Today;s words:
Poison
Bullet
Tractor
Midget
Shopping
Pants
Your words went straight to my heart, like a poison
Bullet.
Around here we spend our time at tractor
Pulls, but this is as hard as taking a midget
Shopping
For a new pair of pants
In a regular store. They never have the right size pants,
Not even in the boys' department. It's like drinking poison
Shopping
In those awful malls. I'd rather take a bullet.
The midget
Enjoyed our tractor
Pulls. On a tractor
He was everyone's equal and the size of his pants
Didn't matter. But later the midget
Was sad, and he took poison
Or a bullet
And left a note that said, "No more shopping."
Shopping
Was a nightmare for him, unlike riding a tractor.
They found a bullet
In his pants
But it was poison
That the midget
Used to end his life. The midget
Will never have to go shopping
Again, thanks to the poison.
Hopefully somewhere he's still riding a tractor
And his pants
Are the same as everyone's. No need for a bullet.
But the bullet
That got me was when you told me the midget
Was dead. All because we couldn't find him pants
When we'd gone shopping.
If only he'd stayed with the tractor
Instead of taking poison.
If you put a bullet to my head I wouldn't go shopping
With the midget again; he was fine on the tractor.
He didn't need a new pair of pants, or to take poison.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Day 130
Today's words:
Train
Trophy
Carrot
Mistake
Revenge
Shorts
My life is a train
Wreck; if they gave out a trophy
For Most Fucked-Up it would be mine. Going after the carrot
Of money was my first mistake
And life has been getting its revenge
On me ever since. Shorts
Or long pants? If you wear shorts
On the train
People will look at you. But if you're doing it for revenge,
Have at. You're not a trophy
Husband, make no mistake about that.
Just another carrot
Before the stick. A carrot
In shorts.
What a mistake
It was for me to miss that train.
Had I caught it I'd definitely have won the trophy
And gotten my revenge.
Revenge,
They say, is a dish best served cold. The carrot
Of having that dish is a powerful trophy
To look forward to, even if I do need to wear shorts
On the train.
But am I making a mistake?
It can't be a mistake
To finally get my revenge
On everyone on that train
Who stared at my carrot-
Colored hair and my shorts.
I'll put that in my trophy
Case, next to the trophy
I got when my opponent made the mistake
Of not wearing shorts.
They are mandatory when you're out for revenge,
With a carrot
On the train.
I won the trophy and had my revenge.
It wasn't a mistake to bring that carrot.
I'm glad I wore shorts on the train.
Train
Trophy
Carrot
Mistake
Revenge
Shorts
My life is a train
Wreck; if they gave out a trophy
For Most Fucked-Up it would be mine. Going after the carrot
Of money was my first mistake
And life has been getting its revenge
On me ever since. Shorts
Or long pants? If you wear shorts
On the train
People will look at you. But if you're doing it for revenge,
Have at. You're not a trophy
Husband, make no mistake about that.
Just another carrot
Before the stick. A carrot
In shorts.
What a mistake
It was for me to miss that train.
Had I caught it I'd definitely have won the trophy
And gotten my revenge.
Revenge,
They say, is a dish best served cold. The carrot
Of having that dish is a powerful trophy
To look forward to, even if I do need to wear shorts
On the train.
But am I making a mistake?
It can't be a mistake
To finally get my revenge
On everyone on that train
Who stared at my carrot-
Colored hair and my shorts.
I'll put that in my trophy
Case, next to the trophy
I got when my opponent made the mistake
Of not wearing shorts.
They are mandatory when you're out for revenge,
With a carrot
On the train.
I won the trophy and had my revenge.
It wasn't a mistake to bring that carrot.
I'm glad I wore shorts on the train.
Day 129
Today's words:
Fireman
Prophet
Juice
Escape
Space
CD
I think every fireman
Must be a bit of a prophet.
How else to explain the juice
That lets them escape
For awful places into free space?
And they can then record a CD.
I had a friend who recorded his own CD.
It didn't go anywhere. Thank goodness he also a fireman.
