"Listen to Me!"

The rallying cry of any . .

• bedraggled mother
• underappreciated father
• exasperated teacher
• dissatisfied lover
• family doctor

Listen to me!

April 7, 2021

"Barn Cat Super-Highway"

Shrieking winds
Rustle fine hairs
Here below
As I peer out
  through stone gaps
Anxiously.

That do-nothing poet
  who lives upstairs . .
                           Put down your damn pipe!
So we can hear the
KRISH, KRESH, KRISH
Of snow shovel
Clearing pathways . .
                                    access to mice
                                          for my
                                              . . shivering family.

February 24, 2020


Selected for display in PoemTown St. Johnsbury 2020. As read live on Facebook by Anne Campbell, organizer, on April 13, 2020.

"If It Be Thus"

A bientôt

. . in Paris

Arriverderci

. . in Rome

Dasvedaniya

. . for Russkies

Auf Wiedersehen

. . for the Krauts

Shalom

. . for my Jewish friends

But for you

Qualifying my desire to meet again

So as not to tempt fate . .

Sayonara

(If it be thus.)

February 21, 2019

"Listen and Decide"

Simple Dreams
Hasten Down the Wind
Heart Like a Wheel
What's New

Listen and decide.

May 28, 2018

RESPECT

Rules for
Engaging with
Social
People
Expecting
Courteous
Treatment.
November 27, 2016

"Witchy Wendy"

So you hid him in a camper
On your brother's land
After you incited him to murder
A father who spoke to you sharply
About drug addicts
And dealers
In the neighborhood.

You brought him food and water
A brand new cell phone
While the cops scoured the area
For your boyfriend.

And you cashed the "replacement check"
A former boss sent you
When you told him the original
Went to a former address

You had cashed that too.

And you get nine months?
June 10, 2016

"Get Out Now"

We may not save you
From the camps
Not like we did
Last time.

Best to snap
Out of your madness
Now.

You're in with a bunch
Of godless
Totalitarian
Baby killers.

Get out now.
June 10, 2016

"Greatest Unsolved Mystery"

Atlantis

Sasquatch

Bermuda Triangle

Great Pyramid of Giza

Loch Ness Monster

Voynich Manuscript

Shroud of Turin

Marfa Lights

Roswell UFO

Taos Hum

Greatest Unsolved Mystery?

You.

January 23, 2016

"Big Yellow Caterpillar" Read on Radio

Anne Campbell—Arts Education Coordinator at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont—read my Beat poem "Big Yellow Caterpillar" with Calvin Harris of Magic in the Morning on Magic 97.7 FM (Lyndonville) on July 21, 2014. (hear the recording).

"Big Yellow Caterpillar" was exhibited by those nice people at the Eastern & Main Market - Deli on Main Street in St. Johnsbury as part of Catamount's DIGpoetry St. Johnsbury, 2014—responding to major roadwork projects going on around town.

Poems by Bill and Sharon Kenney Biddle, Alan Boye, SJ Cahill, Brooke Cullen, Brian M. Francis, Leigh Grace, Alicia Hingston, Judith Janoo, Beth Kanell, Reeve Lindbergh, Jenny Land Mackenzie, KM Moritz, and Eileen Mulcahy were also exhibited throughout St. Johnsbury.

"South of Victory"

Living somewhere
South of Victory
A mill worker
Like so many around here.

And when it was time for you to go
You went.

Now you lie
Peacefully
In a rural resting place
Your memorial hidden
Under brush.

I trimmed away the weeds
And edged away the grass.

Now we can remember you
And your service to us all.
May 17, 2014

"Not So Very Civil"

War Between the States
War of Northern Aggression
Late Great Unpleasantness
Mr. Lincoln's War
Second American Revolution

Not so very civil.

August 26, 2012

"Been Lookin' at Dylan"

Been lookin' at Dylan . .

• Dylan as American
• Dylan as Jew
• Dylan as addict
• Dylan as thief
• Dylan as genius
• Dylan as artist
• Dylan as Gemini
• Dylan as dwarf
• Dylan as prophet
• Dylan as liar

Dylan as Messiah.
May 7, 2009