Charles Atlas Says Don't Be Left Holding The Bag

 

“Play ball!” because 

That’s where the action is 

And nothing comes 

From nothing and goes 

Nowhere and everyone wants 

To steal the show and score; 

 

So what say you guys stop 

Playing pocket pool all the time 

And start jostling for pole position 

Before some scrawny nobody 

Out of left field shows 

Up and runs 

 

Off with first base, huh?

 

Imperative Rote Learning At Your Ultimate Leisure

 

Reel off sentence after sentence 

As you will, you shall never

 

Taste that unretrievable 

Last one on the tip 

 

Of your tongue, 

Languishing there 

 

Forever still. 

 

 

 

Haiku: Unconditional Surrender

 

Once you’ve accepted 

The poem’s terms, ask yourself 

 

If you were worth it. 

 

 

 

 

Blighted Silent Majority

The blasted 

 

Limbs of our fifty-year-old 

Judas tree give ample 

Silent testimony that 

Perhaps we have not 

Said enough of what continues 

 

To ail us, though each Spring, 

From a withered flaking 

Trunk, keep shooting 

Violent bursts of regenerating, 

Violet-red blood that speaks 

 

Volumes. 

 

 

 

Key To Her Heart

In your hands, 

Heartless one, where 

 

She placed it last, 

Will be the last place 

 

You look.