell

    Tuesday, 2 January 2018

    Merry Christmas from your friends at AT&T

    Sometimes I wonder
    About the morality of the corporate giants
    That rule our world

    On the day before Christmas
    AT and T received a huge Christmas gift
    From the President of the United States

    The biggest tax cut in U.S. History
    And the President proclaimed
    That it would unleash jobs jobs jobs

    Apparently, ATT never got the memo
    And they announced thousands of layoffs
    The day before Christmas

    A true PR nightmare
    That could have been avoided
    They could have waited two weeks

    And announced their restructuring plan
    After the New Years

    But no they decided to show the world
    Their true colors

    Heartless soulless monsters
    Who don’t give a damn
    About their workers, their customers
    Or their employees

    And certainly are not Christians
    Though I am sure that they think
    They are doing what Jesus would

    All they care about
    Is feathering their own pockets

    Is it any wonder
    That Americans hate the big corporations
    That rule us like ancient emperors?

    And will they fade away
    Into the dustbin of history

    One can only pray
    For such a Christmas miracle

    It’s a Gun Situation, Mr President

    Mr. President
    You are wrong once again.
    You said that the tragic events in Texas

    And Las Vegas were not “gun situations”
    But rather, were mental health problems

    And that in Texas if there had been gun controls
    Perhaps fewer people would have died

    Mr. President
    I know you a smart man,
    The smartest man in the world
    According to you

    So please contemplate this fact:
    According to the latest findings,

    It is a gun situation
    In fact, the reason the U.S.
    Has so many gun deaths

    Is because we have so many guns,
    45% of the world’s guns in fact

    And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
    Are Americans killing other Americans

    And most of them, the majority of them,
    Are White People killing other people

    Not murdering terrorists.
    Most are in fact,
    Out-of-control citizens.

    So Mr. President
    When will you come to your senses

    And do what 90 percent of the public wants,
    Enact nationwide effective gun controls?

    And tell the NRA
    they can take their blood money elsewhere

    When Mr. President
    When will you act
    When will you take charge

    And become a President of the people
    Instead of the President of the NRA?

    When will this Madness end?

    Yet again we turn on the TV
    And witness horrible scenes
    Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair

    An old man consumed by his own demons
    Opens fire from a hotel room
    Killing 58 people injuring hundreds

    In Las Vegas, Sin City
    And the cry goes out throughout the land

    Why yet again this tragedy?
    The usual suspects are rounded up

    It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
    Guns are the price of our freedom
    Guns Don’t Kill People

    The only solution is more guns for everyone
    The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
    Is a good guy with a gun

    An armed society is a polite society

    No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits

    We must confiscate the guns
    Ban Assault weapons
    And join the rest of the world

    Where such carnage does not occur
    And we sit around and argue

    Knowing that there will be a next time
    And another time and time and time again

    Until the end of time
    What is the sickness in our souls

    That allows for this hatred to fester so
    Deep within the minds of our killers

    Nothing will change
    Until we confront the evil
    That lurks deep within each of us

    There will be another Las Vegas
    Soon enough

    Donald Trump, Our Great Compassionate Dear Leader

    As an elderly man falls
    In front of him
    During a charity dinner event
    Hitting his head bleeding out

    Quote the MAGA Donald Trump our future dear leader

    “It is disgusting. I mean the guy was bleeding
    all over the nice marble floor”

    Donald Trump the self-proclaimed
    saviour of the nation
    Could not be bothered to lift a finger

    “Thank God for the marines who took out the garbage
    But they left a mess on the nice marble floor
    And ruined their nice uniforms”
    and disrupted a fine dinner

    Did he call the grieving family the next day
    Of course not

    Quote the Great Leader, the Donald

    “I forgot to call.” That is not his thing at all
    And still, I wonder

    How such a disgusting excuse
    For a human being became

    The leader of the greatest nation
    On earth

    And what it means for the future
    Is it proof that we are doomed
    That America is in the final stage
    Of terminal decline?

    Or will Americans take
    out the garbage
    From the white house?

    Fake Calls by John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller

    Every day I get woken up
    As the sun comes up
    By my phone ringing

    With a fake call

    It seems that the only people
    Whoever bother to call me

    Are the fake call people

    Who all call me
    With fake sincerity

    Offering me a great deal
    On this and that scam

    I curse at them
    Yell at them
    Mutter obscenities in foreign tongues

    And block their calls
    Yet it does not seem to matter

    The next call will be
    Yet another fake call

    Am I doomed to receive
    Fake calls until I day I die

    I turn on my computer

    And read my fake news accounts
    And watch TV for the latest fake news

    And the politicians lying
    And the criminals scheming

    To take my money

    The Zappa song comes to mind

    You will obey me while I lead you
    And eat the garbage that I feed you
    Until the day that we don’t need you

    Don’t go for help . . . no one will heed you
    Your mind is totally controlled

    It has been stuffed into my mold
    And you will do as you are told
    Until the rights to you are sold

    That’s right, folks . . .

    Don’t touch that dial

    And I scream to the universe
    Just leave me alone

    Then the phone rings

  • Ugly Writer Publishes ” Sleaze” Poems

    Ugly Writer Publishes ” Sleaze” Poems

    The Ugly writer publishes “Sleze” Poems

    “SLeze” poetry by Jake Cosmos Aller

    the Ugly Writer has published a number of my poems including my poems about “Sleaze” and “Searching for God”


    Heading Back to the Past

    While the rest of the world
    Embraces the energy of the future

    Our great denier of the truth

    picture of President Trump
    president trump

    wants to boldly take America back
    To the 19th century era of oil, and coal

    Yet perhaps it does not matter in the end
    As long as we have one another

    We will overcome
    The darkness will flee the land

    It Has Been Done Before

    Before Trump’s Wall
    There were many other walls

    trump's sleazy wall
    trump’s wall

    The Berlin Wall
    The Great Wall
    Hadrian’s Wall

    All the walls of the ancient world
    All failed
    To keep the enemies out

    The enemies of freedom
    The enemies of the state

    Still came across the border
    To loot, steal, rape and plunder

    And nothing could stop
    The flood of history

    The Grim Reaper Is late

    the grim reaper
    is late
    he is behind his quota

    so he unleashes
    the ravens of death

    the ravens of despair
    the ravens of madness

    they spread out
    all over the world

    infecting all
    with madness

    as the world descends
    consumed by hate

    the grim reaper
    smiles his sardonic grin

    thinking of all the souls
    he will harvest that day

    as he carries out
    the mandate
    of his satanic majesty

    The House of the Damned

    deep in the woods
    in the swamps of the deepest bayou

    lies an old abandoned cabin
    few have ever visited

    it looks long abandoned
    but there are stories

    legends
    of a creature
    from beyond time itself

    who lives deep in the swamp
    devouring everything he comes across

    But he hungers for human flesh
    once in a while

    he keeps a human slave
    who goes into town

    and drums up business
    for his master

    the hunters are recruited
    and they are brought to the house

    where they are commissioned
    to go into the woods

    and hunt down prisoners
    and shoot them dead

    and bring back the bodies
    for the bounty

    and the hunt is on
    and the prisoners are caught

    and the monster of the deep swamps
    has a feast

    and the hunters
    are added to the fire

    a few are left alive
    zombies under his control

    and so the house of the dead
    continues to haunt

    the deep swamps

    Searching for God

    a homeless man

    camped out
    on the streets
    of any city

    just another broken down soul
    looking for something

    and then I see him
    painting the face of God
    on the ground

    and I know
    that God is everywhere

    and sometimes
    only the down and out
    can see and feel God

    The rest of us
    are blind to the divine

    SLEAZE

    Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze
    Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze Sleaze
    Nothing but Sleaze
    Surrounds me 24/7

    S

    L

    E

    A

    Z

    E

    Led by the evil Sleaze King
    King Donald Trump
    the one true sleaze King
    The Sleaze King from TV

    Are we doomed to live
    In a world run by sleaze kings
    And ruled by sleaze values

    Are we addicted to sleaze
    And need our sleaze fix daily

    As we turn on the sleaze TV
    And see nothing but sleaze

    Oozing out of our TV sets?

