home
(for A)
you have a home
in the hearts of
your friends
you’ll find a place
for your pillow
8 Oct 2013
Oak Street
Category: Poem-A-Day 2013
anxiety
once again I’m lying in bed
worrying about money
I moved in to my own place
both to keep from wearing out
my welcome and because I need space
I used the last of my savings
so now I have a home but no certainty
I am, generally speaking, unemployable
still I send out message after message
hoping after two decades of working life
to convince someone to let me
ring up groceries or serve banquet guests
while I pass myself off as someone else entirely
I turn onto my side to reach for my phone
so I can tap out this poem
as I do I realize
my back is covered in sweat
7 October 2013
Oak Street
o-bon
flickering paper lanterns
carry handwritten messages
four children at the water’s edge
pull leaves off the top of the pond
the deep rumble of a drum
bounces off the hillsides
while we watch the lights
each keeping our own counsel
6 October 2013
Julian Woods, PA
a dream of you on Oak Street
fell asleep fully clothed
with the lights blazing
dreamed you were beside me
one arm across my chest
awoke in the wee hours
to the sound of cars and crickets
looked around but couldn’t find you
went back to sleep
4 October 2013
Oak Street
feet hanging off a dirty rooftop
strumming a blues as the rain starts
thinking of you
4 October 2013
Oak Street
Blind Willie
nearby traffic noise
it’s warm for an October night
Blind Willie Johnson calls to God
I’m in boxers and a t-shirt
lying on a bag of air
a mile away my sons are sleeping
tomorrow I continue the work
of building yet another new life
3 October 2013
Oak Street
head thick as mortar
autumn air warm through open windows
first night in new home
the blues
this year the blues have taken hold of me
Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake
Blind Willie Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis
the crackly ancient sound of steel strings
reproduced in modern ones and zeroes
like the Dead Sea Scrolls on a Kindle
I’m working through a book by Leroi Jones
about the direct route from slavery
to this ultimately emancipatory music
starting tomorrow I’ll be in an old house
no furniture, no dishes in the cupboards
but as I sit on the floor and strum my ukulele
my blues will be happy blues
1 October 2013
State College, PA
grumpy
because he’s done it all
seen what there was to see
reclines now in black pants
and a semi-formal sweater
talks in the general direction
of the microphone on the table
tells all the same stories again
tries not to sigh too loudly
at the half-his-age questioner
midway through he’s surprised
by an advertisement dragged
behind a barnstorming plane
out of place in this post-
industrial skyline
it’s the most animated moment
in the entire conversation
as the plane flies behind
a nearby building
he reclines again
waiting reluctantly for
the next question
30 September 2013
State College, PA
dog asleep on a beanbag
cool air slinks in the kitchen door
I sit typing under the stopped fan
29 September 2013
State College, PA
a vague sense of longing
for what, you’re not even sure
it’s like leaving the house
with that feeling that you’ve
forgotten something or left
the oven or the iron on
in this case you feel
the need for someone
but you can’t pin it down
can’t tell who the missing piece is
or where or how long
she’s been missing
so what else is there to do
but write poetry, listen to
scratchy blues records
wait to see if it’ll be
clearer in the morning
28 September 2013
State College, PA
high school football is the work of the devil
god I hated high school
tonight sitting in the stands
I felt the pressure in my chest
remembered the slog through
the thick mud of social caste
never getting hit because
I had big friends who would
get between my mouth and a fist
my 7-year-old boy is next to me
as the whirlwind of tiny
topics swirls around us
I wish I had a shield for him
and I wish I could get on the PA
system and tell the homecoming
court to fuck the business classes
and do something that might
make the world better, not worse
27 September 2013
State College PA
after Othello
walked for an hour
passed two people
nobody walks here
except downtown
no streetlights
just dark sidewalks
faintly lit by
storefront neon
feels like the day
after a neutron
bomb took away
the people but left
the buildings intact
just signs for BBQ
gasoline, Pepsi
and traffic signals
with no cars
changing on timers
green, yellow, red
green, yellow, red
26 September 2013
State College, PA
the problem with elephants
there’s an elephant in the room
frankly, it was fine until
she had to go to the bathroom
no one is sure what happened
to mother or the dog
and no one much wants to check
25 September 2013
State College, PA
teenage nights
we used to drag a cot
and the folding bed
onto the back deck
we’d put a Moody Blues
tape on my boombox
then lie on our backs
solve all the world’s
problems while we
watched the shooting
stars in a crystal sky
24 September 2013
State College, PA