Paid by the city to simply take up space
Most of the time. Until some prophet
Helped him escape
And get some juice.
Because juice
Is what we all need. That and a new CD,
To help us escape
From the fireman
Who is not a prophet.
We just need our space.
Space
And juice
Are what the prophet
Wanted, as he recorded his new CD.
You don't need to be a fireman
To escape
This situation. And only an escape
Into space
Could allow the fireman
To get the juice
On his own, while he slips a new CD
Into the charger. You didn't need to be a prophet
To predict that future. Any old self-styled prophet
Would do as an escape
Ticket, or in exchange for a copy of the CD.
Just leave me some space
So I can sip my juice
While I wait for the fireman.
I'm no prophet but I know how space
Works. There's no escape, so grab your juice
And you CD. Let's not wait for the fireman.
Fireman
Prophet
Juice
Escape
Space
CD
I think every fireman
Must be a bit of a prophet.
How else to explain the juice
That lets them escape
For awful places into free space?
And they can then record a CD.
I had a friend who recorded his own CD.
It didn't go anywhere. Thank goodness he also a fireman.
Paid by the city to simply take up space
Most of the time. Until some prophet
Helped him escape
And get some juice.
Because juice
Is what we all need. That and a new CD,
To help us escape
From the fireman
Who is not a prophet.
We just need our space.
Space
And juice
Are what the prophet
Wanted, as he recorded his new CD.
You don't need to be a fireman
To escape
This situation. And only an escape
Into space
Could allow the fireman
To get the juice
On his own, while he slips a new CD
Into the charger. You didn't need to be a prophet
To predict that future. Any old self-styled prophet
Would do as an escape
Ticket, or in exchange for a copy of the CD.
Just leave me some space
So I can sip my juice
While I wait for the fireman.
I'm no prophet but I know how space
Works. There's no escape, so grab your juice
And you CD. Let's not wait for the fireman.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Day 127
Today's words:
Union
Cockroach
Library
Cereal
Reindeer
Copyright
The thought of the union
Of those two was as gross as seeing a cockroach
In the library.
Eating my breakfast cereal
For some reason I thought about reindeer,
But figured they were protected by copyright.
So, ignoring all copyright
Laws, I proceeded to flout the union
In my reindeer
Painting. And just then a cockroach
Approached my cereal.
I fled into the library.
The library
Had always been a refuge, even if all the books were copyright
Protected. I wouldn't eat cereal there,
Not the kind that crunched anyway - the librarians' union
Would have looked at me like a cockroach.
I carefully approached the reindeer,
As I'd heard reindeer
Startled easily. This one looked as calm as in a library,
But then started, as though it had seen a cockroach.
Having heard of my copyright
Violation, the authors' union
Made a move to confiscate my cereal.
Just as cereal
Is appealing to a reindeer,
So the union
Of the library
And the copyright
Will keep out the cockroach.
Except for Kafka's cockroach,
Of course, who may have eaten cereal,
But was protected by copyright
Nonetheless. And the reindeer
In the library
Formed a union
With that cockroach while the reindeer
Ate the cereal left in the library
By the copyright makers' union.
Union
Cockroach
Library
Cereal
Reindeer
Copyright
The thought of the union
Of those two was as gross as seeing a cockroach
In the library.
Eating my breakfast cereal
For some reason I thought about reindeer,
But figured they were protected by copyright.
So, ignoring all copyright
Laws, I proceeded to flout the union
In my reindeer
Painting. And just then a cockroach
Approached my cereal.
I fled into the library.
The library
Had always been a refuge, even if all the books were copyright
Protected. I wouldn't eat cereal there,
Not the kind that crunched anyway - the librarians' union
Would have looked at me like a cockroach.
I carefully approached the reindeer,
As I'd heard reindeer
Startled easily. This one looked as calm as in a library,
But then started, as though it had seen a cockroach.
Having heard of my copyright
Violation, the authors' union
Made a move to confiscate my cereal.
Just as cereal
Is appealing to a reindeer,
So the union
Of the library
And the copyright
Will keep out the cockroach.