    SLEAZE 2

    Sleaze surrounds us 24/7
    Lots of sleaze on the TV
    Everywhere we go nothing but sleaze
    All the time 24/7 sleaze rules the air
    Zappa had it right calling it the slime
    Everything is nothing but slime oozing out of our TV’s

    They are Next God Says

    God is in his cosmic control room
    The ultimate situation room

    Where here he watches over mankind 24/7
    One day he reads

    About protesters
    Protesting the operation
    of Emergency helicopters

    Because they’re too noisy
    they stir up dust
    and damage their properties

    And are just inconvenient as hell
    just too bloody inconvenient

    the protestors are demanding
    that the helicopters be grounded

    Disregarding the fact
    That they save lives
    Given the hellish traffic conditions

    God is furious at the callous attitude
    The casual disregard for human life
    And the pettiness of the protesters

    He calls up his chief angels
    And reads them the recent articles

    All of the angels
    Are furious at the callous attitudes of the protesters

    God calls the grim reaper
    His contractor who handles the details of death

    God says I have a commission for you

    The Grim Reaper had read the article
    As he too monitors the world 24/7

    He laughs

    and says I know what to do
    Obviously, they all have to die
    In a horrific accident

    and can’t get to the hospital in time
    Because they are stuck in traffic

    Now you’re talking God said
    But I want you to break protocol

    Just before they die show up
    And explain to them why
    They are about to die

    That would be poetic justice God said
    And you know I’m all about that

    Everyone laughs
    God has a sense of humor after all

    The grim reaper mordantly salutes the boss
    And goes about his grim task

    Out Law Lady of the Night

    Photo by Nishant Vyas on Pexels.com

    One wild moonlit night
    On the tail end of a Friday Night booze run

    I found myself
    Twenty drinks too sober
    In a bar in the mean streets of Bangkok

    Drinking my way to Hell
    Just as fast as I could

    And on the stage
    Dancing her soul away
    Was the most beautiful creature

    In the known universe

    Dancing with an attitude
    That could kill an elephant in heat

    She looked so fine
    Made my eye balls hurt

    As I started at her naked body
    Admiring the curves
    In all the right places

    And her ass called to me
    Telling me deep dark erotic desires
    Inspiring carnal thoughts

    And hopes that she would be mine
    For the right price

    And I stared at her
    And she smiled with an evil seductive smile
    A true succubus from hell itself

    And she gave me a knowing look
    And I knew that I was hooked

    For a night of wild libertine passion
    As I devoured her

    Making wild passionate love
    All night long

    Even if it meant
    That I would be selling my soul
    To the devil himself

    Last Woman on Earth

    The last woman on earth
    Stands in a deep forest
    Contemplating the end of the world

    The end of civilization
    The end of time itself

    She stares out at the dark forest
    Watching the world reclaim itself
    Watching mankind fade away into dust

    The last woman in the world
    Clutches her bible against her chest
    Wondering why God had forsaken her

    She screams out to God
    But no answer

    Only the silence of the wilderness
    And the silence in her heart

    The end of the world
    Came overnight
    Only she survived the final bio plague

    She fled the crumbling ruins of the city
    Sought refuge in the forest

    And found she could not die
    And she wanders the world

    Looking for survivors
    And so the world ends

    And mankind fades away

  • Five Poems About Noise

    Five Poems about Noise

    By

    Jake (John) Cosmos Aller

    Index

    Lost in Internet Space

    Shutting Down the Noise

    It Don’t Mean Shit

    Noise

    Nonsense

    Lost in Internet Space (Microsoft dictation Found Poem)

    All night I felt lost

    In that last Internet space

    Lost and consumed by the constant noise

    All around us

    Consumed with anxiety

    I’m wondering About Future

    and about me

    And finally decided

    Just focus I’m living day by day

    Helping the best

    Ashland I can be

    I’m not Worry too much

    About things I can’t control

    Were home

    Too many things to do

    and I Well

    Just him and I can eat

    to do

    And hopefully

    The world make me laugh

    yes again

    I sound fun too

    Shutting down the Noise

    Watching from afar

    The endless constant changing

    Reality that is the Trump Presidency

    Watching one political norm after another

    Tossed aside at the mercurial whim of the President

    And the right wing spin machine at work

    And the left wing

    Saying the world is ending

    And everything is going to hell

    As I sucked into the void

    Watching watching watching

    As the political process

    Destroys the country

    And the world

    Then I realized

    It is all a delusion

    It means nothing

    And the world is not ending

    At least not today

    I shut off the TV

    I realize that I would be happier

    If I just shut it all down

    Shut down the internet

    Shut down the media

    Shut off the radio

    Put down the newspaper

    And cut through the noise machine

    That surronds us 24/7

    Listen to classical music

    Listin to old time blues

    Go with a walk with my wife

    Enjoy the day

    And let the noise of the media

    Fade away into nothingness

    It Don’t Mean Shit

    Watching the news

    Sucked into the The 24/7 noise machine,

    Watching the constant lies, spin, accusations counter accusations

    Dark conspiracies, deep state, fake news, Evil plots, The Trump reality TV show

    Run amuck, The Republicans in congress, Fiddling as the world burns

    And the democrats Fanning the flames of discontent Just like the Republicans did

    For eight years under Obama

    I breath deeply

    Turn off the TV

    And go for a walk

    In the hills

    Just to get away

    From the nosie of the world

    Just for a moment

    Mr. Natural

    That beloved 60’s mascot

    Used to say

    It don’t meet shit

    And just went trucking along

    But as I tried to recall that wisdom

    My resolve only lasts a few minutes

    soon enough I am

    sucked back into another marathon

    Watching the news

    The noise that surrounds us

    Driving us mad

    As the anxiety consumes us all

    In the new Trump world order

    Noise

    Nothing but constant noise
    On the air,

    In the internet
    Surrounding us 24/7
    Everywhere we turn

    Nonsense – Nothing but noise

    Nothing but nonsense, noise, chattering idiots

    On the news, on the internet, all over the place

    Nothing but nonsense, noise about dark conspiracies

    Seldom is spoken a word of truth

    Even in the darkest corner of the world

    Nothing but noise when you turn on the TV

    Sometimes I want to smash my TV

    Eventually the mood fades and I am drawn back into its embrace

    © Copyright 2018 JCosmos (jcosmos at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.

  • Poets Against the Wall Published my poetry

    Some of my more poetical poetry has been published on Poets Against the Wall today.

    for more information contact the publisher.

    available on Amazon – i mislaid the link but will update once I find the link

    https://www.theravingpress.com/rgv-cross-sections-blog/building-the-wall-anthology

    The original Raving Press since 1998.

    see my entry,

    Mr. Trump Tear Down this Wall!

     RGV Cross
    Sections
    (Blog)​
    s

    These Are The Poets Facing The Wall
    9/25/2018

    The idea for the “Poets Facing the Wall” anthology was born right on the U.S. – Mexico border. It has been both the anti-Mexican/immigrant rhetoric and the deafening silence or apathy of most Americans including many living along the border that made the need for such a publication a must. People need to realize what this wall truly represents. At a time when border crossings are down, and many immigrants are actually going back south to their respective homes, why is the wall more needed now than when the influx was higher? Is its true purpose to stop people from coming in? Or could it be that it is meant as a symbol to cast a message broadly and clearly to the world beyond our southern border?

    “DON’T STEP IN MY YARD. EVEN IF YOU ARE RUNNING FROM DANGER. I DON’T CARE. STAY OUT!”

