This Way
—Poems and Photos by Smith, Cleveland, OH
STATUS REPORT 192
We go into the would
to gather word
to share around the fire
_________________
SISYPHUS BOUND
Put food in, poop food out
Sleep, wake, sleep, wake, sleep
Clean sheets, clean body, new made bed
Dirty sheets, dirty body, unmade bed
Cuppa coffee to get going
More cups when run back down
This land of glossies and weight losses
Thick with greasy guys and fat lasses
Rayon orlon nylon dacron polyester eschew
cotton, silk, wool and fur that we kill
Rally round what the script employs
as we stumble across the stage
Our old roles nailed through extremities
to keep us crawling cross
Sun up sun down sun up sun down
pay the pain of play again
Some eat, some gamble, some sex, some steal
to get through repeat of difficult deal
Bluefire
GIVE US THIS DAZE
Sisyphus sez
sipping coffee waiting for sun
before his morning mountain run
"You have to love the rock
you have to want the hill
pain is all you got
that and strength of will
welcome to the ritual
of redux redo
until rock and hill and roll are one
there is no up or down
and misery is fun."
Thought Crime
MOVE OVER
Watch for danger on the tables
sort the motion from the side
keep on moving soft as Able
when to Cain he cried
as his smoke scurried skyward
while his brother’s fire died
“Why burn grain my only brother
When God wants blood not yet dried
because God and man on flesh survive
so forget the cheek, the halfway humble
we glory God with genocide.”
That was the gamble of the agile
when we crept from sea to land
and though the problem’s far from over
violence still gums up the plan
This eye for eye and cheek for cheek
pads the pockets of the rich
hurts the meek
T’ain’t I and I, my angry brother
versus you and you and yours of yore
all of us under rich bloodsuckers
pulling strings from top for more
and when we fight, they win
but if we unite
well
that’s something else again
Until then help your neighbor
help your friend
help yourself self help again
It’s your corner, it’s your light
your smile here might make right
bemuse there
reduce the glare
Road Chicken
Car repair
free pastries free coffee
six hundred dollars.
Happy Frog
TRIED AND TRAVELED
After I died
in my dead-end drinking
twenty-five years ago
it took
three days intensive care
and six months Nyquil
to beat alcohol,
cocaine to kick Nyquil,
poverty to kill cocaine,
Valium to get off grass,
and weed to beat it all.
Tried most anything to get off me.
Now it's one cup cowboy coffee
Costa Rican strong
each morning
and hope of toke or two
to take me through the month.
But what I really want is
copper brain wire
direct to pleasure center
battery hooked
finger on button
blaze of white light.
Piano Attack
ME, MYSELF AND LIE
Ther’re three mes in me:
skin, brain, and bone.
And none of them will leave me alone.
__________________
LI’L RED RIDIN’HOOD
Hey li'l girl what you doin' tonight
full moon's up and the sun's outa sight
fur's poppin' out all over my arms
wet tongue's stretchin' my wolfen charms
nose gettin' longer, brow pushin' out
your pheromones explodin' my snout
inner hunger howlin' at moon up sky
sniffin' whiffen your hot honey pie
we'll seek small game for midnight snack
then get right back to snack in crack
afterward we'll stroll through the gloom
howl healthy high at the very low moon
three full moonsful I'll be this way
give us a chance for primitive play
before I revert back to my stick of man
having to weigh what it legally can
my werebrain's smaller but it don't care
cuz fun factor's larger everywhere
so howl pretty baby give me a lick
let's run through the wild lickety split
yesterday's gone tomorrow ain't here
forget the guilt of your Freudian fear
let's jam the thicket and jelly the lane
cuz for three nights there's no sin no blame
let's run and fall and feel and sprawl
flow with the wild in guttural call
we ain't gotta live the life of the tame
don't have to leave the same as we came
we got the goods the moves and the will
let's play away society's ills
(hear recitation with music at
www.reverbnation.com/mutantsmith/song/20493711-lil-red-ridinhood)
Trashman
Today’s LittleNip:
UNBOUGHT GLASSES
—Smith
She looks in mirror at herself,
claims she looks insane.
We're all insane, I softly say,
just show it different ways.
_______________________
—Medusa, with many, many thanks to Smith (Steven B. Smith) for today’s fine poems and pix, and a reminder that today is the deadline to submit to the last-ever WTF! For details, go to rattlesnakepress.com/wtf.html/.
UNBOUGHT GLASSES
—Smith
She looks in mirror at herself,
claims she looks insane.
We're all insane, I softly say,
just show it different ways.
_______________________
—Medusa, with many, many thanks to Smith (Steven B. Smith) for today’s fine poems and pix, and a reminder that today is the deadline to submit to the last-ever WTF! For details, go to rattlesnakepress.com/wtf.html/.
—Photo by Smith
April is National Poetry Month!
Celebrate by attending The Other Voice in Davis tonight
with frank andrick, Rachel Leibrock, and Charles Halsted
plus open mic at the Unitarian Universalist Church
library, 27074 Patwin Rd., Davis. Free.
