Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Some of my favorite poems from this past year...

haunting

I saw a ghost today
not real
but
metaphorical
like the spectre
of an ex
still rattling
chains
and
moaning
spooky music
at all your favorite
downtown
haunts.


inadequate

some poets write
of skies
and dirt
leaves and trees
of mothers and earth
of beauty
with eyes clear
peeled
for the truth of nature
and I sit in the cube
of my telephone job
with the stale air
and dirty keyboards
and ergonomic chairs
and I wonder
what I would write
if I were outside
and life didn’t require
a paycheck from me.


ironic patriotic

i saw an american flag
while waiting for the bus
high on a pole
in the winter-whipped weather
it snapped and rolled
with pornographic abandon
and i watched
joyously
but with remorse
at its tattered edges
frayed and unraveling
and i thought
"how apropos"
which means appropriate
but pronounced differently
it means to take exclusively
for oneself
without permission
and i thought
"that's apropos too"
considering our history
and how we got
that fucking flag
in the first place.


charles baker hennington

charles baker hennington
is a name i just made up
because lies are cheaper
than a drive to the shelter
to donate blood for love
like a junky craving smack
in a blackened back alley
with ten-penny whiskey
and his flack jacket on
because his name this day
is charles baker hennington
i just made him up and
gave him life and breathed his soul
to say hello and let you know
someone is listening.

A call for submissions in a way or your chance to be a book reviewer.

I've decided to make a book cover style graphic for the info/profile page of my journal like the one I made for Jacquelyn.  What I need from you, my humble and revered readers, are the blurbs for the back.  Be funny, be honest, dish out the truth like you're secretly selling ice cream at a fat camp.