Teachers quitting at record rates
Why face daily violence and hate
Public schools face colossal debt
Yet teachers' pensions fatter get
Unions clamor for more and more
Though few are left to mind the store
Education as the province of a privileged few
~ may again be the prospect we look forward to
30 January 2021
The prodigy has turned prodigal
Making silver spoons out of gold medals
While the hearsay deepens about clandestine meetings
I fix myself a plate of pity party, for I know nobody
I don’t even know myself
The prodigy is now pedestrian
Crossing roads without a care
And I lost track of time ages ago
In blue screens and daydreams
So I fix myself a plate of pity party, for there’s nothing else to do
Especially now that the world is broken
And I can’t find the version of myself I lost in the chaos of trying to find myself
whispering a tune
blue tablet vibrating
to the gentle wind's rhythm
as we all cooperate with blowing
locks of nostalgia
never bored in my time machine
the sands of time wave at me with
flowing currents of sincerity
i never have to wait
for the old fryer is never late
i am forever pulled in by
gravitational forces of melancholy bliss....
A Spenserian Sonnet
(Mr. Snake falls in love with a garden hose)
Today I slithered up a grassy hill,
wet from the creek and eager to explore.
The urge to snare a mate devoured my will,
could not this be the day for me to score?
I spot you there beside the garden door,
your slick green shape pervades my hungry sight.
Your golden head criss-cross my eyes before
your trim tight coil peals visions of delight.
Yet when I push my moves into the light
your body squirms and grows before my eyes,
and dread arises in a burst of fright.
You spit at me in angry spurts, surprise
me with a gush of clear and liquid spray,
while I make haste to scuttle fast away.
sitting in the dark
while a relaxing groove plays
easing all of me....
I'm a vagrant in these bones
stricken, yearning, almost home
water skin and tears alone
for you.
I'm a wisher of desire
quelled, ignited lifting higher
rancid in the moment's fire
it's true...
I'm the gait found in your step
lost and found and quite bereft
petrified in bones and left
for you.
I'm the moment that you thought
life and happiness were caught
'till you gave up what you sought
it's true.
Dissipation
An echo
A ripple in the pond
A vibration
Of a distant time
Dissolving
Decaying
Delaying
Disintegrating
Trying to shield the erosion
As with all that is
And all that will be-
Only exists right now
Losing focus
Staring at everything at once
Slowing time
Giving in to the resolve
Fade to light
The long night
A quiet riot
Without delight
Jnaf 3-28-03