Tag Archives: Poetry Month

2025, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry

Two Poems On the First Day of Poetry Month

the creeping annoyances of middle-aging, in early spring

out of nowhere low-grade fevers and petty aches
the impossibility of sleep, maybe the worst indignity

or maybe all the extra consideration of all the small things:
to eat or not to eat fried food
tracking sugar intake
no to all things — caffeine, nicotine, full fat anything

treating the body
like an old rebuilt F-150, waiting
for the transmission to drop
running 80 down the interstate.

We are not a running people

for my daughter

We are not a running people
but there are those that are:
they fritter and flit,
live short, blinky firefly lives
remembered by the absence of light
compared kindly to stars, nor are we those
moved along assembly lines of soul and civilization
processed and packaged and distributed wholesale.

We are not them, to be prized then lost
in the back of a closet, broken
in the bottom of child’s toy box, disappeared
in the furniture with pennies and nickels
no one digs out anymore to buy
overpriced packs of cigarettes.

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, spring, the no-scape, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024), 20-23

20.

in a dream colored in primary shades of loneliness

wandering desolate shores and broken down towns

an old dead friend rides up on a stolen bicycle
carrying a flat screen TV under one arm, happy

that she only spent some of her cash on cocaine

21.

each fit of waking sends me back
and in a small sea-side restaurant
in a crowd of well-known strangers
in the company of a young woman
whose presence kicks up the wind
of your undiscernable absence

22.

even with the river falling back into bed
some days there is not enough deisel and grease
to move the tired engine in my gut

23.

unlit dreamscapes lack appropriate maintenance

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, river life, the no-scape, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024), 6

6.

// no word from the blue heron //

[note from translator:

the complexities incumbent on inter-species communication makes precise meaning a challenge]

// consult a watchman or wizard – ask the fire troll – he has tricks up his sleeves//

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