(after Stevie Smith) I am not waving, but drowning, and youkeep waving, like an idiot savant,when all I need now is a rescue line, a rope, a tube, anything that will float.Don’t you walk away; I’m not quite dead yet, the water has not yet entered my lungsand I am still gasping my last breathswhileContinue reading “#519: I am not waving, but drowning”
Tag Archives: poem
#518: Sonnet After Beers, with Laundry
The washer and the dryer now sing songswhen the cycle is done, and I don’t knowwhy that was a necessary feature, as if it’s not enough to hear them stop. I’m doing laundry in the basement nowafter having had a few I.P.A.sand exhausted late night YouTube views ofcomedy shows and the most recent newsall concerningContinue reading “#518: Sonnet After Beers, with Laundry”
#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes
Don’t quit your day job. It’s good of you, to look after us. But sometimesI wonder if our villainsare so outsized becauseyou are grown so massivewith your flying and yourweb-making and all your fancy gadgets andan armored black suit. Which came first? It strikes me that therewere no Jokers or Penguinsor Luthors or Goblinsuntil youContinue reading “#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes”
#516: It’s a Fight
Author’s Note: This could be the stupidest thing I have ever written. Here’s a poem in response to the prompt to write about a fight between two unlikely combatants. This is what comes, sometimes, of forced creativity. You must write something, even if it’s terrible. In this corner, weighing hardly a quarter of a pound,Continue reading “#516: It’s a Fight”
#515: There’s No Better Place
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. William Shakespeare, sonnet 18 My brother says that our brother in-lawis in a better place, but I hold in my tongueand resist to say out loud what I believe, that there is no better place, unlessContinue reading “#515: There’s No Better Place”
#514: Sonnet about that Contractor
I don’t think about him very often now. What’s done is done and we like the results. Some litigation would have been costlyand there’d be no guarantee of winning. So we filed a complaint against the guyand knew that was the best that we could do. He left a lot of unhappy people in hisContinue reading “#514: Sonnet about that Contractor”
#513: Green
Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire. Patti Smith Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea. Dylan thomas, “Fern Hill” You’re not Dylan Thomas; I’m not Patti Smith. Taylor Swift, “the tortured poet’s department” Green Green with desire, lust in its seven deadly form,the greenContinue reading “#513: Green”
#512: 40 Poems Down
April they say, is the cruellest month–actually that’s what T.S. Eliot says, or wrote; he’s dead now, of course. But he probably didn’t know that at some point, his line would inspire someone somewhere to declare April as ourNational Poetry Month, which is onlycruel when you consider the poorsuckers who decide to write a poemeveryContinue reading “#512: 40 Poems Down”
#511: The Missing Purse
I was out last night to see some friends play music and I was standingat a bar facing the stage for optimumviewing and listening and there was this couple standing next to mewho at one point asked me if I couldsave their places for them. They were only gone for about fouror five minutes butContinue reading “#511: The Missing Purse”
#510: This Poem Will Not Really Be Complete Until…
I love those videos wherea musician has taken a piece of oratory that is innocent of being musical, transcribes it, and thenplays along to it in a rhythmically and melodicallyprecise manner to create a new piece of music from the sourcematerial. Zappa did it first,but recently it’s become a thing on the video socials.I sawContinue reading “#510: This Poem Will Not Really Be Complete Until…”
michael jarmer 