Hello and thank you for stopping by poetry lovers! This week I have no announcements, just three poems for you. I promise to do a better job keeping you abreast of poetry news and, with their permission, sharing links to some of the wonderful poets I find on the internet.

Like A Glove

Crowd riding
in a stiff shirt
with a stiff body
and a stiff set of morals

Not that you’d know it
to watch him flex his spine
to match whatever pose
the audience demands

No his code of conduct runs deeper
as deep as his bottomless pockets
the only authority he acknowledges
or really bends for
is the authority in currency

That is his morality
that is his religion
not some oft-mocked
knock off
of credos just as silly

He gives thanks at the queue
at the bank teller’s window
he kneels obediently
before the twelve prophets
the acolytes on The Board

The firmness of his faith
gives him strength and vision
the ardor of his love
for the church of endless wealth
reminds him of his task
and teaches him the rotes
he must prepare

On the Sun’s Anvil

Asphalt radiates brutal heat
and not an inch on anyone’s body
is comfortable
as we squirm in our clothes
and hide behind darkened glasses
trying to play it cool

It is in vain though
how can you play it cool
guzzling tumblers full of crushed ice
constantly adjusting
a not too thin veneer of sweat
painting your skin

We subject ourselves to this
running out to be seen
to be part of the crowd
to feel a connection
even when we are too hot
to ever want to touch

City streets congested with odorous bodies
the beautiful people pretending not to notice
the glistening gorgeous creatures around them
or their own labored breath

Suffer it for a little while
it’s worth the price of admission
this show of human flesh
and music of one thousand conversations

Rosie

You drag your groggy ass out of bed
and your feet across room 15A
your bleary mind never wondering
as it contemplates the coming day

Just how the coffee arrived to you
with the breakfast on the cart
the automatism brought it here
to fuel you before you depart

Carefully you dress yourself
in clothes pressed by unseen powers
of course things should be this way
you think as you leave the towers

Going about your business
you know things are well in hand
and the machines behind the doors
will cater to your every demand

And as you return from meeting
to the astounding sight
of a minibar stocked, shower cleaned
and towels and sheets so white

You think once more of how it happens
where is this wonderful machine
surely no human being would degrade themselves
to keep your dirty world so clean

No one could ever sink so low
to sully themselves with such grit
you never notice their presence
or their cleaning of your shit

No it’s better to think them tools
than husbands, daughters, sons and wives
better to think them phantoms
than to reflect upon their lives

And there you have it.  Like a Glove and On the Sun’s Anvil are brand new and debuted here. Rosie appears in my book Drawing Lines. See you folks next week.

Peace and Love;
Christine