Definitely Not Lemmings #28

A warm welcome to woman in a window who becomes DNL #28. Much appreciated!

Huuklyeand Cinquor on Myopia and Its Existential Problems

Dude, I know it’s tough being

The butt of ugly jokes,

But look at it this way, man—

You could’ve been born with four eyes.

Moderator’s comments: In the rush to post my newest poem and to welcome two new Definitely Not Lemmings, I almost overlooked this latest Cinquor offering. Now that would have been an oversight on my part and an inexcusable one at that, seeing that I’ve been wearing glasses since the second grade and pride myself on being—I think—the oldest, shortest, most farsighted poet writing poetry in English in the Peloponnese.

The Seasons

Never really desert us, take summer

For example, it just turns its coat

Round the corner and springs

Down the street, leaving us

Reeling on the sidewalk

Praying for autumn

To deck us once and for all

For winter’s stark,

Naked fall.

Definitely Not Lemmings #26 and #27

A warm welcome to DNL 26 and 27: Kevin McCollister, a photographer who says he wants "to photograph L.A, all of it" and has made a great start with his book East of West L. A., and a very talented artist from Vienna, Laura Tedeschi. Thank you both for coming on board.

The "Perfect" Poem

—for William Michaelian, again

Of course we know there is

No such thing but

If there was it would be

How

Shall I say it?

Wise

Beyond words.

Huuklyeand Cinquor on Devious Marketing of GM Foods

You perverted Monsanto

Sodbusters just keep on

Swallowing this bull

Shit and ya’ll be corn

Holed

By the Grim Reaper.

Moderator’s comments: Well, now we know where Cinquor stands re GM foods; still

The question is: how does one hold an apple

Who likes apples

And how does one handle

Filth? The question is

How does one hold something

In the mind which he intends

To grasp and how does the salesman

Hold a bauble he intends

To sell? The question is

When will there not be a hundred

Poets who mistake that gesture

For a style.

—George Oppen, “The Gesture”

A Partial History in Two Poems

Whereupon the poet muses over remnants of memory and ends up wondering if seeing is believing.