Except for Kafka's cockroach,
Of course, who may have eaten cereal,
But was protected by copyright
Nonetheless. And the reindeer
In the library
Formed a union
With that cockroach while the reindeer
Ate the cereal left in the library
By the copyright makers' union.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Day 126 - RIP Kent Horton
Today's words:
Sanity
Jump
Applause
Tooth
Critic
Comet
For the sake of my sanity
I want to believe you didn't jump,
Although you probably did. I hope there was no applause,
No uncaring audience ready to sink its tooth
Into your life, as a critic
Would condemn a comet.
You burned like a comet,
Though you struggled with sanity.
You were your own worst critic,
And you sometimes said you'd jump.
But I didn't believe you. Like a child losing a tooth,
I though it was just for applause.
And just as a burst of applause
Greets a passing comet,
So loss of a tooth
Can prefigure a loss of sanity.
But to jump
Would let the critic
Be right. And the critic
Was never right. I tried to give you as much applause
As I could, but I still feared you would jump.
Sometimes you were a burnt-out comet,
And sanity
Was nowhere to be found. If I could have found the tooth,
The root, of the problem, that tooth
That made you listen to an inner critic,
Always judging, stealing your sanity,
And expecting applause
For making the comet
Jump.
Oh, tell me you didn't jump.
I'll probably never know. I'll bet an eyetooth
That brother of yours won't even call. A comet
You were, but he was a critic
And always hungry for applause,
Even at the expense of the sanity
Of those around him. Did he make you jump by being a critic?
A toothsome morsel seeking applause,
As he drives the comet to lose its sanity.
Sanity
Jump
Applause
Tooth
Critic
Comet
For the sake of my sanity
I want to believe you didn't jump,
Although you probably did. I hope there was no applause,
No uncaring audience ready to sink its tooth
Into your life, as a critic
Would condemn a comet.
You burned like a comet,
Though you struggled with sanity.
You were your own worst critic,
And you sometimes said you'd jump.
But I didn't believe you. Like a child losing a tooth,
I though it was just for applause.
And just as a burst of applause
Greets a passing comet,
So loss of a tooth
Can prefigure a loss of sanity.
But to jump
Would let the critic
Be right. And the critic
Was never right. I tried to give you as much applause
As I could, but I still feared you would jump.
Sometimes you were a burnt-out comet,
And sanity
Was nowhere to be found. If I could have found the tooth,
The root, of the problem, that tooth
That made you listen to an inner critic,
Always judging, stealing your sanity,
And expecting applause
For making the comet
Jump.
Oh, tell me you didn't jump.
I'll probably never know. I'll bet an eyetooth
That brother of yours won't even call. A comet
You were, but he was a critic
And always hungry for applause,
Even at the expense of the sanity
Of those around him. Did he make you jump by being a critic?
A toothsome morsel seeking applause,
As he drives the comet to lose its sanity.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Day 125
Today's words:
Flag
Wardrobe
Corn
Lawn
Rebel
Velcro
I don't go around waving a flag
As part of my wardrobe.
I leave that corn
To others, as they sit on the lawn,
Wearing a Rebel
Button affixed with Velcro.
She used Velcro
To attach the flag
Of the rebel
Army to all the shirts in her wardrobe.
Sitting on the lawn,
Eating corn
On the cob, somewhere in the corn
Belt. She ripped off the Velcro
Strip around the hose and began to water the lawn.
She raised the flag
And went in to go through her wardrobe,
Looking for signs of rebel
Insignia. She wanted to rebel
Against all this corn
All the time. She wanted a new wardrobe,
One involving less Velcro,
And it hadn't been her idea to put the flag
Pole out on the lawn.
Around here, your lawn
Has to be manicured just so, or you'll be considered a rebel.
They'll come take your flag
If you're not eating enough corn,
And you've got to have enough Velcro
In your wardrobe.
The average person's wardrobe
Around here is good for working on the lawn,
Or going to the mall, and that's it. The Velcro
Fasteners on everything are for dolts, but only a rebel
Would want to cut back on corn,
Or not salute the flag.
