Now
Look here
You-all
Certified highfalutin'
City-bred dandies,
It's sho 'nuf
High nigh
Impossible, so
Why in tarnation youse tryin'
To outrun a horse-
Fly.
(First published in First Intensity #21, Fall 2006)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
War of Attrition
Looking back
they saw
what wore them
down was not
their in-
constancy,
their constant
frictions,
but how to love,
honor and obey
a life made up
of fictions.
(First published in Kater Murr's Press, 2005)
they saw
what wore them
down was not
their in-
constancy,
their constant
frictions,
but how to love,
honor and obey
a life made up
of fictions.
(First published in Kater Murr's Press, 2005)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wrath
Unknowingly
Crushed, almost
Suffocated
By my wife's pillow,
The badly
Bruised innocent
Centipede surfaces
And retaliates
And stings her fore-
Head good. She
Springs from deep sleep, strikes back
Blindly this time sees
She finishes the job off
Good.
(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #14, Autumn 2008)
Crushed, almost
Suffocated
By my wife's pillow,
The badly
Bruised innocent
Centipede surfaces
And retaliates
And stings her fore-
Head good. She
Springs from deep sleep, strikes back
Blindly this time sees
She finishes the job off
Good.
(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #14, Autumn 2008)
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Weight
Forgive me
Love, for taking
You for granted,
For thinking
You were simply
A given: Above all,
Once and for all,
Thank you
For leaving me
Your presence
In all ways
Unjustly forgiving.
(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #9, Spring 2006)
Love, for taking
You for granted,
For thinking
You were simply
A given: Above all,
Once and for all,
Thank you
For leaving me
Your presence
In all ways
Unjustly forgiving.
(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #9, Spring 2006)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Adolescent
easily
taking a-
part
the resilient
soft
red
rubber
ball
to where
he finds
its hard
perplexing
core.
(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #2, Winter 2001/2002)
taking a-
part
the resilient
soft
red
rubber
ball
to where
he finds
its hard
perplexing
core.
(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #2, Winter 2001/2002)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Reprisals
"You'll find that many of your compatriots have already bought property
in the Mani; in some villages, the Germans outnumber the Greeks 3 to 1."
--1995 real estate brochure
1. 1941
Occupying forces
Emaciated forms
Yellowed sheets
Worthless paper.
2.
Back to the wall
Their faces become
Muzzled abstractions of anthems
Circumventing circular
Definitions
Of executions.
3.
Circle of martyrs'
Eyelids undying
Blank distraction
Allocating slots for headstones
Grounds a lime foundation.
4.
Quarry of white
Washed marble
Statues
Of limitation.
5. vein of ignorance
Where does time run to
When it runs out?
6.
The Germans picked up
The first men they came across
And when they had gathered
Enough to fill the ratio,
Shot them.
The ratio was thirty Greeks
For every German soldier killed
By the Underground.
7. Initial Skirmish, The Deep Mani, 1961
Barren
Black-scarved hags
Captured
By Leicas.
8. 2001
(overheard in passing)
". . .you do exaggerate, my dear. One mustn't forget
The Germans have always respected the traditional
Architecture of our country."
in the Mani; in some villages, the Germans outnumber the Greeks 3 to 1."
--1995 real estate brochure
1. 1941
Occupying forces
Emaciated forms
Yellowed sheets
Worthless paper.
2.
Back to the wall
Their faces become
Muzzled abstractions of anthems
Circumventing circular
Definitions
Of executions.
3.
Circle of martyrs'
Eyelids undying
Blank distraction
Allocating slots for headstones
Grounds a lime foundation.
4.
Quarry of white
Washed marble
Statues
Of limitation.
5. vein of ignorance
Where does time run to
When it runs out?
6.
The Germans picked up
The first men they came across
And when they had gathered
Enough to fill the ratio,
Shot them.
The ratio was thirty Greeks
For every German soldier killed
By the Underground.
7. Initial Skirmish, The Deep Mani, 1961
Barren
Black-scarved hags
Captured
By Leicas.
8. 2001
(overheard in passing)
". . .you do exaggerate, my dear. One mustn't forget
The Germans have always respected the traditional
Architecture of our country."
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Site
the
white
moss-
covered
wall
spotted
with
red
poppies
and
what
we
gather
are
bullet
holes.
(First published in the anthology How The Net Is Gripped: a selection of contemporary American poetry, edited by Rupert Loydell and David Miller, Stride, UK, 1992.)
white
moss-
covered
wall
spotted
with
red
poppies
and
what
we
gather
are
bullet
holes.
(First published in the anthology How The Net Is Gripped: a selection of contemporary American poetry, edited by Rupert Loydell and David Miller, Stride, UK, 1992.)
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