August 1996

We went to Poe’s house

Together

One hot day in August

When we both called in sick

And I wore all black

In honor of the day

We posed in the empty rooms and 

Kissed under the looming and leering

Raven in the parking lot

How did such an empty house

Fill us with so much joy?

Sad Snack

Sad Snack for

a sad sack

Eating at my desk

Plantain chips

diet Pepsi, not even

Coke

Like a bad joke

Fake Italian bag

for a fake Italian hag

Hair is turning greyer

Falling out in clumps

Wearing all

Black

Eat another snack

You fucking sad sack

Commute to the Underworld

I used to take the express and arrive at my neat little desk

an hour early every day

I'd finish all that was on my plate

and see the moon through dusty slats of mini-blinds

with the glowing miasma of Times Square as background.

But now I dawdle

on the local

delaying what cannot be avoided, only postponed,

like a trip to the dentist 

for a troublesome tooth

or meeting your fate at the jaws of the hell mouth.

Beasts

Like the bad smell, coming from old lunch in the kitchen,

We are unseen.

Like the butler, at the sideboard,

We are unnoticed. 

We serve the soup, without a mishap

We pour the wine, without a squeak

Our shoes are old, but they are sturdy

Because we are such sensible beasts. 

We are unnamed just like the taste - 

We are salty, and fatty, and sweet

and when we cry, our tears dry up,

before they wet our lashes or burn our cheeks.

Our sacks are heavy, but we are moving,

Because we are such sensible beasts.

Office Haiku

A collection of short poems and not-quite-haiku
written at work, about work ... 

Original Coffee Cup

Coming soon! Poems from the original
Bottomless Coffee Cup,
printed and published in 1992

NEW! Subway Series

Three new poems about my daily commute