Down In The Dumps And In Need Of A Pick-me-up, I Stumble Upon A Famous Last Line Of A Poem By James Wright

Like so many things 
I’ve sheepishly forgotten, I don’t remember 

Talking to myself when I was too young 
To go to school, like a lot of kids did or still 

Do, like our granddaughter did 
And still does 

When she thinks she's alone and begins 
Reeling off adventure after adventure 

Full of unreal characters known 
Only to her, and me 

Eavesdropping in on the hope 
I can pick up on that priceless, 

Uplifting gem of a germ 
She’s so infected with, 

Though I suspect all too well 
It’s no longer catching— 

Have I wasted my life?


 

Cogito, Ergo Cogito Sum

Just when you think 
You’ve thought 

Everything through 
And left—as they say— 

No stone unturned
Behind you, guess who 

Turns up unannounced 
And incognito, affecting 

A pronounced stony silence 
And turns everything upside 

Down on his return. 

Traffic Management For Musing Pedestrian Poets

On soft 

Little black 

Cat’s paws 


White spaces


The words

Cross the page 

Accordingly.

Confucius Say Still Not Enough Material Kindling To Make Mankind Great Again

Though no dearth 
Of consumptive homeless 
Hearths flickering on and off,

In dead of winter gathering feeble 
Stacks of splintered hearts 
More than enough 

To consume them.

Besting The Great Equalizer

I don’t know how 
You did it, dude, but 

No more are you 
The fool 

You once were, 
You’re also wiser 

No longer. 

Enter Stellar Radio Active Cosmic Conundrum

Hmm—if it's true
The world turns 

In silence, why 
On Earth 

Are we static? 


 

A Poem Should Be (18)

Indestructible, lasting almost 
Forever, like that ludicrous 

Prickly pear cactus poking 
Its barbed head of fruit through

The toughest thick slab 
Of concrete, even after being 

Through thick and thin, fire 
And water or, believe it 

Or not, crushed to smithereens 
By crazed bulldozers hell- 

Bent on erasing it 
From the face of the earth 

To make way for some new 
Abominable, transient 

And quite prickless, 
Construction.