May K Poems 2013

Metal Chairs: response has been good from our ad

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Another Door is closed. Ray Manzarek died yesterday; the second member of the band, The Doors, to pass through Heaven’s gates. Without Ray, there would have been no Doors. None of that sweet, moody, sometimes psychotic keyboard playing that The Doors relied on to anchor the band. No bass player, just Ray, completing the rhythm section of the band with drummer John Densmore, tangling and untangling notes with guitarist Robbie Krieger, and backing Jim Morrison in some of the most ballsy, thoughtful music that has ever been produced in Rock and Roll.

I miss him already.

…………………………………..

Musing on the muse

I suppose that there is a reason

why the muse has left the building.

Maybe I was neglecting her

or maybe I was working her overtime

offering her only some sort of minimum wage.

Either way, it seems that she has split.

I miss her, and pray that she will return to me.

………………………………………

"The beauty of dropping to the bottom, is that it wipes the slate clean."--Kris Kristofferson

…………………………………………

Out of control

Usually when I fuck up

I can fix it. I can repair it

I can make it better somehow,

but as I age I see things looming

over which I have no control

and they scare me.

………………………………………………

Comatose

Can we stabilize me?

Can we get me back to where I was before?

Oh how I appreciate what I had

now that I don’t have it.

If I could I would reach out and grab it

I would, but it won’t let me.

………………………………………………

I don’t want

I don’t want to become old and bitter.

I don’t want a baby sitter,

someone to clean the drool off my face

working for minimum wage.

………………………………….

Your confusion

Husband is right you say

as you face the night alone

divided on what to do.

……………………………………..

Can you say rock and roll?

What mattered when I was a young man

doesn’t matter now. I’m still glad that I got the tattoos.

I’m glad that I quit drinking. I am not attracted

to crowds, anymore; especially ones that you have

to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a ticket.

Can you say rock and roll? I’ve found love,

don’t have to play the fool, anymore.

………………………………………..

Grabbing it all

Buy a souvenir you’ll have to

put a second mortgage on the house.

The folks selling it to you don’t care;

they sold 3.5 million sodas last year.

………………………………………

I’ll never be what I thought I was going to be.

The occupation is filled and I haven’t the patience

to play the game. Instead, I’ll be something else

and I’m happy with that.

…………………………………………..

Bankrupt

"Suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to debt,"

said the magazine article.

Tragic. They have you by the balls.

Be all you can be; borrow to get that college degree.

It will make all your dreams come true.

But when the payments come due

and you can’t pay them what are you to do?

……………………………………………

In this thing

I’ve waited a lifetime

to start living. People

been forgiving so it’s

possible to start over.

I haven’t found a

four leaf clover

no rainbow pointing to

a pot of gold has come over me,

but I’ve got a smile on my face

and I’m relatively sane

in this thing called the human race.

……………………………..

How much is enough anyway?

I’m selling peanut butter

to the carnivores who

started all the wars.

They are never satisfied

will sell your son and daughter’s blood

for some more green.

……………………………………………..

Circumvention of fear

They drew more blood from the veins

in my arm than had every been drawn

from any living creature, or so it felt,

laying there on the hospital bed

with my left arm extended, my eyes closed.

I started closing my eyes when blood was drawn

from me, years ago, so that I would not struggle

with the nurse, as I had started to do,

in that period of my life. Giving blood scared me.

Giving blood really scared me, and I learned

that by closing my eyes and not watching

the blood enter the syringe that I could circumvent the fear.

……………………………………..

Where’s my soul?

I sold it to the corporation. One nation

under the sign of the dollar.

Makes me want to holler, but

what can a poor boy do?

……………………………….

The cable guy comes tomorrow, and I am so relieved, because the reception that we get from free tv sucks. You can’t really watch the news because the signal keeps going out, and Joan and I like to watch Diane Sawyer over dinner at night. I’m not much on tv, and neither is Joan, but, on occasion, we like to watch sporting events. Gosh, we really are moving on up, out here, living in sin in Mableton.

……………………………………

I enjoy growing flowers and strawberries

as I enjoy growing dogs, cats, turtles, a bird,

and a goldfish.

……………………………………

Living with a woman, I am constantly having to raise the toilet seat, and loving that woman as I do, after using the toilet, I try to remember to always put the seat back down. It might just be the simple things that make a relationship work, that when you add up all the simple things, they become something more, something that solidifies the relationship like super glue does most everything that it touches. I want my relationship cemented solidly.

………………………………..

I’m becoming a special man

cuz I’m letting it go. Things don’t

grip me; things don’t paralyze me

like they used to. I’m letting it go.

The sun the moon and the stars

are more in control than I so why

should I always try to run the show?

………………………………..

Time keeps slipping away

and the world has not ended.

We naysayers have not

correctly predicted the decline

of western civilization.

Our food has not killed us, or has it?

I don’t know what the future holds

but I do know that I have been given

a great opportunity to enjoy the day at hand.

…………………………………..

The inner traffic of my mind

Sometimes, I don’t want to slow down

to piss; but I always stop and give my lady

a kiss.

……………………………………….

