Saturday, December 31, 2016

Rogue Poets Fight Thought Police


The true rogue poet
can’t help
being a thought criminal
in their own home.
Each slight
just makes the flame
burn brighter.

There is no death
by a thousand cuts
when each blow
makes the poems longer.
Real rogue poets
can bear any storm
and it only
makes them stronger. 

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Hymnal of the Somber 6 Train


like machines
set to go and go
we drone through
these cramped quarters
only to travel some more

precision decisions
to shave precious seconds
from wasting away

we bleed time
into transit hell
more and more each day
the hustle and scrape
for survival pay

we soldier on
burning to do more
and be free of this
daily war
haunts us as we live it
and hunger for more

these dues we pay
and pay again
a thousand faces
press us close
and none of them a friend



Saturday, December 17, 2016

Drive Explosion Ego Implosion


hitting pavement
rolling thunder
inviting rain, pain
and highway chimes
following whims
and the faded
roadside signs

letting it all unfold:
prime America
open road
blaring loud
in rabid gasps
begging us to
live again
in garrulous blasts

roughhousing
our own way
years upon years
beauty and glorious
without time
for tears


Saturday, December 10, 2016

Winter Night



the sweet bite
of a hard wind
alerts a certain kind
made strong
with a sharp
winter’s mind

pace the cold streets
unbending
feeding glorious
waking dreams
unending

let us be
unbound warriors
burning for the night
made immortal
with the star-glazed
machinery of might

Friday, December 2, 2016

Burned Out Firing Up



stunned sad
by my own reflection
caught among the commuter herd
going from bed to desk to death
mindspace cluttered 
with petty matters
paid to pretend to care

somewhere lost 
buried by the worry-lined face
is the slap-happy poet
who lived for twilight wine
and laughed 
under pink
sunset skies

rage in the transit cage
but vow
somehow
to find this person
again