    The Statue of Liberty stands on an island turning its eyes toward Europe with a soft demeanor, gently posed holding the torch to light the way for the weary traveler seeking refuge from the darkness of the world they have left behind. The Statue of Liberty’s torch is the light that represents the dream of a better future, where the sun shines equally upon all who look to it seeking its warmth. The statue itself is the guardian and guarantor of that promise.

    According to the National Park Service’s website,

    “The torch is a symbol of enlightenment. The Statue of Liberty’s torch lights the way to freedom showing us the path to Liberty. Even the Statue’s official name represents her most important symbol ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’.”

    By contrast, what does a non-human-like and unnecessary barrier say when its faceless and eyeless semblance stares coldly at our neighbors in Latin America? It speaks of a greater problem than illegal immigration. It speaks of an inability to recognize that without immigration, the U.S. would have been impossible. People in our country like and respect those who “tell it like it is”. And in this case, it is a fact that our country was founded by illegal immigrants first, then legal immigration became the preferred institutionalized method of entry. But there are exceptions. Asylum seekers and refugees must be given a chance to be heard and helped. Especially, since data shows that the vast majority of all immigrants actually prop up our economy; they do not drain it.

    But then the question of race comes into play. And that is the biggest obstacle to our future. Perhaps, more than anything, the wall will represent not the need for security form evildoers, but the failure to defeat false beliefs of racial superiority. This has been the greatest stain in our past. The cement holding the construction of those false beliefs must not be allowed to solidify, for like all walls that have ever been erected to divide it will not succeed. Only bridges and roads can take humanity onward toward the future. Let this anthology assist in taking a step in that direction.

    Below is the list of accepted works and their authors. (Not in order of appearance in the final publication.)
    An Inheritance of Fear
    By Jill Evans

    As We Forgive Those
    By Roger Sippl

    Ave Blanca
    Seres Jaime Magaña

    Blue Again
    By C. R. Resetarits

    BLUES FOR JOSE ANTONIO ELENA RODRIGUEZ
    (Traditional 12 Bar Blues Song)
    by Laurie Jurs

    Construction of First Border Wall Segment to Begin
    in a South Texas Wildlife Refuge
    By Kristin Barendsen

    THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HELD AND HELD
    by Catherine Lee

    My Exit
    By Richard Nester

    -The Greatest, Most Beautiful Soliloquy EVER!
    -Ten Commandments Updated
    By Rick Blum

    Guardian of the Mountains
    By Michael Garrigan

    -I Am Chicano
    -You Make the Call
    By Sammy Ybarra

    Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
    By Miranda Rocha
    Myopia of belonging
    By Sunayna Pal

    Northward Bound
    By Ana Maria Fores Tamayo

    -Nuestros niños
    -Tinta negra
    By Xanath Carraza

    Oh, Say Can You See
    By Wendy Baron

    On Day 1, We Will Begin Working
    By Natalie D-Napoleon

    -Wide Open
    -The Fool’s Game
    -Blurred Vision
    By Teri Garcia-Ruiz

    -ok | walk on the way
    -yr assignment spend a day here along
    By Steven Alvarez

    -Blood, Sweat and Tears
    -Conflict
    -Survival
    By Vanessa Caraveo

    Hollywood
    By Sharon Lundy

    Musings
    by Sheena Pillai Singh

    -Song for America XXIII (the nation’s anthem)
    -Song for America XXV
    -Song for America XXVIII (for Marvin Gaye)
    By Fernando Esteban Flores

    -De este lado del muro
    -Rima infantil
    By Gabriel González Núñez

    Ten Feet Higher
    By Richard King Perkins II

    The Promised Wall
    By Kimmy Alan

    -Shelter
    -This Just In
    -Wall
    By Sandra Anfang

    -Closure
    -more harm than good
    By Linda M. Crate

    -Walls Divide Us
    -Mr. Trump Tear Down This Wall
    By John “Jake” Cosmos Aller

    Walking Around
    By John M. Bellinger

    “A, Homeboy”
    by Johnny Barboza

    -The Wall
    -Lament for Emma Lazarus
    -Ghost Wall
    By Robbi Nester

    We are Sisters!
    By Patty York Raymond

    -What I Need Now
    -In Concert
    By Dorothy Baird

    -The Travel North
    -Keep my dream Alive
    By Jose Rafael Castilleja

    -GRETEL
    -WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
    -CROSSINGS
    By Jude Brigley

    Borradores
    by Octavio Quintanilla

    Thanks to all of the poets who submitted their work for evaluation. The accepted submissions are of great significance and literary quality. The poems along with the introduction by Enclave Magazine’s founder and editor, Hector Luis Alamo, make this anthology one of the most important and well-crafted we have put together. I am proud to have my name associated with this project. It should become required reading for public schools, colleges, and universities. We are looking to a late October or early November publication. We will announce an official publishing date in less than two weeks.

  • Duane Poetree Publishes Sandwich Choicese

     

    My good friend at Duane’s Poetree has published another one of my poems.  here it is.  It was written after eating a delicious BLT at the Ashland Oregon Co-Op which has one of the best delis’s on the West Coast. Check it out.

    published in Duane’s Poetree http://duanespoetree.blogspot.com/

    sandwich
    Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

    Sandwich Choices

    There are so many choices to be had

    When ordering a sandwich

     

    What kind of bread

    What kind of meat or any meat

    What kind of cheese or any cheese

    Whether to have sprouts or not

    Whether to have a pickle or not

     

    Whether to go with a classic peanut butter

    And something sandwich

     

    I loved peanut butter sandwiches

    As a kid

     

    Peanut butter and sweet pickles were my favorites

    Peanut butter and banana is good also

    Peanut butter and strawberry jam

    What a delightful memory

     

    My current favorite

    Is a BLT with sprouts, avocado, and kosher dill pickles

    lettuce

    Heirloom red tomatoes one slice per each half

    Avocado one half per each half

    One-half pickle on each half

    Bacon cooked just right – well done but not black

    Sprouts and lettuce just right

    Timamook Yellow smoked cheder cheese

    On each half

     

    On Gluten Free bread

    with chipotle mayo

    And Dijon mustard

    ketchup

    dash of Tabasco

    Cut in half

     

    Truly a sandwich made in heaven

    And bacon makes everything

    Taste so damn nice

     

    And God if you are reading this poem

    You had better prepare them for me

    Or Heaven will not be worth it

     

    Does Satan serve BLT sandwiches

    I wonder

    Probably not

    Probably you become the bacon

    In his hell sandwiches

     

  • Ugly Writers publishes recent poems

    Ugly Writers publishes recent poems

    updated to reflect recent publication.

    Snarling Cup of Coffee

    Snarling Cup of Coffee

    I like to start my day with a hot cup of coffee
    I pound down the coffee
    First thing I do every day as the dawning sun
    Lights up my lonesome room

