FULL FRONTAL LONELY

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

1.

You think that you've written down
the thoughts
that were lonelier
than all the thoughts
that were written down before you
or after you
but you are wrong



2.

I'm reading some poems by Jewel
(don't smirk--she's "intriguing")

I am told
I'm adored by millions
but no one calls

and one can only think
then...
what chance have I?



3.

Poets never say what they mean
they just expect you to figure it out



4.

Maybe
that's why you're alone
(even in a crowd)
as they've all given up 
on trying to figure you out



5.

Opaque
isn't that intriguing
to those who are searching
for the light



6.

 James Wright always told you
what his poem was about
right up front in the title...
he shared that trait with Degas
who would do a painting of
a dancer in front of a window
and name it "Dancer In Front Of A Window"


7.

While I sit lonely
by a fountain
where naked cherubs
are pissing away my dreams
knowing that collaborationists
stalk their own shadows
while pigeons goose-step
through the square--
but none can tell you whether ghosts
sit up and listen to the footsteps
that echo through an empty museum 



8.

And maybe if you search and search
you can find another poet
who has described the human condition as
full frontal lonely
but I'd like to think that one
is all my own


9.

And I am alone
as you are alone
as we are alone
imprisoned within these shells
straining to touch palms
through the glass



10.

...I have my books
and my poetry to protect me...

what I did
what I didn't
truly of no import now

after falter
before correction 
the man who seeks to make connection
finds the days of infinite possibility have flown
but only because a world turned deaf
and blind has deemed it so

the ego
in its fatal attraction to the body 
must always lose
. 

11.

There now
no more whimpering
face it like The Man
monolithic in his solitude
as all mill about like ants
resigned to his fate
to go out in a blaze of glory
lighting up the desert sky
on a Saturday night
on a spinning blue pelota
somewhere
lost in space

HIGH OLD TIME

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads--d'Verse Poets Pub

In a campground
somewhere in Utah
(memory fades)
setting up my tent
some older folks
occupying the adjacent space
with a big  RV
looked like a couple 
of married couples
and "Mother"
likely in her eighties
along for the ride
sitting around
boozin' it up and
havin' a high old time
convivial conversation
and laughing
so much laughing
ringing through the pines

Their own private
Margaritaville

And I thought good for them
they're happy, man
while simultaneously remembering
some statistic about alcohol abuse
being rampant among the senior population
and I thought
well 
who has a better reason
ya know
don't need to explain that
don't need to explain it at all
suffice it to say
that for a few hours
maybe they were able to forget
or even forgive

Watching the cold stars emerge
it was time to turn in

Then sometime during the night
must have been about 2 a.m.
there was a commotion
over in the RV
and someone said
"Mother fell"
and disoriented voices repeated it

Mother fell

Prolly trying to make her way to the head 
in the dark
but you could tell it wasn't good

And then the ambulance was on its way
to come and collect her
their idyllic forest getaway
soon to be a rude awakening
of glaring emergency room lights
that nice rosy glow
of a few hours back
now faded
like a long ago dream
of happily ever after

EVERY STINKIN' WORD

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads--d'Verse Poets Pub

Why do they have to put
every STINKIN' word
in the English language
in the dictionary
when
if you know how to read
you already know what
a cat
a table
a tree
a bird
or a turd is
(1. A piece of excrement.
2. A contemptible person.)

It's just a ploy
to sell you something big and fat
at a hefty price
(like a front row ticket to a Wynona concert)

Like that bag of potato chips
that's only half full--
it's sold by weight, you see
but they could have put them
in a smaller bag
if they weren't trying to rook you

Like the half page of fine print
beneath that satellite TV headline:
TWO THOUSAND
FIVE HUNDRED
AND SIXTY-FOUR CHANNELS
FOR ONLY $19.95
sakes alive
you'll spend the rest of the day
 trying to figure out
what you'll really pay

Deception runs rampant

A sad commentary
on our human condition
the profit motive overshadowing  
all sense of decency and fair play
as we shrug our shoulders and say
that's just the way people are

So many turds floating around
in the human gene pool--
there oughta be a sign regularly posted  that says:
"Pool Closed For Cleaning"