My enemy, technology

My computer quit responding this past Thursday, and my Internet connection seems to slow down whenever I'm making progress on projects and/or responding to important e-mail messages. My fingers are crossed that nothing will happen to prevent this post, because it's a long one (many, many poems from my poem-a-day experiment).

But first, let me remind anyone who doesn't follow my Poetic Asides blog that the April Poem-A-Day Challenge begins on April 1. (Click here to read the guidelines.) So, it's just around the corner. Not sure if I'll post poems from the challenge here; chances are good that I'll link to them though.

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062-The sun that is always a sun

The moon grows larger and smaller,
so it is good something is constant.


063-Everybody makes a mess

Everybody makes a mess,
but they don't always clean.

If you ask, some may confess,
while others may get mean

and claim, "This isn't my mess.
Messes aren't my scene."

Denial is fine, I guess,
but doesn't make things clean.


064-After a day of hunting monsters

Even now, the world rattles
against the windows as if
there will be no escape, no
way to surrender against
whatever it is we are fighting.

We must empty the bag
of those things that don't
belong--a frisbee, a football,
and an extra set of clothes--
because a new week is starting.


065-Empty nest

In the dream, I can hear his voice
crying, dada dada dada,
but I can't find him no matter
where I look. I can hear his voice,
but I can't see him. When I wake,
I'm afraid to look or listen
for fear he might really be gone.


066-Wind breakers

Swish-swish satin
concealing cotton--a reason
to run again.


067-Future Resident Parking

He sits in his car & waits,
because he isn't happy with his past
& he's satisfied with the present.


068-Nesting

The bird warns, Back, back.
It doesn't reason
the way it reacts.


069-Save the cat

Every morning, he would see the cat--
all black & white fur--roaming the breezeways
of his apartment building and wonder,

"Does this cat have an owner? Does this cat
need a home?" One morning, he decided
he would save the cat. He saw it creeping

along the edge of the building beside
the bushes. He thought the cat looked lonely,
but then it sprang into a bush, which shook

violently. A moment later, the cat
emerged with a dead squirrel in its mouth
as if to say, "I don't need to be saved."


070-My uncle who thought there was no use

At family gatherings, he sat in a corner
and avoided eye contact. In fact, he avoided
all contact. Said it was bad for the skin,
heart and soul. "If souls existed anyway,"
he'd say while picking at his sneakers. He
believed if there was an after life, it probably
came with advertising, "because everything
is corporate and attached to a bottom line
somewhere." My mother said, "Once, he was
an outgoing guy. But then, he got married."
I never met my aunt, so I don't know her side
of the story--just that my uncle never smiled
or told an intentional joke. When he died,
no one who attended his funeral cried.


071-Universal monsters

Lon Chaney was the first phantom.
Silent and scary, his face burned
with the anger of a man wronged.
He knew monsters always return,

though Lon died before playing Count
Dracula. Legosi soon turned
the role into his own and found
that good monsters always return.

The biggest hit was Frankenstein
with a speechless monster role spurned
by a then young John Carradine,
thinking monsters never return

money and fame. Boris Karloff
became THE MONSTER, and he earned
immortality for his rough
lesson: Monsters always return.

Lon Chaney Jr. played every
available role, even turned
Wolf Man into his own. Chaney
knew that monsters always return.


072-From the trees

I have to look at a poster--
how many questions can you stack on the floor
before a chicken becomes a cow?
I can't see the answers; I can't
stack your shoes and still pretend
the forest hides a house,
that the house hides a witch,
or that the witch hides a secret--
some beautiful tree reduced to pulp.
Separate them all.


073-Celebrations cause us to shout

Place a pillow
over his eyes
so the light won't
follow his bright
expectations.


074-To be announced

It is late, and he hears a car alarm
casting spells on the neighborhood. Window
after window frames a shadow. He won't
look out his window--not until morning.


075-Some explode while others just fall

I hear voices in the spaces
between here and there; no one counts
the bombs not dropped or the hands clasped
in parks. So much talk of the dead,
what of the living?


076-A boy walked into the woods

A boy walked into the woods
with a bag of food, but he
had no destination. One
trail turned on to another

trail until he was quite lost.
This is exactly what he
hoped would happen. A river
told him where the water was;

the moon, he used as a shield.
When the wolves came for him, when
witches came too, he wanted
them to come. He wanted more

than anything to prove he
could get lost and find himself.
A boy walked into the woods
and re-emerged as a man.


077-Evolve

We can only enjoy these words
because we are alive, so survival
must come first. Then, there is
the hunger--warning us to eat
or starve followed close by desire--
the blood rush through our veins.
Eventually, we find our comfort
and have no idea what comes next.


078-You should write a poem

You should write a poem
about a sunny day,
a baby boy in swing
sucking upon his thumb;

you should write a poem
on what you did today,
that baby now reaching
out his hands from a plum;

you should write a poem
when there's nothing to say
good about anything--
the baby starts to hum;

you should write a poem
and let your poem play
with a baby who sings
the teeth out of his gums;

you should write a poem,
because you have to say
something--the baby flings
himself down, cries for crumbs.


079-Chirp & buzz

Find a bench along a nature path
and enjoy the first day of spring.

Watch birds fly from one branch
to another and think of bees.


080-Haiku

Bradford blossoms
covered in cold rain
empty park bench


081-My father is left-handed

So he sees the world from the other hand,
believes we can communicate with the dead
if the living are adequately trained--
assuming once a person if free to float
they'll want to stick around and talk.


082-Content

When you spend your entire life searching, it
is hard to be content and stay content.
When you always walk, it's hard to just sit.
When you spend your entire life searching, it's
not easy to settle down and just quit
looking. Believe your heart and take the hint
when you've spent your entire life searching. It
is hard to be content and stay content.


083-Metal spatula

For Reese, you are a freeze ray gun;
you are a sword for Will; for me,
you are a tricky dish to wash;
and you help Tammy make tasty
scrambled eggs on Sunday mornings.

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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

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