    Yeah, but not just a simple cup of java Joe, but a God damn snarling sarcastic smarmy cup of coffee
    I mean, – we are talking about an alcoholic, all speed ahead, always hot, always fresh, always there when I need it, angry, attitude talk to the hand Ztude, bad, bad assed, beats breaking, beatnik, bluesy, bitter, bitchy, bombs away, capitalistic, caffeinated up the ass, cinematic, communistic, Colombian grown, Costa Rican inspired, Cowabunga to the max, crazy assed, devilishly angelic, divine, divinely inspired, dyslexic, epic, extreme vetting, evil eye, expensive, erotic vision inducing, Ethiopian coffee house brewed, euphoric, freaky, freazoid, foxy, Frenched kissed, French brewed, funkified, foxy lady, graphic, GOD in my coffee, with Allah, Ganesh, Jesus, Kali, Buddha, Christians, Durga, Hindus, Mohamed, Jesus and Mo and their friend, the cosmic bar maid, Sai Babai, Shiva, Taoists, Zoroastrians, drinking my god damned coffee in Hell; growling, gnarly, happy, hard as ice, Hawaian blessed, high as a kite, hippie, hip, hipster, hip hoppy, hot as hell yet strangely sweet as heaven, jazzy, jealous, Kerouac approved, kick ass, kick my god damn ass to Tuesday, kick down the doors and take no prisoners, grown in the Vietnam highlands by ex-Vietcong, Guatemalan grown, kiss ass, illegal in every state, imported from all over the god damn world, insane, lovely, loony, lonely, lonesome, malodorous mean old rotten, motherfucking, nasty, narcotic, never whatever, never meh, never cold, not approved by the CIA, not approved by DHS, not approved for human consumption by the FDA, not your daddy’s sissified corporate cup of coffee, NOT DECAFE coffee, not your Denny’s truck driver weak as brown water cup of fake coffee, not your establishment friendly cup of coffee, Not your FBI coffee, Not FAKE Herbal coffee substitute, but a real cup of coffee, not your farmer brothers dinner crap, not made in America for Americans, not safe for work, not your Starbucks average expensive overpriced crappy corporate chain cup of coffee, Not pretentious, Not White House approved, not State Department safe, nuclear, Not Patriotic, operatic, Peets’s coffee approved, paranoid, pornographic, psychotic, pontific, politically aware, rapping, rhyming, right here, right now in River city, rock and roll up the Yazoo, sad, sadistic, sarcastic, sassy, satanic, schizoid, shitting, silly, sexy, smarmy, smelly, smooth, snarky, snarling, stupid, stinking, sweet as honey, sweat inducing, symphonic, Trump can’t handle this coffee, vengeful, Wagnerian, wicked, with nutmeg and cinnamon swirls, with a hint of stevia, with a hint of vanilla, with a hint of rum, with a hint of whisky, with a hint of cherry, with a hint of fruit overtones, with a hint of drugs spicing up the coffee, spendific, speeding, splendid, superior accept no substitutes, survived the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the first and Second Korean war, World War 11, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on black people, the sexual revolution, Soulful as a summer’s night in MOTOWN- James Brown approved, TOP approved, Berkeley approved, the coffee that Jimmy Hendrix drank before he died, the coffee that Elvis drank on his last breakfast, the coffee that Barry White crooned as he drank his cup of coffee – and the coffee that made the white boy play stand up and play that funky music, the coffee that made Jonny B Goode play his guitar, and made Jonny bet the devil his soul after he drank his morning cup of righteous coffee and the coffee that make the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll, the coffee your mother warned you against drinking, the coffee that Napoleon drank when he became the Emperor of all Europe, the Coffee that Beethoven drank when he wrote the Ninth symphony, the coffee that Mozart drank as he wrote his last symphony, the coffee that Lincoln drank before he was killed, the Hemingway drank before he killed himself, the coffee that started the 60’s, and ended the 20th century, the coffee that Lenin drank as he plotted revolution, the coffee that Hitler and Stalin drank with FDR as they divided up the world after World War 11, the cup that JFK drank before he was blown away, the coffee Jerry drinks while driving in cars with random celebrities and political figures, the coffee that Jon Stewart drinks before he goes on an epic take down of some foolish politico, the cup of Arabic coffee that Sadaam drank the day he was executed, the coffee that GW and Cheney drank when they bombed Baghdad, the Indian cup of coffee that Bid Laden drank before 9-11 and just before the seals blew his ass to hell, the cup of coffee that Tiger Woods drank with his mistresses while playing a 3, 000 dollar round of golf at Sandy Lane golf course in Barbados, the last legal drug that does what drugs should do, the cup of coffee that Obama drank when he became President, Vietnamese, Vienna brew, wacky, whimsical, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, wild, weird, wonderful, WOW, Yabba dabba doo! Yada Yada yada Zappa’s favorite cup of cosmic coffee, and Zorro’s last cup of coffee, Good to the last drop rolled into one simple cup of hot coffee

    As I pound down that first cup of coffee
    And fire up my synaptic nerve endings with endless supplies
    Of caffeine induced neuron enhancing chemicals

    I face the dawning day with trepidation and mind-numbing fear
    I turn on the TV and watch the smarmy newscasters in their perfect hair
    Lying through their teeth about the great success the government is having

    Following the great leader’s latest pronouncements
    I want to scream and shoot the TV and run out side Shouting “Stop the world.
    I want to get off this fucking crazy planet”

    The earth does not care a whit about my attitude
    It merely shrugs and moves around the Sun
    In its appointed daily run

    And I sit down
    The madness dissipating a bit
    And enjoy my second cup
    Of heaven and hell
    In my morning cup of Joe

    Ode to Coffee

    Mistress of sacred love
    Sacred lady of desire
    You start my day
    Setting my heart on fire

    With your dark delicious flavor
    And throughout the day
    Whenever the mean old blues come by
    You chase them away

    With your bitter sweet ambrosial brew
    Every time I inhale your witches’ brew
    I am filled with power, light and love
    And everything is all right Jack

    If only for a few fleeting minutes
    I love you oh coffee goddess
    In all your magical forms

    In the dark coffee of the dawning day
    In the sizzling coffee in the mid-morning break
    In the afternoon siesta break

    And in the post dinner dessert drink
    I love you my coffee mistress
    You are my refuge
    From this horrid world

    And you are my secret lover
    Never disappoint me, ever
    I’ve never had a bad cup
    Of that I can be sure
    Even the dismal coffee
    Served at Denny’s at 3 am

    Is still sweet loving coffee
    Even the farmer brother’s diner coffee
    Excites me and gets me going
    Asking for another cup of divine delight

    Coffee always is there
    It is always on and piping hot
    With hidden dark secrets
    Swirling in its liquid essence

    Coffee is my last vice
    My only legal vice left
    Coffee does not cheat on me
    It is always faithful, always true

    It does not turn on its friends
    And all it asks in return
    Is that you come back
    Cup after cup after cup

    A good cup of coffee
    Is a little bit of heaven
    In a cup of dark liquid hell

    Coffee is like a drug
    But a good drug that does what is should
    And never complains
    It does not get grouchy
    It does not hurt you

    It does not make you crazy
    But allows the muse to come out
    And play with it

    Coffee led to the American Revolution
    As patriots drank coffee
    To rebel against the aristocratic English tea

    Coffee started the London Stock Market
    And started the gossip mills running
    Every great invention

    Was fed by coffee’s sweet brew sweet allure
    All the great thinkers
    All the great leaders
    All were enslaved to coffee’s magic

    Yeah
    I sing my praises
    Of the great glorious coffee lady
    Long may she continue
    To be my sweet companion

    Long may coffee continue
    To rule my heart
    And set my heart on fire


    I love thee
    Mistress coffee
    And sometimes I think
    You love me too

    No More Coffee Blues

     

    I love coffee

    Always have

    And coffee has loved me back

    But lately I have soured on her

    Soured on the whole coffee scene

    On the harshness of the morning brew

    And the promises it makes

     

    As I sip of its nectar

    Drawn into its lair

    Drinking drop by drop

    As the caffeine takes over

     

    Rewriting my every nerve

    Turning me into a slave

    For its perverted pleasure

    Yes, I love coffee

    But I am afraid

    Coffee is a harsh mistress

    Demanding so much of me

     

    Promising the sun

    And delivering the Moon

    As I drink her swill

    Deepening under her influence

    I have the coffee blues

    Can’t live without her

    Can’t live with her

    I try

    But tea does not cut it

    Not really

    Booze does not do it

    At least not in the morning

     

    Yoga is not enough of a buzz

    Nor is the runner’s high

    And I am afraid deadly afraid of cocaine

    And speed and drugs and energy drinks

     

    And so, I remain a slave to coffee

    My only legal drug

    As I sip another and fall under her seductive spread

     

    Once more failing in my resolve

    To skip coffee for that day

    That morning that moment

     

    I shall never be free of her spell

    Ever and she knows it

    As she beckons me

    Every morning with her intoxicating smell

    And I come to her and drink her brew

    And become her slave again and again

     


