HEARTBREAK IN FADED JEANS

dVerse Poets Pub

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

I like it when a poem mentions a real place
like Omaha or Charleston as that immediately
tells me there won't be any faeries or elves in it
and so it's safe to continue and I like it when
a poem mentions a real thing like let's say a lonely
bus stop and I like it when a poem mentions real 
people like old lovers or new lovers and some
way that all these things come together like at a bus
stop in Omaha where a woman stands waiting for
what could be an old lover on a bus that doesn't
come and not how it makes the woman feel because 
we don't exactly know but how it makes the poet 
feel as he observes her from the gas station 
across the way and there's a chill in the evening air
and after a while he walks on over to inquire as 
to whether he can be of some assistance 
she is a dark haired woman who reminds him
of an old lover and she says where you headed
mister and he says Charleston and she smiles
and says oh that would be pretty far out of
my way as I live about five miles down the road
and he wants to say something but there's this little
voice telling him she's heartbreak in faded jeans
and he says well have a good evening then m'am
and when he pulls out of the station never to return
again he glances in his mirror and sees that she has
stepped off the curb and is thumbing for a ride and
in a New York moment (a pregnant one at that) he says
fuck it and turns the car around and you will write your 
own ending same as we all do in real life and that there's
the kind of poem I like now mister yes I surely do

RUN

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads--dVerse

My first baseball game

second grade I believe

recess out on the playground

they didn't use a baseball

it was a soccer sized ball

you whacked at it with the bat

and then you ran

that's what I saw the other kids do

you ran

I didn't know one thing about baseball 

I didn't know you were supposed to stop at the base when the ball was being thrown there 

and someone called out SAFE!

or OUT!

Mom's Second Big Mistake 

having shown me nothing 'bout anything

'cept how to be passive aggressive

so I just kept running

running home

because I didn't know 

you know

and the kids thought I was dumb or something

or maybe had a screw loose

'cause next time up I did it again

and they were yelling STOP

but I kept on running 

running home

and I didn't look back

And when it came time to bust out of

that little town 

years down the line

I ran

and kept on running

running away from home 

And I didn't look back 

Last Tango In Timbuktu

BRING A GRIN TO THE FACE OF THAT LOVER OF LITERATURE WITH A QUIRKY SENSE OF HUMOR ON YOUR XMAS SHOPPING LIST...