Semantics

Sometimes, the best part of the day

gets stolen from me, so I must steal

another part of the day to do my writing

because, if I do not write, then I am not

a writer, and I would have no reason for

existing.

………………………………..

Today is Friday, and on Monday, my therapist, and I, made the decision to take me off of lithium, because an overabundance of it in my blood, last week, put me in the hospital for two days with some weird side effects. I have been on lithium for approximately 25 years. It has done me well until this point for this bi-polar disorder that I have.

We are tapering me off the drug slowly. The first two days I took 3, not 4, 330 mg, pills. After that, for two days, I  took two pills, and, now, I am on one pill, until I get a lithium level taken, an liver enzyme check, and check back in with my therapist, again. My therapist has mentioned Depakote as a replacement pill.

I am doing well on less lithium. I have not gotten extremely manic. I have not gotten depressed. I do have more energy, and find that my writing is better, less forced than it has been on the pink pills.

…………………………………………………

………………………………………

Your reputation

had left the station before you arrived

clutching a ticket that you had nabbed

from some young lady’s purse. All the

money you had had come from the same

location. You were running out of cash fast

and didn’t know who to rob next. The thought

of either settling down, or getting a job, did not

occur to you. You were a cowboy gangster for life,

a man whose face was waiting to wind up on a

wanted poster.

…………………………………………

Is there a diaper for baby turtles?

I need to clean it, and I need to clean it

now. The baby turtles are swimming in

their own poop, because they haven’t

learned how to eat in an outside feeder yet.

Thankfully, their aquarium is small. It

won’t hurt my back at all to drain it.

……………………………………………..

Is blood thicker than what?

Dude, we don’t have much in common

but I am still rooting for you. You think

you won’t, but I think you will pull through.

………………………………………..

Raining Cats

It is raining. Rain is appealing when you are not caught

out in it. Rain is appealing when you are sitting in a room

of your house, windows down, watching it with the cats

through the screen. I don’t know if the cats appreciate the

rain from their safe, and dry perch on the window sill.

…………………………………………

If I was Stalin I would have something to say

He needs to be locked up

without a paint brush,

without a camera,

without any way to convey

the sickness in his mind.

Instead, people flock to

his openings. People pay

high prices for his pictures.

…………………………………………………..

Thou shalt not…?

Sihon and Og were slain by Moses

for what reason? I never knew that

Moses was a killer. What about

the ten commandments?

…………………………………………………….

The welcome mat is open

When he visits, he is part of our family

because he wags his tail the right way.

If he was vicious, we would say stay away.

………………………………………..

Can you go to Hell for asking questions?

Is there a difference between

questioning and asking a question.

……………………………………………

Satan and Angels

Have you ever seen one

or the other. Have they ever

come to you?

……………………………………………..

This gives me satisfaction

A number of birds

vacate the neighbor’s feeder

in favor of my freshly cut lawn.

My baby turtles are feeding

on food that I gave them

just awhile ago.

I have my dogs on the carport

and they are not barking.

My lady will be home soon.

There are many reasons to give thanks.

……………………………………………………….

You get what you need

From her garden she brings me flowers.

From her kitchen she brings me sustenance.

At night she snuggles close to me,

always giving me a good night kiss

saying I love you, sweet dreams….

I almost ran her off, in the beginning

not knowing what God had in store for me.

……………………………………………………….

What and where to put your eyes on

Time with your eyes in a book

is time that you could be watching

your turtles swim.

…………………………………………………………

Please don’t piss in my pool

Our neighbor spends more time

putting poison in her gardens

than she does watering her plants

effectively blocking out the sun, figuratively.

I am trying not to cast judgment

just make an observation, but

her poison can leak onto our flowers

and gardens sort of like how businessmen

pollute our earth in pursuit of their dollars.

……………………………………………..

Something like that or closer

Money must be God

it’s what everybody’s working for.

Money must be good

it’s the reason for war.

It’s the reason that turtles are

killed for their shell.

It’s why they pull teeth

from the shark, oh well.

You’ve got to pay the bills

shot out rain forest

glaciers melting

you know the deal.

…………………………………………

Sex

My Irish Catholic Immigrant parents did all they could to keep me from having sex, interacting with women in a dating way: early curfews, couldn't use the phone, the threat of my father's backhand, and or foot, always present. I didn’t lose my virginity until about a week after I moved out of my parents’ house. I was high on free will and booze when I did it with the lady. Sex has meant different times in my life. There was frat boy screwing coeds in college. There was drunk doorman screwing gals at the bar behavior in Los Angeles. There was punk rock love with one woman in Atlanta. There was a love affair that resulted in the birth of my youngest son. There were years without, and now there is love with my Joan, and I will spare you the intimate details of our communions.

Thanks to Tony Paris for inspiring this piece.

…………………………………………………

The sun has risen on another day and we are blessed

I ate the first strawberries risen from our garden, today,

three of them. They weren’t as sweet as those from

the store. Do farmers inject their strawberries

with sugar, or stevia, to make them so sweet? I love

the idea of all of your food being grown in your backyard.