    Unhinged Lunatic Howling at the Full Moon

    howling at the Moon

    On the night of the blood red super full moon
    I sat in an evil, depraved godforsaken bar
    Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew

    Washed down by endless rounds of whiskey
    rum, tequila, vodka, soju and of course beer

    drinking with my buddies the Jack Daniels Gang
    Drinking my way to Hell and beyond
    Just as fast as I could

    twenty damn drinks too sober
    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
    That din of cosmic depravity

    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 pant
    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 blood red full moon

    Foaming at the mouth
    A wild, free werewolf

    Howling at the lunatic light
    Of the blood red blue full Moon


    April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitch hiking Tales

    When I was young and foolish
    Broke and stubborn

    I hitchhiked across the USA
    Started in Salt Lake City
    Where my greyhound bus pass
    Was stolen

    The station manager
    Could have helped me
    But refused to do so

    Threaten to call the cops
    When I grabbed my bags 
    Without the stolen tags

    I said
    Go ahead
    But I am so out of here

    Wondered about Salt Lake City
    Went to a bar
    Found I had to buy my booze

    Next door
    And they would mix it for me
    Had to order food too

    After a bloody Mary
    And a burger

    I walked about town
    Saw the Mormon Temple
    Finally about 3 pm

    It was time to hit the road
    Did not look back

    Ended up in Cody Wyoming
    Got a room shower
    Steak beer
    Using my rapidly depleted cash Spent 25 dollars
    Money really went far
    Back in those days

    A band of professional
    Communist agitators
    Gave me a ride

    To Des Moines
    Lots of weed, booze
    And politics later

    Got off the road
    Slept outside

    Next day
    A beautiful woman
    Drove me to near Chicago
    In a red mustang

    Might have been
    The girl in the song
    Took it easy

    Digging her vibe
    She invited home

    But was not sure
    If her estranged husband
    Would welcome me

    So, I am being foolish
    And inexperienced with women
    Did not go to her place

    And always regretted
    That I had lost
    My chance that day

    Then on to Chicago
    Several rides later
    Visited friends

    Hit the road again
    A series of uneventful rides
    With truckers
    And others

    And a week later
    I ended in New York City

    Slept along the way
    In cars
    In truck stops
    In high way rest stops

    Always moving
    Always going

    None stop talking
    And lots of free weed
    And beer

    And conversation
    One more memorable ride

    Occurred outside Albany
    On my return to Chicago
    A middle age creepy looking man
    Picked me up

    In a brand-new Cadillac
    He was he said a dynamite deliverer
    For the Mafia

    Went to various places
    To blow up shit

    He hated a lot of people
    Particularly hippies from California

    And Jewish people
    Looking at me to confirm
    That I was both

    I told him that I lived in New York
    And had never been to California

    And although I might have looked Jewish
    As I what was called back in the day
    A “Jewfro”

    I was not Jewish
    Many years later I discovered
    That I am indeed part Jewish

    But then I did not know
    And I felt a bit of strategic information
    Might keep me alive

    Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
    And we relaxed

    And he pulled out some weed
    And beer
    And we mellowed out

    But I believe that he really was with the mob
    Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
    A real made Italian made mafia member
    By Chicago

    I had enough
    I called my Dad
    Told him what had happened

    Wanted a ticket home
    And he sent me a ticket
    And 500 dollars

    And I went home
    I told him I would tell him
    My tales some day

    But never did
    I learned so much
    About my fellow Americans

    And the strange vibe
    That was 1975
    And now it is too late

    But I wanted to finally
    Tell the world
    Of my hitchhiking tales
    In search of America 1975


    When Will this Darkness End

    As the darkness settles down on the land
    All are consumed with evil
    Foul deeds and endless darkness

    I wonder if it will ever go away
    Yes I wonder

    If our great nightmare will ever end
    Are we doomed
    To live out the decline of America?

    This is what I pray for 2018
    The end of the darkness
    The unleashed hatred
    that consumes our land


    the Bus – Travels Through America’s Underbelly

     

    hitching a ride

    I am a bus rider
    That makes me unusual
    For a white male

    From an upper middle class family
    Our people are not bus riders
    Though some are subway riders

    Bus riders are other people
    The poor, minorities, immigrants

    People who don’t drive
    Because they are blind
    Or have a DUI

    And in my case
    I don’t drive

    Because I have bad vision
    And bad coordination
    Just never got the hang
    Of the whole driving thing

    Fortunately for me
    My wife does the driving
    But I still take the bus
    From time to time

    I rode the AC buses in Berkeley
    As a child
    Line 67, line 51, line 43 F bus
    Rode them long before BART came along

    And afterwards as well
    As an adult seldom rode the bus
    But when I did so
    I was always impressed

    By the sheer diversity
    Of the bus riding property
    Hundreds of languages
    All sorts of sexual orientation
    Some were white
    Most were not

    Most of my fellow passengers
    Were nice enough
    Some were friendly

    And some were lost
    In their own thoughts

    And a few
    Were scary looking dudes
    With the look

    Of someone who had done time
    And were capable of more violence

    I also rode the bus
    In Seattle as a graduate student

    A lot of fellow UW students
    And the usual immigrants
    Minorities etc

    And some white people
    Commuting

    And in DC
    Over the years
    I rode a lot of buses

    Mostly to and from the metro
    But I got to know

    And love the DC buses as well

    I also took the greyhound bus
    Across the country

    Several times over the years
    All over the U.S.

    From Bay Area to Stockton
    From Bay Area to Clear Lake
    From Bay area to NYC
    NYC to DC

    All over the USA
    Taking the Greyhound

    Was always an an adventure
    Met a lot of interesting people

    As people on long distant bus rides
    Tend to open up and talk
    To pass the time away

    Overseas I took the bus
    All over
    In India, in Barbados
    In Spain and in Korea

    The Korean buses
    For many years
    Were difficult for foreign visitors
    As the signs were all in Korean

    Most have signs
    Now in English, Chinese and Korean
    And are much more foreigner friendly

    Riding the bus
    In America

    Allows one access
    To the underbelly of American society

    The poor, the marginalized
    The immigrant communities

    That many middle-class white people
    Just never see

    And for that reason
    I am glad
    That I am a bus rider

    The End

     

     

  • Minnie’s Diary published “the Market Rules Us All”

    Minnie’s Diary has published a cynical look at love in the modern era called, “the Market Rules Us All.  Here it is:

    The Market Rules Us All 

    The market rules all

    We are nothing but products

    The rights to us

    Have long been sold

    Bow down and worship

    The all mighty market

    Everything we do

    Everything we see

    Everything we are

    Nothing but our personal brand

    Nothing human left over

    Nothing authentic left over

    Nothing but lies

    Fake news

    nonsense

    The world does not care one whit

    About you and me

    As people

    It is all about the profits that can be made

    By exploiting our labor

    And once we are used up

    We become a liability

    And a burden

    If you have not made it to the top

    By age 55

    You are a loser

    And should be retired

    Forced to live out your life

    On your miserable pension

    As you wait to die

    No longer useful

    To the Masters of the Universe

    And true love

    Nothing but an illusion

    It is all about the sex, baby

    And how getting your baby

    Ahead at all costs

    Who cares about love

    It is all nothing

    But a second hand emotion

    As the song puts it

    Love is nothing but a sexual commodity

    And we are all nothing but interchangeable

    Commodities in the marriage and love market

    And porno values rules the bedroom

    As we are nothing more than used body parts

    Who cares about friendship

    It is all about how they can use you

    And you can use them

    To get ahead

    True Love and genuine connections

    Cannot survive

    In this toxic soup

    Of the modern materialist world

    God and spirituality

    Nothing but a scam

    As our so call Christian Leaders

    Proclaim their love for you

    All they love is your donations

    And they too are part of the market

    Jesus if he ever comes back

    Will no doubt

    Be used to sell more goods

    As the right to Jesus

    Has also been sold

  • Ego Phobia Publishes Bus Rider and other Poems

    Five Poems by Jake Cosmos Aller

     

