Category: poetry

Cover Girl You Are

(Song, Uptempo Rock)

Please cover up you cover girl
You don’t gotta show
Everything that nature gives a damn about

Gonna notice in the workplace
Gonna notice in the first place
Who you are who you are
Cover girl it’s in your face

They don’t get to hack
If you don’t turn your back
They got nothin’ to hack
Off your back

Please cover up you cover girl
Make mama proud make sister hurl
Every face glows in Grace
Make mama proud make sister hurl

Gonna notice in the workplace
Gonna notice in the first place
Who you are who you are
Every face glows in Grace

When the camera clicks
The devil winks twice
When the camera clicks
The devil winks twice

They don’t get to hack
If you don’t turn your back
They got nothin’ to hack
Off your back

(Chorus)
Who’s a cover girl you are
Who’s a cover girl you are
Every single one of you
Every shape every hue
Every shape every hue

Tidy Mind

Did you notice my expression change
whenever you said this face to face
or hear it in some nuanced wave
the many times you said it on the phone

Write from the heart! Just let it flow!
and nevermind the mess
we’ll sift through mountains full of dirt
to find the gold you meant

Find the moment! Just unleash
the bloodhounds you keep caged
through authentic chaos of the trail
that patch of cloth will lead us to your soul

I started this piece ballpark twenty minutes
Finished now, really it just flows
When we sit down to write it’s in one sitting
I just try to start with one true thing

My Angel and My Shadow

My Angel and My Shadow
Best friends these days become
Inseparable we three do march along
As by a single drum

Shadow and Angel buying rounds
For the House and Eye to Eye
Reconciled might say the Greeks
But we know better, you and I

Angel and Shadow at the Peak
Surveying all before them lies
In theory, though in truth be told
The height was modest from my eyes

My Angel and My Shadow
at this point interject
No need to wish the world at large
to keep us circumspect

We’re quite content we bosom buds
To meet temptation chewing cuds
Since winner Finished long ago
Ho Hum Ho hum and Do Si Do

Night Siren

For the first three notes
maybe four
I thought
canid predator
encroached in schemes
cannily designed
for human screams

But then note five
maybe four
Thought I
Oh hum of drum
It’s just a lunatic
strapped in
and not
a pack of hope

Doodlying On Dangerous Ground

If only the sky would crack
the moon open bloody blood blood
and death in a torrent wash over us all
in one sanctifying flood

If only the sun would sear
the earth with a flamy flame flame
and burn us all at once at stake
we kindling of aggregate shame

But the heavens don’t notice at all
the song of the spheres goes mute
as one by one we go into the dark
and Nobody gives a hoot

Bouillabaisse (My Dinner with Norman Mailer and Andrea Dworkin)

Tall Tuber eschewed sophistry
As he explained the world to me
God’s figurine I am I am
And thank heavens not a Clam

Sweet Clam replied with hurtful smile
She, as he, employed no guile
The whole tureen– divinity!
When first you take a sup of me

In kiss-me apron, somber vest
God prepares to serve his guests
Clam, meet Tuber, how’d you do
Has everybody tried the stew?

Song For M This Morning

I’ve opened my eyes to uncertain skies
I know you have as well
And try as we may and try as we must
To hold to each other and the One that we trust
In time my angel the iron will rust
And the vines will creep over the bell

Oh, but the thing that you always did bring
That I came to love about you
You are the harlequin you are the clown
Make portraits of everyone wearing your crown
Fight all your battles with a pillow of down
Dreaming of paradise true

But it is what it is as they say in the biz
And things for a reason come round
The bravest scaredy cat God ever made
Was cornered by time between shadow and shade
So she featured herself freed of Macy’s parade
And floated past season and sound

Chorus:

It’s one more day
That begins when I say
There she is, good morning my love
And it really can’t start
My day or my heart
Until I say good morning my love

Three Thoughts, Dear Friend

She kept on her phone a Prayer she wrote
To a Thought she didn’t love or serve
Then wondered out loud on the throne
Why life had thrown her such a curve

But her kindest eyes were bruised by tears
–Why cede the bruise that’s His to mend?
While pledging not one move toward God
Made each heartbroken soul a friend

Why would you make me love the sky
Before I fall, before I fly?
My homemade angel got the sack
These wings were grown behind my back

Evening Drivel Rover Red

I used to be the shadow on a bowling ball
Zoned in on any pin standing tall
The sight of humans well arranged
Left my mind and soul estranged

I much preferred the company
Of litter runt and orphaned bee
We knew then as they know now
The game is rigged if you don’t ask how

Two lines were formed a runner sent
To break the grip of the innocent
Those who failed were thus embraced
As lessons go, a total waste

Evening drivel rover red
The quarterback lives in my head
Calls every play in every loss
Until I learn who not to cross

Yes, there is a secret in a hole
That story’s mine, but oh so old
Childhood trauma, childhood shame
Finish the poem but ever the pain

That Was An Odd One To Intrude

Oh, it’s you
Saucy minx
Flint and fire
Gentleman’s jinx

Hold it out
Hold it close
Pull it back
When it’s needed most

I’ll never lose you
God knows I’ve tried
Poisoned the breadcrumbs
Bred the flies

Help me out
You’re good at math
What’s left when what’s left
Cuts ever in half?

Suitcase briefcase
Purse and clutch
You met me empty
Just the once

Hold it out
Hold it close
Pull it back
When it’s needed most

Posse at Twitter Gap

The Devil came in the night
Changed their hats black from white
At dawn the posse awoke

They gathered their gear
Trusted year after year
Not one good man noticed the joke

When they rode into town
To gun bad guys down
They frightened the Church going folk

A glimpse in its glass
Of themselves as they passed
Gave a warning most like a choke

Then all guns blazed away
But no bullet went stray
As if they were each one bespoke

The posse dead in the street
Black hats at their feet
Cross haired in the curling white smoke

Good men dead in the street
White hats at their feet
Cross haired in the curling Black Smoke