{"id":2051,"date":"2011-12-02T09:58:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T14:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:11:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:11:23","slug":"old-flame-poems-by-mike-berger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/old-flame-poems-by-mike-berger\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Flame: Poems by Mike Berger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Old Flame<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our love was hot and steamy.
\nBanged up real bad in an
\naccident, she was started
\non pain killers.<\/p>\n

Sally\u2019s eyes are sunken.
\nDark circles hang.
\nHer skin is ghastly gray.<\/p>\n

Her hands tremble.
\nHer voice rattles.
\nShe hasn’t slept.<\/p>\n

Quivering lips are anguish.
\nGone the shiny locks
\nof blonde hair;
\nnow a matted mess.<\/p>\n

Once gorgeous
\nin an odd way.
\nNow a lump of clay.
\nSelling her body.
\nHer story unfolds;
\nwhispered in tears.
\nDamn that white
\ncrystal meth.<\/p>\n

DTs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shrieks,
\nladen with anguish
\nping-pong off the walls.
\nPurple pelicans wounded
\nby arrows,
\nscreeching.
\nRed orangutans twist
\nand contort,
\nbeating their chests
\ntrying to squash bugs.
\nFiery pokers jab.
\nComing down;
\nthree day binge.
\nSoaked to the gills;
\nbody crying for more.<\/p>\n

On The Streets<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talking to him almost every day
\nas he goes about his routine;
\nTelling me 42 empty beer
\ncans will buy a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n

For his age, he is adroit at climbing
\ninto a dumpster, plastic bag in hand.
\nHis only possession, a battered grocery
\ncart. He lives under the bridge on 7th
\nStreet.<\/p>\n

He claims he graduated from the local
\nUniversity with a degree in chemistry.
\nHe started drinking when his new bride
\nran off with another man. In drunken
\nstupors, he cries out her name.<\/p>\n

I give him a couple of bucks on l
\noccasion. He’s effusive with his thanks.
\nThe drink demons owns him. He can’t
\nbreak the cycle. As I am heading home,
\nI see him passed out in an alley.<\/p>\n

Battered<\/strong><\/p>\n

Black and blue; raw flesh.
\nagony drips.
\nEscaping father\u2019s iron fists
\nby hiding in dark corners of the mind.<\/p>\n

Mother can’t stop it, impotent.
\nShe weeps.
\nSavage beatings.<\/p>\n

Confiding in his one true friend;
\nsobbing, crying out the pain.
\nHis friend is in his mind.<\/p>\n

Father is drunk again;
\ntaking off his belt.
\nThe buckle tears bloody gashes.<\/p>\n

Escaping again;
\nwatching indivisible tropical fish.
\nScars on the body
\nwill heal, but not those in the mind.<\/p>\n

Now a cipher in a human warehouse.<\/p>\n

Fried<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was catatonic; didn’t move.
\nHis eyes never blinked.
\nHe had to be dressed and fed.
\nHe was withering away.<\/p>\n

None of the medications seemed
\nto help.
\nHis brain had been fried.
\nThere was no flicker of response
\nwhen the staff talked to him.<\/p>\n

He was a vegetable; his face was still,
\nbut he wore a silly grin.
\nHe had been this way for years.<\/p>\n

Addicted to alcohol, he hit the streets
\nliving in a cardboard box.
\nOne day when he ran out of money,
\nhe got the DTs. So he drank a gallon
\nof paint thinner. His brain is now
\nscrambled eggs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old Flame Our love was hot and steamy. Banged up real bad in an accident, she was started on pain killers. Sally\u2019s eyes are sunken. Dark circles hang. Her skin is ghastly gray. Her hands tremble. Her voice rattles. She hasn’t slept. Quivering lips are anguish. Gone the shiny locks of blonde hair; now a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3230,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/3230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}