Far-out Anticipation Blues

Where everyone keeps 

Waxing extraordinarily about 

Total silence while waiting 

In the meantime 

For what seems 

A lifetime to hear it through 

All the clamor is really 

Something else— 

See you there?

 

 

Every Picture Tells A Story

You hope success- 

Fully— 

Like this black-and-white 

One for instance, starring 

A skinny blond kid 

In new coveralls fresh 

From the old 

Country, flexing his 

Wannabe Charles Atlas 

Biceps on a dock 

Of a lake near Montesano 

In Washington State, while 

In the immediate background, 

Two burly middle- 

Aged men also decked 

Out in coveralls are 

Getting ready 

To don their swimsuits so 

Maybe as to say “okay” 

To making a good old All-American 

Splash, too—go ahead, 

Kiddo, after you.

 

 

Once Upon A Discouraging Jackdaw's Word

oh that reverberating 

sharp staccato chattering 

of the splendid times 

we all had, gone 

before we knew it 

like a bat out

of hell and high 

water didn’t I tell you not to breathe a word of it, 

to just hold 

your breath, stop

your non-stop cawing 

and eat, 

crow?

 

Ephialtis, The Despicable Nightmare's Name

History’s rife 

With examples 

Like yours, 

And I have to admit 

It must be harrowing 

All all get out, having 

Such a monicker and 

To be stigmatized 

Forever a traitor, 

Your name inexorably 

Etched in infamy, 

While collateral-

 

Damaged matrix victims 

Of your treachery 

Twitch and turn 

In their sleep, unable 

To come to terms 

With the sellout 

Slaughter of comrades 

Carried out 

In your good-for-nothing name— 

Despicably (though aptly enough), 

Your only claim to fame.

 

Undertaker's Haiku

When the assembly 

Line’s finished, what’s left over 

For the graveyard shift?