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Saturday, July 06, 2024

Insert Poems Here

 —Poetry by Gregg Norman, Manitoba, CA
—Illustrations Courtesy of Public Domain
 
 
FIT

A cocktail party cruiser,
a broker working the room,
cornered me and asked,
“What do you do to keep fit?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m active
but not for the sake of fitness.
I hunt and fish.”
“Oh,” he replied, “I run.”
He looked at his watch,
touched his wrist as if
to check his standing heart rate,
already scanning the room
for another prospect.
“For what?” I asked.
“To keep fit, of course.”
“For what?” I repeated.
He paused, smiled nervously
and cleared his throat.
“So I’ll live longer.”
He was ready to bolt.
“For what?” I asked again.
He drifted off, shaking his head.
He only had wrong answers.
 
 
 
 

INSERT HERE

I need to put things into my mind
to write about because I don’t like
what’s filling up my head now.
I need to dream or hallucinate
new notions to examine,
to find fresh meat to feed
the hunger of my imagination.
Experience is one thing,
but daydreaming is quite another.
I need a list of odd topics
and a slot in the top of my skull
that says INSERT HERE,
like a cranial suggestion box
where I don’t have to worry
about dumb ideas or anonymity.
Drugs might help but with my history
it’s hard to say.
 
 
 
 

ONE HAIR

I have this one hair that grows
high in the middle of my chest.
It grows fast and long and finds
its way out of my collar

like a feeler, an antenna to capture
the music of the lower ranges,
but all it ever draws
are well-intentioned women

who approach me kindly
in grocery store lineups
with exculpatory smiles
and pinch-poised fingers

to snatch away
the offending thread,
little knowing
how much it hurts.
 
 
 
 

SEVEN DEADLY SINS

PRIDE should be pumped up
    On display every day
    Not talking chauvinism
    Just plain old pride

GREED? If you don’t ask you don’t get
    Am I right?
    Greed fuels competition
    A critical cornerstone

LUST is what separates us
    From the animals
    Because we don’t have
    A special season for it

ENVY fuels capitalism
    Makes Wall Street work
    Without a healthy dose
    We’re all socialists

GLUTTONY, I grant you
    Is a tough one
    Too much ‘all you can eat’
    But the signs are there so . . .

WRATH? Well, if the world
    Doesn’t piss you off
    From time to time
    You’re not living in it

SLOTH ought to be a virtue
    In our workaday world
    Put your feet up and relax
    Don’t sweat it
 
 
 


MA HUBBARD

“Hard times,” I said.
“Hell,” she snorted,
“I’ve been through hard times before.”
“But your poor dog
has no bone to eat,” I said.
“And he had none yesterday,”
she snorted again,
“and none the day before. He’ll live.”
“Nobody talks about
the animals,” I said, “do they.”
“What about that little piggy,” she said.
“Oh, yeah.”
“He had none,” she said.
“That’s right.”
“Nobody said he didn’t make it.”
 
 
 

 
NUMERO UNO

never mind about Ayn Rand
there is something to be said
for taking care of numero uno
there will always be those who will
lineup demanding their happiness
from you but you haven’t got it
to give—it’s theirs to create
don’t look at me like I’m crazy
for doing what I want to do
when and where I want to do it
life is not too short
it’s exactly the right length
so long as you don’t sit around
waiting for it to end.

_________________

Today’s LittleNip:

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

—Charles Bukowski

_________________

Newcomer Gregg Norman lives and writes in a lakeside cottage in Manitoba, Canada, with his wife and a small dog who runs the joint, and where Gregg reads poetry every day to retain his frail grip on sanity. His work has been accepted by numerous poetry journals and literary magazines in Canada, USA, UK, Australia and India, including
Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Dark Winter Literary Magazine, Borderless Journal, Synchronized Chaos, Book of Matches Literary Journal, Medusa’s Kitchen, Horror Sleaze Trash, Impspired Literary Magazine, The Littoral Magazine, MasticadoresUSA, The Piker Press, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Raconteur Magazine, and Suburban Witchcraft Magazine. He is also the author of four published novels and a novella. Welcome to the Kitchen, Gregg, and don’t be a stranger!

_________________

—Medusa
 
 
 
Gregg Norman
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 











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