but I was going
into Tosche Station
to pick up
some power converters!
23 September 2013
State College, PA
Category: Poem-A-Day 2013
brothers
in this photo they’re looking at one another
like they can’t think of anywhere they’d rather be
Bernie in a red sweatshirt, John in blue
they’re strapped into the seats like astronauts
waiting to be hoisted to the top of a tall tower
so they can plummet down screaming
the first time Bernie asked, John said no
but after a couple other rides at DelGrosso’s –
Pharoah’s Fury and the Crazy Mouse –
John changed his mind and they got in line
now, as they wait for the slow trip upward
Bernie is reaching out to John, maybe
asking his little brother to hold his hand
more for Bernie’s comfort than for John’s
standing at the base of the tower
I’m bursting with love for these two boys
certain that moving here was the right decision
when they come down, I’ll be waiting for them
22 September 2013
State College, PA
the boy across the street is moving away
two little boys in the driveway
saying goodbye, probably forever
at this moment it seems like
the biggest loss in the world
they’re not even sure how to act
one boy hugs, the other stands there
they exchange numbers
calling each other “dude”
then one turns, walks toward
the moving van in the driveway
the other watches him walk away
takes his mother’s hand
heads back to the house
21 September 2013
State College, PA
kitchen table lullaby
there’s a pizza box tilted against
the anachronistic percolator
like a drunk leaning on a buddy
for help home in the single digits
a bottle of Orange Crush slowly
warming on the kitchen table
next to a too-early cutout of a
black cat on a pumpkin
the dog is snoring on a beanbag
the crickets or maybe tree frogs
are ratcheting up the noise out back
everyone is in bed except me
it used to be this way all the time
the house goes from loud to quiet
until I’m left to my own devices
clicking away at the keys
in recent years the house has been
quiet at all hours of the day or night
but I still find the late hours precious
like I’m the last one in the world awake
as if when I go to bed all the world
winks out of existence until
my eyes open in the morning
and the clocks begin ticking again
20 September 2013
State College, PA
put it on the long finger
a hammock between two oak trees
creaking like a ship in a gentle sea
a curious honey bee exploring
the droplets on a glass of iced tea
a tan dog snuffling through the yard
on the trail of a long-vanished squirrel
a light flashing, unseen in the kitchen,
at the top of an unattended phone
19 September 2013
State College, PA
hands
purple nails on the ends of long fingers
highlighting your pale skin
a ring on your thumb, another on a finger
your hands cover your eyes while you laugh
they dance in front of you while you sing
I imagine them framing my face while you kiss me
running along my spine
then grabbing the sheets on either side of your body
instead I hand you your tea, watch your delicate hands
as you lift it to your lips
Whitman in Camden
passed through Camden by bus
couldn’t see much
strip malls and gas stations
fast food and asphalt
didn’t see Stevens Street
where Walt received callers
or Mickle Street
where he took to bed
but I nodded toward him
counted the hours I’ve spent
with friends or strangers
his melodies spilling from our mouths
17 September 2013
Philadelphia PA
priorities
only his left foot is visible
covered in a boot with fresh soles
then the leg, clad in dark pants,
vanishes under a cut and flattened box
the cardboard covers everything
he’s lying face-down on another flat box
tucked up against a corner bodega
next to a Goodwill thrift store
in 2011, the cost of a single Tomahawk
cruise missile was $1,410,000.00
16 September 2013
Jersey City, NJ
he said/she said
I want my life to be more like yours
I want my life to be more like yours
I’ve taken a long time to get to this place
I’ve made one major decision and I’m
about to make another
I realized I wasn’t who I wanted to be
Sometimes you have to end things
I love them and they’re my best friends
This place is my home and I belong here
I love them and want to be there for them
“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”
21 September 2013
NYC
some days I just ain’t got a poem in me
like today when I spent half the day
in a t-shirt and boxers listening to grown men
talk about baseball and boxing
wandered around Journal Square
in search of something sweet
then fell asleep on the couch while
reading an adventure novel
only to awaken hours later to find
I’d missed two different concerts
on days like these the best I can do
is tell you what happened and hope
that somewhere in there you’ll spot
a few things that seem like poetry
14 September 2013
Jersey City, NJ
walking past the Union Hotel
I remember our last days there
sweaty days of packing and moving
making love in a tiny hotel room
eating ramen across the street
tears in the Port Authority bus terminal
but today I wasn’t sad, I didn’t cry
I simply remembered
and kept walking
13 September 2013
Brooklyn NY
the trade
a friend who is no longer a friend
once asked how my home could be anywhere
but where my children are
after more than three dozen moves
countless attempts to mold my
self to my surroundings
I finally figured out where I belong
I also discovered where I need to be
it turns out those two places aren’t the same
12 September 2013
Manhattan
dadhood
can you come to my game?
do you get this math question?
will you walk me to school?
can we play basketball in the driveway?
can I have a snack?
can we watch Spongebob?
what is Bristol barking at?
will you carry my backpack?
did you know we had a fire drill today?
do I have to go to football?
what are we having for dinner?
will you lie down with me?
will you read me this book?
can you stay another day?
when are you coming back?
11 September 2013
State College PA
forty
the water started rising
so the old man gathered
whatever was handy
stuffed it all into the boat
he’d built in the backyard
his neighbor looked over
the low wall between their
plots and chuckled
it was the laughter of the
narrow at the eccentric
but the water kept coming
the old man shuffled around
the outside of the boat
tapping, filling, checking
after 12 hours the boat was floating
just a few inches off the ground
but floating for certain
held in place by ropes on each end
the neighbor had stopped chuckling
there was a worried look in his eyes
when a day had passed it was clear
the rain would not stop, not now
the old man stepped off the roof
of his house to the deck of the boat
he shuffled aft, undid the rope
shuffled forward, freed the boat
as it floated off down the street
he turned to look at his neighbor
sitting there on his own roof
scanning the skies for any sign
of a break in the banks of clouds
10 September 2013
State College, PA
Ikkyu in the brothel
a Zen monk who said “pussy”
(at least in translation)
and talked about giving head
who went from temple to bar to brothel
naked and drunkenly laughing
finding no-self in other’s bodies
he’s a bucket of water in the face
of our culture with its return to
Puritanism and the Old Testament
light some incense!
take off your clothes!
make someone come!
9 September 2013
State College, PA