Saturday, August 24, 2024

At the After Work Event

standing in the back of the room

away from the buzz of networking

the chit chat and side glances

judging if I am worth talking to

 

here in theory   

to meet people like me

but don’t see any

that are dreaming of poetry

and fire eating,

or worried about Nazis on the moon

 

spy a woman in black boots

and dream we elope

and leave this reception, this life

behind

 

sputter some more zombie work talk

drained glass, wet napkin in hand

 

leave as early as I can,

and savor the cold walk

alone

Sunday, December 19, 2021

The Stalking Moon

 

the heavenly body of record
lest you forget
crushes petty complaint
beneath its rocky seas
and pulls the tides
to cool work-weary feet
 
the stalking moon
sees you home
knowing twinkle in the sky
 
it lets you know
in the worst of sorrow
that there is still
another tomorrow


Saturday, March 20, 2021

Times Square At Night

 

good in small doses;
a rose
to decades gone,  
everywhere still a hustle
but now more staged
than uncaged
 
pastel pixels
light the stage
where a thousand characters
ply their trade
as police horses
clack past
 
a pause
to be a tourist
in our own city,
to bask in the false light
and gawk at the nightlife
 
we snap a photo,
a million souls
anonymous, yet immortalized
in an instant


Saturday, February 27, 2021

Night drive

 


red moon presides
over a harvest-cold sky,
a right light
for the night drivers
 
fortress trucks
scream speed
from behind their running lights,
knowing they will never
run out of road
 
and the car drivers,
gunning hard to steam past,
rejoice in the easy swoosh
of smooth blacktop,
the lull of the radio,
and the sweet nirvana
of just going


Saturday, November 28, 2020

Rogue Avenging Hockey Dad

 


Double-fisted hand holding
through dark Newark streets
for a women’s hockey game
 
strong girls
growing stronger
in the burgeoning stands
to be ice-cool
and sharp as blades
 
beyond the stadium horns
and the flash and lights,
crying from pure exhaustion
 
Dad’s pocket money depleted
evaporated like so much cotton candy
 
worth every blood-earned penny
to escape the cultural poison
and raise
warrior women


Saturday, October 24, 2020

King Monster Undercover

 

freedom
is being alive
like mental fluoride
 
bold and sharp
quiet
like a razor rock
 
action remedy
secret medicine
the balm of the doing
saving souls
one day at a time
 
let it burn on
infinitely
in flesh and poetry


Saturday, September 5, 2020

The Gates of Bellevue

 

sad derelicts
add a somber note
to the skyscraper shadows
obtuse in their stillness
among the city-bustle chorus:
the traffic, the youth on their way to excitement
deliveries and commutes in droves
 
the old gates stand guard
behind a bus stop now
vying for attention
among the gaudy glass
and the traffic islands
 
but old New York
lives here still
for those that know,
and who wander far from work
to gaze upon the green bronze
and dream of what terror
once dwelt here


Monday, August 10, 2020

Ocean Thunder


a call to arms
in the crash cascades
through the salty air
and among the moving clouds,
streaking across the horizon sky

the siren song
of night
drawing us to sharp moonlight
that dances across the dark ripples,
that pastes our shadow to the cool sand

this music is endless,
sacred like a Gregorian chant
with never the same note

cleansing despite the sand everywhere,
a dream-forging cauldron of strength

a roiling punch
to knock us down
when we need it

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Rockville, Maryland


This night
is too still
even for a corporate park,
squat hotel
among slapped-together homes

The ground
holds secrets
of times past,
musket balls and tomahawks,
relics
of pioneers and war.

Brick facsimile
stands sentry now,
faux elegance
tacked on to a green Earth
screaming to be free.

The Sinequa ghosts
shake their bloody heads
at our lives,
ticked away in board rooms
with catered lunches
eyes glazed
simple slaves
to numbers on a screen.
  

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Escape notes


staying stoic
among the caterwauls,
the legions of false faces,
the theatrics – like trained animals we jump
 for hard-earned pay

let others plunder their wayward souls;
we’ll form a secret resistance,
paint glitter onto bank notes
as we plot our escapes

we’ll leave them to it,
be cleansed by sun and shade
and accept hunger
as pay
for the better world we’ve made

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Regal powers of the living room floor


my throne
is cereal-strewn carpet
my subjects
are building blocks
for a supersandwich
piled giggling
upon one another
after saving our world

I reign
in final judgement
of sharing
while minding the choking hazards

I am Dragon King
and riding workhorse
conquering fear,
hauling my sacred blood kin
for tickles and napping

this brood makes me stronger
though I drag my feet
and fall asleep
before my appointed hour



Thursday, July 4, 2019

Le Grenoullie


taking a seat
among unspoken elite
interloping by accident
among the fine silver,
a sliver of the ancients
alive in the modern world

we try to look the part
but are the worker-bee poets
among the gilded, idle minds
wealth indeed
like a bill fold
rotting
inside wet clothes

we chatter about France,
our travels
and scattered,
melting-pot lives;
shake hands to do our business
and vow
to dine there again



Saturday, June 22, 2019

WFH


grabbing
every stolen moment
back
from the jaws of work
forcing making memories
rescuing pearls of time
thrown before swine

the must feed
that money beast;
world rolls on
cold to our plight

but for these days
we will be part-time pirates
heisting
the laugher of our children
we will be outlaw poets
breaking free
from the grindstone

Friday, May 24, 2019

Fairy Lights of Flushing



a holiday every day
this corner of our Gotham
we pray it to stay
unhip
a little longer

where the news
is churned by machine
and stacked wet on trucks
to stain fingers
and shape minds

where motorcycles hide
stacked between trailers
and a cacophony of cars
the salty perfume of the bay
filled with planes and prisoners

and left behind
to bode adventure
is the lonely highway side
far from the tudor homes
the chaos Korean 2 a.m. barbecue

living in the sweet rush
of passing cars
everyone hurtling

toward some odd piece
of their dreams