Methinks Myself a Crudly One

Lucky me, oh yes sir-ee, I'll have some FUN tonight!
Old boys and young men alike are lookin' for a fight
And the moon is redder than red red spaghett-er
Totally covered with a cardinal colored sauce.
How the jaded lady will quiver when I try to get 'er
Elongated on a wet bed of some mushy midnight moss.

Thoughts by a Flower Bed in Turkey

Don't lose sleep over the miles between you and happiness;
It won't be long before the oceans dry, the world shrinks, and
She will be close enough to fill the room with light.
Tonight you will dream that you will smile tomorrow
And maybe you will wake with her light on your face.
Notice how the minutes are faster when you think of her?
Celebrate what you have, do not let your tears touch the
Earth; all that will grow there is a deeper sadness, a dead flower.

Battered Traveller in a Train Depot in Utah

Cold cuts on old rye bread tucked in a napsack.
He plays the panflute, the oboe, claves and harmonica.
Arrived in Provo with a new scar carved across his lips.
Red stains on his torn jeans. A misunderstanding, he says.
All his burps smell like anchovies and diesel gasoline.
Can't remember a warm bed or a kiss goodnight.
This is the only way to live, guarantees personality.
Eleven months with a limp, the bullet still in his foot.
Rents a boat with his last crumpled dollars. Drifts.

Pink Lemonade and the World News Section

Violence carries the volunteers in on burning wings.
I heard it won't be long before we're sent back home.
Cold bodies covered in warm sweat, home to new holes.
The body count scampers by on the streaming news bulletin.
Oh say can you see though the thick bus bomb smoke?
Retired orthodontists in Florida shake their balding heads,
You know I had a patient whose brother's son died there.

Hungry Hordes of Silly Words, Raise Thy Broadswords!

Those fallen words we have cast aside, away, swept
Under the proverbial rug with dust and mouse shit,
Return to our lips in all of your ugly scabbed glory.
Dork farts, mung, and grundel burps, welcome back.

Foggy Night Before a Sixtieth Birthday

Nights are the hardest to survive alone.
Out in the moonlight she dances, beyond the fog,
Smiling with another man ripe in her memory's garden.
The wind rattles my window, a draft blows out my candle.
As the small hours wither into daylight she will haunt me;
Laughter and faded kisses in dusty gazebos at dusk,
Gin and candied apples on creaky piers before a storm.
In my cold bed my sober mind growls, my old limbs
Ache. I am too full of hate to forget those I loved.

Can Lonely Words Revive the Dead?

The dark wings of happiness flappeth like a wounded bat.
End these days with a cracked church bell whimpering.
Rain has drowned every parade that limped along this street.
Remind me of the one time that I smiled without fear.
On quiet days you can hear the gun shots like angry whispers.
Return to the glory days? Good one. Write a poem about it asshole.

Execution in a Rose Garden at Dawn

Masked intruders sliced the King's family into confetti.
Arch Bishops found with severed genitals in their mouths.
Yes. The answer to any incriminating question is yes.
Hotel bed sheets stained with red and set ablaze.
Emergency sirens stab the tepid air to death.
Melt the candle sticks into swords. Hand them out at church.

War Banners of the Finest Heathen Flesh

Carrion carried on black laquered wagons.
Return to your villages as blood-soaked heroes.
Untie the heathens when they've stopped breathing.
Sell their rotten teeth for goat meat in the market.
Ants eat corpse skin until they all look like brothers.
Dungeon rats gnaw on the ankles of the sleepless.
Eternal life is worth your ugly death, soldier.

Opera Cellist Pondering His Smallness

Trace the chalk outline in the orchestra pit with your lips.
Ruthless weaponry, these false confessions of love.
Another lifetime dedicated to misanthropy awaits me.
Go to the room where Juliette rests her dead limbs.
Entire villages liquidated in a jealous heartbeat.
Dust has settled on the battlefield. The bones gleam.
Yesterday's wounds will never scab over.