Monday, November 2, 2015

4 poems



by chuck leary

illustrations by pete palomine




poem


time stood still
when the blue girl picked the white flower

and took it home
and put it in a purple paper cup

but it speeded up again
when the red sheriff shot the green dog

the orange sun beat down
on the bald-faced lies of the time share salesman

and the princess flew away to mars
on the back of the silver-winged whale

the reporter filed the story
in the cracked telephone booth

beside the abandoned drugstore
in the pink sunset






wet


you have never really been to corpus christi
until you have been to albuquerque

the panda didn’t like the strawberry ice cream cone
or the way mrs osgood looked at him

and no self respecting coyote
or hammerhead shark

would prefer a bathtub to a side of french fries
not even one they could find

in the wet pages of a telephone book
thrown out in the rain

in chillicothe ohio
on may 19, 1965





avocado


nobody likes me
i have not a friend
i tried to be nice
but i could not pretend

i am an avocado
through and through
it is what i am
to myself i am true

i am boring and nasty
it is just my way
and you bore me as well
so i bid you good day

when i die, when i die
write this on my grave
to fate an easy target
to circumstance a slave






stupid poker game dream


a poker game started
it looked too heavy for me
and i didn’t have much time

i made an excuse
i told them i had to go somewhere
i forget where - laredo, denver, cleveland

then i changed my mind
i decided i really wanted to get in
but all the seats were taken

a couple of players took a break
i wanted to get in
the others insisted on waiting for them

finally they came back
then right away they went into the bathroom
for a smoke

i could hear them laughing
then i woke up
i knew it was a dream

i wanted to go back to sleep
so i could get in the game
but i couldn’t get back to sleep