    Snarling Cup of Coffee

     

    I like to start my day with a hot cup of coffee

    I pound down the coffee

    First thing I do every day as the dawning sun

    Lights up my lonesome room

     

    Yeah, but not just a simple cup of java Joe, but a God damn snarling sarcastic smarmy cup of coffee

    I mean, – we are talking about an alcoholic, all speed ahead, always hot, always fresh, always there when I need it, angry, attitude talk to the hand Ztude, bad, bad assed, beats breaking, beatnik, bluesy, bitter, bitchy, bombs away, capitalistic, caffeinated up the ass, cinematic, communistic, Colombian grown, Costa Rican inspired, Cowabunga to the max, crazy assed, devilishly angelic, divine, divinely inspired, dyslexic, epic, extreme vetting, evil eye, expensive, erotic vision inducing, Ethiopian coffee house brewed, euphoric, freaky, freazoid, foxy, Frenched kissed, French brewed, funkified, foxy lady, graphic, GOD in my coffee, with Allah, Ganesh, Jesus, Kali, Buddha, Christians, Durga, Hindus, Mohamed, Jesus and Mo and their friend, the cosmic bar maid, Sai Babai, Shiva, Taoists, Zoroastrians, drinking my god damned coffee in Hell; growling, gnarly, happy, hard as ice, Hawaian blessed, high as a kite, hippie, hip, hipster, hip hoppy, hot as hell yet strangely sweet as heaven, jazzy, jealous, Kerouac approved, kick ass, kick my god damn ass to Tuesday, kick down the doors and take no prisoners, grown in the Vietnam highlands by ex-Vietcong, Guatemalan grown, kiss ass, illegal in every state, imported from all over the god damn world, insane, lovely, loony, lonely, lonesome, malodorous mean old rotten, motherfucking, nasty, narcotic, never whatever, never meh, never cold, not approved by the CIA, not approved by DHS, not approved for human consumption by the FDA, not your daddy’s sissified corporate cup of coffee, NOT DECAFE coffee, not your Denny’s truck driver weak as brown water cup of fake coffee, not your establishment friendly cup of coffee, Not your FBI coffee, Not FAKE Herbal coffee substitute, but a real cup of coffee, not your farmer brothers dinner crap, not made in America for Americans, not safe for work, not your Starbucks average expensive overpriced crappy corporate chain cup of coffee, Not pretentious, Not White House approved, not State Department safe, nuclear, Not Patriotic, operatic, Peets’s coffee approved, paranoid, pornographic, psychotic, pontific, politically aware, rapping, rhyming, right here, right now in River city, rock and roll up the Yazoo, sad, sadistic, sarcastic, sassy, satanic, schizoid, shitting, silly, sexy, smarmy, smelly, smooth, snarky, snarling, stupid, stinking, sweet as honey, sweat inducing, symphonic, Trump can’t handle this coffee, vengeful, Wagnerian, wicked, with nutmeg and cinnamon swirls, with a hint of stevia, with a hint of vanilla, with a hint of rum, with a hint of whisky, with a hint of cherry, with a hint of fruit overtones, with a hint of drugs spicing up the coffee, spendific, speeding, splendid, superior accept no substitutes, survived the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the first and Second Korean war, World War 11, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on black people, the sexual revolution, Soulful as a summer’s night in MOTOWN- James Brown approved, TOP approved, Berkeley approved, the coffee that Jimmy Hendrix drank before he died, the coffee that Elvis drank on his last breakfast, the coffee that Barry White crooned as he drank his cup of coffee – and the coffee that made the white boy play stand up and play that funky music, the coffee that made Jonny B Goode play his guitar, and made Jonny bet the devil his soul after he drank his morning cup of righteous coffee and the coffee that make the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll, the coffee your mother warned you against drinking, the coffee that Napoleon drank when he became the Emperor of all Europe, the Coffee that Beethoven drank when he wrote the Ninth symphony, the coffee that Mozart drank as he wrote his last symphony, the coffee that Lincoln drank before he was killed, the Hemingway drank before he killed himself, the coffee that started the 60’s, and ended the 20th century, the coffee that Lenin drank as he plotted revolution, the coffee that Hitler and Stalin drank with FDR as they divided up the world after World War 11, the cup that JFK drank before he was blown away, the coffee Jerry drinks while driving in cars with random celebrities and political figures, the coffee that Jon Stewart drinks before he goes on an epic take down of some foolish politico, the cup of Arabic coffee that Sadaam drank the day he was executed, the coffee that GW and Cheney drank when they bombed Baghdad, the Indian cup of coffee that Bid Laden drank before 9-11 and just before the seals blew his ass to hell, the cup of coffee that Tiger Woods drank with his mistresses while playing a 3, 000 dollar round of golf at Sandy Lane golf course in Barbados, the last legal drug that does what drugs should do, the cup of coffee that Obama drank when he became President, Vietnamese, Vienna brew, wacky, whimsical, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, wild, weird, wonderful, WOW, Yabba dabba doo! Yada Yada yada Zappa’s favorite cup of cosmic coffee, and Zorro’s last cup of coffee, Good to the last drop rolled into one simple cup of hot coffee

     

    As I pound down that first cup of coffee

    And fire up my synaptic nerve endings with endless supplies

    Of caffeine induced neuron enhancing chemicals

     

    I face the dawning day with trepidation and mind-numbing fear

    I turn on the TV and watch the smarmy newscasters in their perfect hair

    Lying through their teeth about the great success the government is having Following the great leader’s latest pronouncements

    I want to scream and shoot the TV and run out side Shouting   “Stop the world.

     

    I want to get off this fucking crazy planet”

    The earth does not care a whit about my attitude

    It merely shrugs and moves around the Sun

    In its appointed daily run

    And I sit down

    The madness dissipating a bit

     

    And enjoy my second cup

    Of heaven and hell

    In my morning cup of Joe

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Unhinged Lunatic Howling at the Full Moon

     

    On the night of the blood red super full moon

    I sat in an evil, depraved godforsaken bar

     

    Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew

    Washed down by endless rounds of whiskey

    rum, tequila, vodka, soju and of course beer

    drinking with my buddies the Jack Daniels Gang

     

    Drinking my way to Hell and beyond

    Just as fast as I could

    twenty damn drinks too sober

     

    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

    That din of cosmic depravity

     

    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 pant

    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 blood red full moon

     

    Foaming at the mouth

    A wild, free werewolf

    Howling at the lunatic light

    Of the blood red blue full Moon

     

     

     

     

     

     

    April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitch hiking Tales

     

    When I was young and foolish

    Broke and stubborn

    I hitchhiked across the USA

     

    Started in Salt Lake City

    Where my greyhound bus pass

    Was stolen

     

    The station manager

    Could have helped me

    But refused to do so

     

    Threaten to call the cops

    When I grabbed my bags Without the stolen tags

     

    I said

    Go ahead

    But I am so out of here

     

    Wondered about Salt Lake City

    Went to a bar

    Found I had to buy my booze

    Next door

    And they would mix it for me

     

    Had to order food too

    After a bloody Mary

    And a burger

     

    I walked about town

    Saw the Mormon Temple

     

    Finally about 3 pm

    It was time to hit the road

    Did not look back

     

    Ended up in Cody Wyoming

    Got a room shower

    Steak beer

    Using my rapidly depleted cash Spent 25 dollars

    Money really went far

    Back in those days

     

    A band of professional

    Communist agitators

    Gave me a ride

    To Des Moines

     

    Lots of weed, booze

    And politics later

    Got off the road

    Slept outside

     

    Next day

    A beautiful woman

    Drove me to near Chicago

    In a red mustang

     

    Might have been

    The girl in the song

    Took it easy

    Digging her vibe

     