Wouldn’t God want it this way: subject not to the

high price of stores and the chemicals that corporations bring

to bear on our food? Soon we will have okra, squash, and tomatoes, and hopefully a watermelon, and cantaloupe, or two.

…………………………………………………

Turning the pages of my mind

I don’t care

if I get behind.

We’re all headed

to the same place.

Sometimes, you got to

take a minute out

from the human race

find your place in it all.

Mikel K

Peace

……………………………………………

Get a job

Six Flags said that I had to get a haircut and shave my beard

before I could buy a uniform from them. I won’t have to piss

in their jar, so that they can see if I smoke pot. I won’t sweat in the hot summer sun for hours at a time for 7.25 an hour. My youngest son and my gal both said that they would leave me if I cut the hair and shaved the beard to get the job. Well, the gal says she didn’t quite say that, but I know that she said that she really likes the beard and the hair. I wouldn’t want to disappoint her to help Six Flags sell 3.7 more soft drinks, this summer, liked they bragged about in their orientation-indoctrination video in the hiring office. Funny thing is they told me I was hired at first meeting, and didn’t lay down the hair and beard law until I had come back with all my tax forms and permission to let them have me piss in a jar papers.

I wish them the best. I hope they are happy in their mansions.

…………………………………………….

Blow up your TV?

She likes The History Channel. I like CNN.

Neither one of us wants to spend

too much time in front of the television;

we know that it is not our friend.

………………………………………………..

With Steve Perry singing

She wonders why he won’t bend

and break. He takes time off

every once in awhile. The relationship

is sort of like a Journey song.

…………………………………………………

Power to whom?

I don’t care if you believe in God, but I do care if you believe in Good. Science may tell you one thing, and religion another, but the bottom line is that we should all treat each other decently, but we don’t do we?

I love how these men, and women, who hide behind the name, “Corporation,” call us “Partners,” while they make millions while paying us $7.25.

“It’s legal,” you will say. Well, ha ha, who made the laws?

When did waiters and waitresses start getting called, Servers.”

Be honest: at $2.01 an hour they are slaves to the wealthy restaurant industry.

………………………………………………

Penguins on acid stay away

Someone with a lousy personality shouldn’t be waiting tables. If you can’t muster up a smile at 2.01 an hour, you should seek servitude elsewhere. I’m in a good mood, when I eat out, and I don’t want to suffer the effects of you not having taken your Prozac. Waiting tables is hard work, but part of the job is being in a good mood. Mostly, people will tip you more for being charming than they will for being dismal. Trust me, I wore the penguin suits for years.

…………………………………………

I wish I could call my coffee cup, like I do

my cell phone, when I misplace it in the house!

…………………………………………..

Passages in time

A photograph is but a fleeting glimpse

of a moment in the past.

…………………………………………….

My turtle babies, George and John, went, immediately, to their food, this morning, when I dropped it in their aquarium. They love the dried shrimp that I cut into little pieces for them, as they enjoy the green floating pellets that I drop in their water. Joan says that the shrimp is supposed to make the turtles grow up to be big and strong, fast! I love my turtles as babies, as I loved my children as babies. It will be fun, and rewarding, to see my turtle babies grow, as I have watched my children grow. I thank my Higher Power for this greatest gift that I have: life, which allows me to enjoy both turtles and children, and so much more.

………………………………………………..

But I do

I had bad things going on, too

but it was all about you:

your situation, your problems.

Now you are gone, and I don’t know where,

and I’m not sure whether to care, or not.

……………………………………………..

Were there drag queen cavemen?

Did cavemen panhandle?

Did they have collection agencies?

Give me back that rock,

or I’ll hit you with this stick.

Were there homeless cavemen?

Alcoholic cavemen?

Cavemen smoking weed?

I have never heard the term, “cavewoman.”

Why not?

Did cavemen believe in God?

Did they write a book and say it was written by God?

Did one caveman die so all the others could live?

……………………………………………

Try try again

I’m glad to see the two of you

back together,” I said, not knowing

that they were not back together,

just doing that friend thing.

You can put your foot in your mouth

in an assortment of ways: on the internet,

on the telephone, and, of course, in person.

Knowing this it should be easier with time

to not do such; or so it would seem.

All we can do is try, try again.

……………………………………………..

Perhaps a preponderance of pondering

My baby turtles run to the food that I drop

in their box. My adult turtle runs from the food

as it hits  her water. Are children more trusting

than adults. Does the aging process make us

live in more, or less, fear? Why is a pansy a pansy?

Will the magnolias that I have planted grow?

………………………………………..

Senators in the name of Jesus

He wanted to actuate you

not electric you, though

his methods were brutal.

The pain that you endured

he said was good for you.

In the long run.

In the long run.

He would shout.

…………………………………………

Surely, we are better than this.

A kiss that leads to obligation,

insurance that doesn’t insure.

Anything should go as long as

it doesn’t hurt others. Is that

the way it is, or just the way that

it seems to you?

……………………………………………

Ha ha

What then of turtles?

Should we extinct them?

Should we turn them into soup

and ashtrays?

What purpose do they give?

You say they give you pleasure…

………………………………

Poet

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 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

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 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

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 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mike K

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 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

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 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

 Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K Mikel K

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