While Searching For God Or A Chemical Substitute


1.

It's not easy
to be a failure.
You have to work at it
every day.

There was a time 
when I thought
highly of myself.
The world did not agree.
Now, I agree with the world.

There is 
no reason
to be
out of step
any more.

There's plenty
of dog shit
to walk in
which ever way
you go.


2.

Walking down
Broad Street,
the city has changed
so much.

I no longer
recognize it,
yet I have
lived here
all my life.

Maybe I should 
get out
more.





3.


I used to mock
punks 
getting stoned
and raising
mayhem, 
not anymore.

Why criticize
those
who burn their candles
at both ends?

At least their light
will burn
a little brighter
before it goes out
like the rest.

I've been to funerals
of friends who burned out
by age 30.
Life ends at 30,
or don't you remember?

I know others 
in AA,
some who came clean,
bought the house,
took the mortgage,

but I prefer 
the company
of those who
never grew up,

angry men
and wreckless women,
pot bellied now,
but, oh!
so alive.








Rocky


His first wife died
of over inflation.
His second died
from a pin prick.

His current wife
is cold, hard
and made of granite.

Hey, some relationships
are made to last.
He just keeps
chipping away.





rulers and the ruled

one eyed kings
on street corners
tell it
like it
is

yet their kingdoms
and subjects ruled
remain small,
a flock of fools
and hoodlums
fighting boredom 
and poverty
with beer and needles

ruthless
vengeful
quick with
a trigger

but one day
their kingdom falls,
the space between
the curb and the gutter
gains a new emperor,
a new empire

new jesters prance
for a pipe,
new princess dance
under the street light

and so it goes
until the end of time
there's no shortage
of crooks or fools
or desperate minds
in desperate times.



Living In The Grave


after midnight,
with the children
finally asleep,
the wife and in-laws
lost in snores,
I finally have
a few moments
to read, write
before I pass out.




After The Revolution

reading about
how wonderful
it is
behind
the iron curtain
with 40 years
hindsight
laughing the author
out of his grave,
I wonder where
the paid hacks
of the Power
of yesteryear
have gone.
the old college
radicals
with their lines
of praise
sound off key,
while the radicalized hacks
of today
dream of the
Second Coming
of Socialism,
forgetting there's
no virtue
in any institution,
only in individual hearts
with nothing better
to go by.

To the radicals,
all I can say is
watch CCTV
for four months
like I did
before you blow
your head off.





Apology  To My Lover


I love you as much
As my cock will allow.

I can't help if it is blind.
It feels its way along,

Happy with the first hole
It slides into.







Trailblazer

    -- For Kenneth Koch

1.

Trail blazers
cut down the trees
and make a path
that leads somewhere,
but not necessarily
where they were
trying to go.


2.


Others followed,
built cities
in the wilderness.


3.

What path is this
I have set upon?
What path is this
that you have followed?


4.

Afterwards,
some people
missed the trees.


5.

Some people
haven't noticed
the trees
are missing.


6.

It all ends the same.
That's nothing new.
All roads lead to Rome.
All poetry obscures
    the obvious,
or makes it more so.







at the massive reading
where hundreds ranted
one after another,
the great looking poets
read poorly,
or read poor work.
The ugly poets
read better
or had better stuff.
But, at the end
the beautiful left
with their
beautiful fans,
and the ugly poets
left
with their memories
and unsold books.

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