    She invited home

    But was not sure

    If her estranged husband

    Would welcome me

     

    So, I am being foolish

    And inexperienced with women

    Did not go to her place

     

    And always regretted

    That I had lost

    My chance that day

     

    Then on to Chicago

    Several rides later

    Visited friends

     

    Hit the road again

    A series of uneventful rides

    With truckers

    And others

     

    And a week later

    I ended in New York City

     

    Slept along the way

    In cars

    In truck stops

    In high way rest stops

     

    Always moving

    Always going

    Non stop talking

    And lots of free weed

    And beer

    And conversation

     

    One more memorable ride

    Occurred outside Albany

    On my return to Chicago

     

    A middle age creepy looking man

    Picked me up

    In a brand-new Cadillac

     

    He was he said a dynamite deliverer

    For the Mafia

    Went to various places

    To blow up shit

     

    He hated a lot of people

    Particularly hippies from California

    And Jewish people

     

    Looking at me to confirm

    That I was both

     

    I told him that I lived in New York

    And had never been to California

    And although I might have looked Jewish

    As I what was called back in the day

    A “Jewfro”

     

    I was not Jewish

    Many years later I discovered

    That I am indeed part Jewish

    But then I did not know

    And I felt a bit of strategic information

    Might keep me alive

     

    Then I realized that he was just jiving with me

    And we relaxed

    And he pulled out some weed

    And beer

    And we mellowed out

     

    But I believe that he really was with the mob

    Perhaps not a dynamite dealer

    A real made Italian made mafia member

     

    By Chicago

    I had enough

    I called my Dad

    Told him what had happened

     

    Wanted a ticket home

    And he sent me a ticket

    And 500 dollars

    And I went home

     

    I told him I would tell him

    My tales some day

    But never did

     

    I learned so much

    About my fellow Americans

    And the strange vibe

    That was 1975

     

    And now it is too late

    But I wanted to finally

    Tell the world

     

    Of my hitchhiking tales

    In search of America 1975

     

     

     

     

     

     

    When Will this Darkness End

     

    As the darkness settles down on the land

    All are consumed with evil

    Foul deeds and endless darkness

    I wonder if it will ever go away

     

    Yes I wonder

    If our great nightmare will ever end

    Are we doomed

    To live out the decline of America?

     

    This is what I pray for 2018

    The end of the darkness

    The unleashed hatred

    that consumes our land

     

     

     

     

     

     

    the Bus – Travels Through America’s Underbelly

     

    I am a bus rider

    That makes me unusual

    For a white male

    From an upper middle class family

     

    Our people are not bus riders

    Though some are subway riders

     

    Bus riders are other people

    The poor, minorities, immigrants

    People who don’t drive

    Because they are blind

    Or have a DUI

     

    And in my case

    I don’t drive

    Because I have bad vision

    And bad coordination

    Just never got the hang

    Of the whole driving thing

     

    Fortunately for me

    My wife does the driving

    But I still take the bus

    From time to time

     

    I rode the AC buses in Berkeley

    As a child

    Line 67, line 51, line 43 F bus

    Rode them long before BART came along

    And afterwards as well

     

    As an adult seldom rode the bus

    But when I did so

    I was always impressed

    By the sheer diversity

    Of the bus riding property

     

    Hundreds of languages

    All sorts of sexual orientation

    Some were white

    Most were not

     

    Most of my fellow passengers

    Were nice enough

    Some were friendly

    And some were lost

    In their own thoughts

     

    And a few

    Were scary looking dudes

    With the look

    Of someone who had done time

    And were capable of more violence

     

    I also rode the bus

    In Seattle as a graduate student

    A lot of fellow UW students

    And the usual immigrants

    Minorities etc

     

    And some white people

    Commuting

     

    And in DC

    Over the years

    I rode a lot of buses

     

    Mostly to and from the metro

    But I got to know

    And love the DC buses as well

     

    I also took the greyhound bus

    Across the country

    Several times over the years

    All over the U.S.

     

    From Bay Area to Stockton

    From Bay Area to Clear Lake

    From Bay area to NYC

    NYC to DC

    All over the USA

     

    Taking the Greyhound

    Was always an an adventure

    Met a lot of interesting people

    As people on long distant bus rides

    Tend to open up and talk

    To pass the time away

     

    Overseas I took the bus

    All over

    In India, in Barbados

    In Spain and in Korea

     

    The Korean buses

    For many years

    Were difficult for foreign visitors

    As the signs were all in Korean

     

    Most have signs

    Now in English, Chinese and Korean

    And are much more foreigner friendly

     

    Riding the bus

    In America

    Allows one access

    To the underbelly of American society

    The poor, the marginalized

    The immigrant communities

     

    That many middle class white people

    Just never see

     

    And for that reason

    I am glad

    That I am a bus rider

     

     

     

     

     

  • recent publication

    Back in Korea

     

    back in Korea. Arrived at 5 am had a smooth flight for once. saw lots of movies, including the Manchurian candidate which is suddenly very timely.

     

    Good news on the publishing front.

     

    1. Ego Phobia published my bus riding and hitchhiking poems!

     

    here’s the link

    http://egophobia.ro/?p=12309

     

    1. Duane Voorhees published my “decline of America” on his Poetree.

     

    The Decline of America

     

    You see it everywhere

    The unmistakable signs

     

    That the decline of America

    Is in full swing

     

    As our emperor in waiting

    Withdraws the US

     

    From the climate change agreement

    Giving the proverbial finger

    To 195 world leaders

     

    And ignoring the personal appeal

    Of the G7 and the Pope

     

    Making America Great

    By making America all alone

    In its growing irrelevance

     

    As the world leaders turn away

    From dealing with the US

     

    And we have gone past the tipping point

    There is nowhere left to go

    But downward

     

    As the Empire begins to collapse

    Victim of imperial overreach

    Like all empires before

     

    The DC metro on a good day

    Is a broken-down remnant

    Of a once proud system

     

    On a bad day

    It is an accident that happens

    Over and over again

    Killing and maiming people

     

    The future of mass transit

    Its proponents said

     

    The interstate highway system

    Is falling apart day by day

    Our bridges are falling down

    Our transit is a world joke

     

    The cost of rebuilding America mounts

    And our politicians are afraid

    That it will cost trillions of dollars

     

    Just to prevent the US from collapsing

    Into third world irrelevance

     

    And our idiot president’s answer

    Is to sell our highways and bridges

    To the highest foreign bidder

     

    Treating the US as just another failed company

    Ready to be stripped for cash and profits

    By the vulture capitalists who took over the government

     

    We have the world’s most expensive military

    A million dollars per missile

     

    And yet we can’t find the money

    To provide decent health care for all

     

    Bombs and tax cuts for the wealthy

    Are the only things

    That the Republicans care about

     

    And the world looks in amazement

    At the clown boy President

     

    As he struts about

    Looking more and more

    Like some Banana Republic

    President for life

     

    With his family grabbing as much loot

    As they can

    From the federal government

     

    Before the coming revolution

    Overthrows them

     

    When did we start this decline?

    Some say 1960s started it

    Others say Nixon’s to blame

     

    Others claim that it was Carter’s fault

    Or Saint Reagan’s fault

     

    Or the other boy President GW Bush

    Or Obama the fake American’s fault

     

    Does it really matter

    All I know

    Is the America I knew

     

    The can do anything country

    The country that went to the moon

    Is alas no more

     

    And I morn for our lost liberties

    Our lost sense of purpose

     

    Our lost sense that America

    Was the last great hope of Mankind

     

    And still I wonder

    Can America be made great again?

