{"id":7581,"date":"2014-11-17T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=7581"},"modified":"2014-11-21T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T18:26:50","slug":"a-passengers-view-tuesdays-commute-and-other-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/a-passengers-view-tuesdays-commute-and-other-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"A Passenger’s View, Tuesday’s Commute, and Other Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tuesday<\/a><\/h3>\n

A Passenger\u2019s View<\/h3>\n

Like a pocket watch
\nReflecting lights in Sears,
\nThe stars\u2019 sovereign presides over
\nA fixed desert\u2019s moisture.
\nThe jagged, sloping summits
\nDouble as sundaes and make me forget.
\nThese valleys beyond support nothing
\nWhile stiffs in pressed slacks
\nScramble beneath in a trance.
\nThis ship descends as the
\nSoaring kingdom is decimated.
\nThe city is a crutch now\u2014
\nA prostitute never trusting a breath to speak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s Commute<\/h3>\n

This morning, I saw a Cripple cross Main Street
\nIn the Rolls Royce of wheelchairs.
\nA flippant rain fell as he
\nWeaved through the early spring fog
\nAnd the hurried Hondas and hybrids.
\nHe wore a tuxedo t-shirt
\nAnd \u201cwalked\u201d a Jack Russellish mutt with Balboa arms.
\nHaving scaled the curb, The Cripple looked through the traffic,
\nAs if to say, \u201cI\u2019ve earned it.\u201d
\nThe traffic sloshed by while
\nHis confidant hovered, knees quivering,
\nNext to a mail box marked \u2018X\u2019 in chalk.
\nLifting my foot off the brake,
\nI looked down at my briefcase,
\nThen at the pleats in my pants and said,
\n\u201cShit.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Recurring Dream of a Dog<\/h3>\n

Where is Megan?
\nIn the woods forever.
\nLike a landed surfer
\nGalloping over caps of loam
\nAnd long-dead foliage
\nAnd geological files,
\nShe is happy in the places that are real\u2014
\nThose that breathe
\nAnd watch summers press
\nInto death and resurrection.
\nMegan plays in the woods forever
\nAnd she is the woods
\nAs I am Megan
\nAnd the woods are me.
\nIn the speed of a thought,
\nAll are fused.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scenes from a Public Library<\/h3>\n

Sitting in this arid archive, I hear
\nWhispers, like wintry seduction, reach for
\nEars undermined by the subtle humming
\nOf the over-bearing aquarium.<\/p>\n

Ageless adjectives breed new meaning while
\nMy lucid five wits lasso lame lurkers:
\nA whining wheel wanes like distant whales\u2019 wails
\nAs the hour glass aide restores slain shelves.<\/p>\n

I keep to the corner, hiding work poured
\nFrom elderly texts like hoarse harlots\u2019 hoards.
\nSnow-white sheets shuffle and the language breathes
\nWhile Act five, scene three sees King Macbeth seethe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Machine Gun Patriot<\/h3>\n

Discharge, Thunder, and redress the obtuse!
\nOur worthy quarrel is that which we laud
\nLike a fair-haired war horse trampling to truce.<\/p>\n

Until their rusty-sweet blood is profuse
\nSway them with fire bolts, with shoulders broad!
\nDischarge, Thunder, and redress the obtuse<\/p>\n

Or yours is a mind of migrant recluse.
\nBlaze through the sting of a glacial core thawed
\nLike a fair-haired war horse trampling to truce.<\/p>\n

From their immovable famine, deduce
\nWhy these faceless foes shoot forth and applaud.
\nDischarge, Thunder, and redress the obtuse<\/p>\n

While our shark-eyed liberators seduce
\nThe mopped minds jostling with election fraud.
\nLike a fair-haired war horse trampling to truce,<\/p>\n

Righteous absolvers stream like gastric juice
\nIn the belly of this leopard de-clawed.
\nDischarge, Thunder, and redress the obtuse
\nLike a fair-haired war horse trampling to truce!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Joseph, who is very self-conscious, teaches English at the college level.\u00a0 He loves all animals\u2013especially his dogs, Megan and Frankie\u2013and enjoys thinking about writing much more than the act of writing itself.\u00a0 He is a daydreamer and is repulsed by social media.\u00a0 His family is understanding of his mood swings and he sleeps with a hatchet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a pocket watch
\nReflecting lights in Sears,
\nThe stars\u2019 sovereign presides over
\nA fixed desert\u2019s moisture.
\nThe jagged, sloping summits
\nDouble as sundaes and make me forget.
\nThese valleys beyond support nothing
\nWhile stiffs in pressed slacks
\nScramble beneath in a trance.<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":8453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,219,199,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581"}],"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\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8455,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions\/8455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}