Ice and salt melting
together on the asphalt --
winter soup du jour.
I went to work at Pizza Shack for fifteen dollars an hour.
It was a good gig while it lasted.
Then the boss yelled at me for sneezing on the dough.
So I left. Just threw off my apron and walked out.
There was a bus waiting for me outside. To take me to the rope factory.
Where I got twenty dollars an hour. For inspecting rope.
But that was as dull as dust.
Sensing my dissatisfaction, I was approached by a headhunter.
She offered me my weight in gold to supervise a robocall center.
In Nebraska.
But who wants to live in Nebraska?
It's a great place . . . if you're a cornstalk.
She sweetened the deal by saying I could instead
go to the island of Bali and handle the robocall center there.
That sounded better, so I took the position.
But when I was flown to Bali the island had sunk.
In a recent typhoon. There was nothing left.
But floating coconuts.
So I went back to Pizza Shack. As the manager.
They let me live in the owner's penthouse apartment.
I bathe in the milk of Assyrian she-asses.
My assistant applies kohl around my eyes twice a day.
I have the power of life and death over thousands.
But still, the work is not all that fulfilling.
So I'm signing up with the Coast Guard in April.
I already passed their physical.
dead white and dark green --
both struggle to carry on;
the finches bellow.
the finches bellow
because their tree branch burned down --
no more closet space.
branches against brick --
snow as white as onion peel;
after church, a nap.
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it."
Genesis 41:15
I never dream of cows or corn/but when I wake up in the morn/like Pharaoh I become perplexed/with thoughts of what is coming next/I have no Joseph to expound/if things will fly or strike the ground/And so without such fine input/I sit and rub my rabbit's foot.
"Russia passed a law that threatens prison time for anyone publishing what authorities consider to be false information about the country’s invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin refers to as a special military operation."
WSJ
Old Putin decides that the news/does not align much with his views/Reporters who stray/are sent far away/where polar bears give interviews.
********************
I'm tired of the Covid/I wish it would depart/even with the face masks/infections off the chart/continue to develop/while anti-vaxers prate/that it is Biden's purpose/us to exterminate.
***********************
Never trust supply chain rules/they are made for crooks and fools/Ships and trucks and railroad cars/frozen fast beneath the stars/So it is, when I need eggs/all I find are stale nutmegs.
****************************
Buttered toast and jam, for me/is a form of ecstasy/From the omelette I have strayed/Give me but sweet marmalade/Buttered crumbs upon my lips/are better than vacation trips!
Potiphar's wife the young Joseph did want/and so all her wiles before him did she flaunt/But Joseph resisted and her plans did fail/so in hellish fury she cast him in jail/Virtue is often rewarded that way/so only the brave with much godliness play.
***********************************
the day is sold to rain/the rain that never ceases/the kind of rain, in fact/that gives my forehead creases/as if the sun a myth/had never showed its faces/to any single man/or to the human races/but I will persevere/in thinking sunlight loyal/that it will soon come back/and my depression spoil.
*************************
the last poem is finished/my life's work complete/I've jumped all the hurdles/and stymied defeat/now I lay back/with my laurels and chips/collecting rewards/and concocting new dips.
Infant, you fill up the diapers so fast/I don't see how mommy much longer can last/There is no delay tween the mouth and the bum/You mulch it right down to the very last crumb/Oh dear, now your mother has a look in her eye/that means it's MY turn to give changing a try!
*****************************
falling asleep at the wheel of a car/will carry the driver not too very far/a snooze going eighty is always a thrill/until there's a corpse in the wormy soil chill/so get lots of rest e'er you step on the gas/or angels will bring you a nice boarding pass.
***************************
People make jokes about Adam and Eve/I wish from such nonsense we'd get a reprieve/Don't they deserve peace and quiet, dear hearts/with nothing but fig leaves to cover their parts?
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Genesis 37:3.
When a man begins to age/all his children he will gauge/Those who please him best will rise/while the others get green eyes/It's not fair or very smart/and often breaks the brittle heart.