    As our President Trump proclaims

     

    The end times approaches

    Nuclear war is talked about

     

    Another missile crisis

    And instead of JFK leading the country

    We have Donald John Trump

     

    The one and only

    The greatest con man

    To ever get elected

     

    And I fear the end is in sight

    As America begins its decline

     

    Will we be one country

    Or will we erupt into a civil war

     

    Can we survive

    Two nations divided

    Into the red and blue camps

     

    The coastal elites and multiethnic cities

    And Jesus land in the rural hinterlands

    And the deep south remains apart

     

    The right claims that the left has started it

    And the left claims that the right has started it

     

    And both sides claim that the civil war

    Is inevitable

     

    A fight for the future of our country

    Will we go back to the mythical past

    When white men ruled the land

    And women and minorities knew their place

    And gays stayed in the closet?

     

    Or will we embrace a progressive future

    With an economy that works for all

     

    And a world in which there is no ethnic majority anymore

    And women and men are equal

    And the GLBT community has full rights

     

    I have no answer

    It seems the end is coming

    Sooner than we think

     

    As Emperor Trump leads us

    Down a dark, strange dangerous path

     

    And so, it goes

    The decline of empires

     

    And I pray

    That I may survive

    The end of times

     

    Microsoft Found Poetry

     

    I recently installed Microsoft dictation program. I tested it and found that it was filled with bugs. 50 percent of the time it works, and when it works about half the results are what I dictated, the others are nonsensical commands – my favorite being play sly and the family’s summer in city which it did- and the rest is gibberish.  Some of the results are funny, some profound. So I wrote five found poems based on the dictation results. there is the first one:

     

    The following is a verbatim copy of the gibberish that Microsoft dictation software spew
    forth the first ten times I tried it. First I could not get it to recognize any thing. I called Microsoft tech support who suggested I reformat my hard drive and did not suggest that I buy an external mike. I did at Best Buy and then the program worked after I rebooted the computer six times and went through the set-up microphone procedure three times.

    I thought that the results of this experiment were at times ludicrous so thought it would make a fine found poem. I merely broke it into stanzas otherwise the words are the way it typed out on the screen. I found if I spoke really slow the error rate was a bit less, if I spoke too fast it just did nothing.

    I sent this to Microsoft but don’t expect a response.

    Thanks
    Enjoy

    Begin Microsoft dictation found poem:

    Her and they moved to
    a the final inspection went well
    with E wall
    back to the apartment

    and brown
    we had left the keys
    are in the car

    but fortunately
    we ran two
    are rules that TV does not

    ruin were bought
    baby by Jews
    they’ll be able to see you
    and your evening

    we win
    two Home Depot and Costco
    and then who can free pizza
    for dinner we want to eastern market
    and shot the movie
    dress report to the berber
    back home
    and went to bed
    about the nine

    the dictation is working up
    from 50% of the time
    cue-card will keep
    the hope that the difference
    in win over to

    in the meantime
    I will keep brokerage
    and user to ride
    bay from all working

    you in this
    is Trevor Rowe junior middle school?

    Microsoft did tuition
    continues two 50%
    of the time
    one the visual dictation data
    his sometimes schuler’s
    shall I am sure

    even when you shoot a film,
    today we’ll meet with Perot’s
    to turn over the key
    and then paid the porch
    and weather permits

    and then maybe have dinner
    with more drivers
    wore see the movie
    Mama Mia

    should be a good
    if I have time
    High-level
    also do some solutions all

    Still having problems with my group
    saw fit to Asia
    still very strange
    each results
    it’s well as run
    the south: today in that age

    When to the house
    and your lunch
    had a good lunch
    when the two D. Meyer

    we are only eight at the red cross
    to the I had a BLT
    center with each 10 home

    to ensure came home
    at 230 and we walked
    back to the house

    did was a very hot air
    to move the best way
    to beat the fencing guy

    Go to End

    can show them the fencing edition
    about $4000 or so
    came home to a
    Her and then run back home
    Had celebrated for dinner
    and wash two episodes of a series of unfortunate events
    than started reading The two men

    To the house
    and the DM 2 me
    the pay
    for its then
    Go to End

    go to the paint shop
    to buy more pain
    noses were very first

    Go to End

    had too old
    to be in this meet pizza.

    Go to End

    Went out at 8 am
    to the house to meet
    had too old to be in this meet pizza
    have peace of for dinner

    go to Sly and the Family Stone Yes No?
    Play Summer Time in the City Yes

    the painters
    then walked to the Paint Shop
    the in the top of the state intends
    the the the the the the the
    Pizza
    Dinner salad
    Say number okay 4444
    6666
    2222

    End Document

    Save Changes Journal Yes No
    Can’t complete last command
    Undo command
    Can’t save

    Came back from the upper
    the painting works great
    progress

    is how so
    in a very hot as hell
    bent tonight

    will go to trade for Jones
    for home to home
    Number of records by second baseman from voting
    and an batteries for remote control
    shown
    or just for a number of town hall

    for more jake poetry check out my blog https://theworldaccordingtocomos.com

     

     

  • Neo-Fascism Must Be Defeated Again

    Neo-Fascism Must Be Defeated Again

    Neo-Fascism Must Be Defeated Again published in Poetry Super Highway Yom Hashoah Issue

    poetry super highway

     

    The Poetry Super Highway has published their 20th Annual Yom Hashoah Issue featuring 58 poets. This week, 71 poets from all over the world remember the Holocaust in our 20th annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issue.   Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) was this past Thursday, April 12th.

    I am one of the 77 poets chosen. I was inspired to write by the DNA confirmation that i am indeed part Jewish.

     

    You can read the poets here

     http://poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/2018/04/20th-annual-yom-hashoah-holocaust-remembrance-day-poetry-issue/

     

    Neo-Fascism Must Be Defeated Again

    In this day and age of fake news

    And neo-fascism rising yet again
    It is important to bear witness

    To the undeniable fact
    That the Holocaust can never ever come again

    That is what we must vow every day
    Never again

    and some other of my fascism poems

    Worst Year Ever

    president trump

    2017 How Much I Despise You

    Following 2016 the second-worst year ever
    Will 2018 be any better ?

    And what we have suffered
    The darkness settles on the land
    Like a curse on the land

    As our mad demented senile dotard king wannabe
    Struts about the world’s stage
    Ushering Americas inevitable decline

    As America’s foes and friends wonder
    Has America gone mad
    Turing over ultimate power to this man
    A con man the narcissistic criminal

    Self-proclaimed smartest man in the room
    In reality a clueless reality TV hustler
    Whose sell-by date has expired

    As he tries to make America great again
    For white Christian men

    The rest of the country struggles
    To cope with the ever declining standard of living

    The 1 percent loved the stock market
    Love the dismantling of the regulatory state
    The corporate tax cuts

    and the coming plunder of the land
    Can Disney Yellowstone be the future?

    While the rest of the world
    Embraces the energy of the future
    And this great denier of the truth
    Wants to boldly take America back

    To the 19th century era of oil, and coal

    Yet perhaps it does not matter in the end
    As long as we have one another

    The darkness will come
    But it will go away someday soon
    The great American nightmare will be over

    This is what I pray for 2018
    The end of the darkness
    that consumes our land

    American Life and Death

    As American struggles
    To cope with the ever declining
    standard of living
    for the forgotten 99 percent

    The 1 percent loved the stock market
    Love the dismantling
    Of the regulatory state
    The corporate tax cuts

    And the coming plunder of the land
    Can Disney Yellowstone be the future?
    As America declines
    Back to the future

    Heading Back to the Past

    While the rest of the world
    Embraces the energy of the future
    Our great denier of the truth
    Wants to boldly take America back

    To the 19th century era of oil, and coal
    Yet perhaps it does not matter in the end
    As long as we have one another

    We will overcome
    The darkness will flee the land

    When Will this Darkness End

    As the darkness settles down on the land
    All are consumed with evil
    Foul deeds and endless darkness
    I wonder if it will ever go away

    Yes I wonder
    If our great nightmare will ever end
    Are we doomed
    To live out the decline of America?

    This is what I pray for 2018
    The end of the darkness
    The unleashed hatred
    that consumes our land