By changing her wardrobe she let them all know she was a rebel,
Not content to sit on the lawn eating corn
On the cob all day, playing with Velcro while saluting the flag.
Flag
Wardrobe
Corn
Lawn
Rebel
Velcro
I don't go around waving a flag
As part of my wardrobe.
I leave that corn
To others, as they sit on the lawn,
Wearing a Rebel
Button affixed with Velcro.
She used Velcro
To attach the flag
Of the rebel
Army to all the shirts in her wardrobe.
Sitting on the lawn,
Eating corn
On the cob, somewhere in the corn
Belt. She ripped off the Velcro
Strip around the hose and began to water the lawn.
She raised the flag
And went in to go through her wardrobe,
Looking for signs of rebel
Insignia. She wanted to rebel
Against all this corn
All the time. She wanted a new wardrobe,
One involving less Velcro,
And it hadn't been her idea to put the flag
Pole out on the lawn.
Around here, your lawn
Has to be manicured just so, or you'll be considered a rebel.
They'll come take your flag
If you're not eating enough corn,
And you've got to have enough Velcro
In your wardrobe.
The average person's wardrobe
Around here is good for working on the lawn,
Or going to the mall, and that's it. The Velcro
Fasteners on everything are for dolts, but only a rebel
Would want to cut back on corn,
Or not salute the flag.
By changing her wardrobe she let them all know she was a rebel,
Not content to sit on the lawn eating corn
On the cob all day, playing with Velcro while saluting the flag.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Day 124
Today's words:
Advertising
Snore
Leaf
Seal
Radiator
Button
Advertising
Is boring, a snore
If you will. I ripped out a leaf
Of notebook paper and applied my seal
On it at the bottom, then I folded it and stuck it behind the radiator
And pressed the button
To call for some tea. After pressing the call button,
I returned to the advertising
Campaign in course. It was for a new portable radiator,
And it really made me snore.
But I needed to get the boss's seal
Of approval so I could turn over a new leaf.
A leaf
Fell from the button
Wood tree as I broke open the seal
On the letter from the advertising
Company. More junk mail - snore.
They want me to buy some sort of new radiator.
It's really just a portable heater, but it's shaped like a radiator.
I picked up the leaf
And leaned back in my chair, falling asleep with a snore.
No button
From an advertising
Company will seal
This deal. I've heard the seal
On that portable radiator
Is defective, so the advertising
Company is issuing a recall. Just one more leaf
Taken out of their book. I undid the top button
On my shirt and let out a snore.
Apparently I snore
Rather loudly. That will seal
Any desire on my part to be button
Downed with anyone. I reach behind the radiator
And pull out the leaf
I'd put there earlier, when I was working in advertising.
The snore of a job involving that radiator
Campaign is what caused me to seal my career, sending in a leaf
With my resignation, a button, and some advertising.
Advertising
Snore
Leaf
Seal
Radiator
Button
Advertising
Is boring, a snore
If you will. I ripped out a leaf
Of notebook paper and applied my seal
On it at the bottom, then I folded it and stuck it behind the radiator
And pressed the button
To call for some tea. After pressing the call button,
I returned to the advertising
Campaign in course. It was for a new portable radiator,
And it really made me snore.
But I needed to get the boss's seal
Of approval so I could turn over a new leaf.
A leaf
Fell from the button
Wood tree as I broke open the seal
On the letter from the advertising
Company. More junk mail - snore.
They want me to buy some sort of new radiator.
It's really just a portable heater, but it's shaped like a radiator.
I picked up the leaf
And leaned back in my chair, falling asleep with a snore.
No button
From an advertising
Company will seal
This deal. I've heard the seal
On that portable radiator
Is defective, so the advertising
Company is issuing a recall. Just one more leaf
Taken out of their book. I undid the top button
On my shirt and let out a snore.
Apparently I snore
Rather loudly. That will seal
Any desire on my part to be button
Downed with anyone. I reach behind the radiator
And pull out the leaf
I'd put there earlier, when I was working in advertising.
The snore of a job involving that radiator
Campaign is what caused me to seal my career, sending in a leaf
With my resignation, a button, and some advertising.
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