Three Poems from One Bum for the Price of Five Minutes

from 9/20/2004

A Shepherd in Nassau Valley
stuck here can't complain dear i know you mean well when you say how are things in hell but i can't help but to break a sweat i remiss about the lists i've made the ways i've paid to get my road paved the time has come the piper will be paid if not my head then for sure my bed because i'll never rest again i got to be brave i'll never rest easy i got to be quick on my feet if i get your toes i can't say it enough i'm sorry for today and all the past i can't make my day off last can't i just be with you can't i just be yours and need nothing else to do why must something always occupy my time why must salesman always occupy the lines they disconnect the call when you try to reach me at home i always wanted to roam but i've never wanted to go out alone, at least not since you came and brought smiles out of the blue why must i complain i even like the rain and that's good for a change but what we have is just not enough and i have to sell my soul simply to pay it off i want our days to be spent in the same room in the comfort of your arms not apart in a slaves tomb i can't stand to say see you later or catch up with you in a few hours i'll huff and i'll puff and then i'll head into work because at this date and time i got no other option. i don't know how to explain why it is i complain and why perhaps i can't be content yet still i want you to know the depths that missing you goes for me it goes to the low and returns to the peak a single shift moves like a week and to prove that here's something unique my beard grows in six hours what usually takes 7 days if only i could raise up prize eggplants at that kind of pace then i could stay here tend animals and give myself a raise. and that's the kind of thing i could go for. you know, that or counting the grains on the long beach shore. i'm sure there's good wages in that and your mom would be proud when i could afford a raft on which to ride back to the mainland you know, where it occurs to me the whole thing was a work of fiction where i can promptly get in gear to ease the friction that i have caused with my boss and in-laws as i contemplated oxygen addiction. i don't know how to make sense of my ignorance just know that i miss you and am held in suspense like a three-year old waiting with anxiety to go home from the nursery. i just need somebody to sit with me.

Hurricane Party
i came at eight just as i was. i may go now just as i am. i've never been so far in the path as i find myself today but the hurricane is on its way. taking a look at statistical data i believe that my chances are good. that is, to make it through. but we shouldn't spit at death. i just thought i'd take this opportunity to evaluate what living means and the life i've lead this far. for the most part i feel alright but i know what i would change. it's not just that it's easier to say in the-calm-before-the-storm afternoon part of the day. then again i should consider most of the change would only be recognizable past tense. right now i'm just sitting on the back of the couch waiting in suspense. it could be my life or my landlord's. i summon how much damage i could afford and how i could capitalize on carefully placed trees. i've thought about riding this out on the front lawn in a plastic chair. i mean, i've never sat out there for any length of time. this is as good a day as any but is it to be mine?

Greed Like Icebergs
a record store is the one place where it's cool to be a whore. the shady LP salesman hopes we can both make out as bandits, but to him music is a chore. the capital gain is what pumps blood through his veins but he'll make the same claims of fanship. he'll cite off bands as though the components are friends when all he wants is to sell you a ticket. i just wish he'd keep his grubby hands off the records because for every one he touch a career and a movement goes up as simply long since passed hope for glory. so long as there are those who abuse the splendor you'll have to forgive me if i act better than vendors who trade off something pure for something green.