CombatWords!: Combatwords for July 1, 2011: Independence: "Combatwords for July 1, 2011: Independence If I was rich, I'd be stalked by the hungry suits, craving my signature. I would ride the taxi—..."
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Independence
CombatWords!: Combatwords for July 1, 2011: Independence: "Combatwords for July 1, 2011: Independence If I was rich, I'd be stalked by the hungry suits, craving my signature. I would ride the taxi—..."
Urbanality
I was never one to write about sunsets or birds,
to be honest that shit bores me to distraction.
I live in Manhattan so I haven’t seen a sunset
in three hundred & sixty five days, and birds here,
well they're just another pest to be controlled.
I never really liked to listen to sweet ballads
and there’s something pathetic about the blues.
I prefer the hard rocking sounds of Hindi profanity
sung by cab drivers, the tune of droning car horns
and the distant wail of another siren’s song of ending.
I never got much pleasure from hiking or picnics
and I have no real desire to get back to nature.
I’d rather choke down a cart hot dog for breakfast,
avoid piss puddles on the subway platform
and hide behind Ray-Bans and two hundred dollar ear buds.
I never understood the fascination with beauty
or people’ neurotic obsession with falling in love.
I’ve seen a lot of well groomed hair and make up jobs
and have had the shit kicked out of me more than once,
but beauty is a rocks glass, love is a generous bartender,
and the poetry is between the first sip and "hit me again".
SMG
*(Re-printed from The (&) Ampersand III)
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Jordaan
Jordaan
I was standing on a bridge over the Prinsengracht canal
in the
disconnected calm of three joints from a coffee bar
and the cool
predawn air. The click of Rembrandt’s footsteps
still echo down
the cobbles at this hour-- Once, long ago,
I dreamt of the
scene, this moment, fog tickling across
the warm canal
water. I thought back to the person I was
when that dream
was formed, and I realized that I missed him.
He was young and
idealistic, so unafraid, with a swagger
that could only come
from hubris and ignorance.
The damp morning air
sat on the shoulders of my jacket
and I smiled as I watched
a young Dutch couple fend off
the chilly dark,
oblivious to the painter and me as we took it all in.
The distance
between that boy and the man that I would become
seems so much
greater than the twenty-five years it took to travel.
That boy’s dreams have
turned into my sad reminiscence,
a longing for that
time before disbelief and defeat; the un-jaded
days of wonder
lost along the way. I wanted to see Amsterdam
before I died; I
realize now that it’s too late.
SMG
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Un-Dead
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Sexual Politics
Sexual Politics
Fair azure eyes
encant,
oh, how she does
enchant.
my heart doth
dance,
in sublime hypnotic
trance,
His angry eyes
askant,
fearing I shall
supplant,
and her love
enhance,
if she be mine per
chance.
Vainly does he
forestall,
as I endeavor to
enthrall.
SMG
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Alcatraz
Alcatraz
The words,
etched on the cell wall
a lifetime ago, contained a truth
wrought by pain and loss.
“No one is innocent”
As I thought about the author
I watched the tourists,
oblivious of their own guilt,
pass hurriedly, never noticing
the crude engraving.
SMG
d'Verse Poet's Pub Writing Prompt: https://dversepoets.com/
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Mourning Jay
Writing Prompt from d'Verse Poets Pub
https://dversepoets.com/#:~:text=https%3A//dversepoets.com
Thursday, February 27, 2025
She Calls in the Morning
Friday, February 7, 2025
Life on the Line
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Solstice to Equinox
Solstice to Equinox
Anais, Anais
Litha has passed
and we are left
to mourn the coming
autumnal balance,
for creatures such as we
crave the severe
and eschew
This Gentile World.
Travel with me to
The Tropic of Capricorn
and leave behind
the ever shrinking
days of Cancer.
There we can live
in eternal summer
and Black Spring.
Grieve not my love,
for with the arrival
of Yoole's long nights,
Sirius shall align
with Orion's belt
and point us back
to the elliptical
apex, and June.
SMG