On the coldest day of a past year
( the low was ten degrees F or near )
in quiet hollow of mixed hardwood trees
I feel like I'm in a deep freeze

Deer hunting's the excuse I use
to enter this forest of frozen views
and test myself against the cold
I still do this, though growing old

It rained last night before this front
brought all the cold one man could want
but now at dawn it's calm and clear
I hear frost jacking the ground near

too close to the forest to see the trees
to cross the I's and dot the T's
better forget the edit
and call the medic

prep and get him in a gown
going to have to remove a noun
and maybe put in a verb
if it fails, it's out to the curb

It's a dire situation
can't find any punctuation
the spelling and bad grammar
throw this writer in the slammer

the right diagnose is slim
the prognoses is grim
FLAT LINE OOPS! I hit delete
OH! well, nurse, let's eat

when you're just not
inspired that much
or just writing
out of obligation
one tends to just
produce junk
worthless crap

like the poem before
and the one before that

But hell, who's perpetually
hooked into the muse
or always obsessed
with perfection
and finely tuned in

Writing these things they call poems
is just an outlet
for the flow of substandard
horseshit,
that makes up
almost all of my
inventive thinking

It got me thinking
simplify
make more out of less

like a good omelet
eggs, bacon, cheese
thats all

I bought a cheesecake
the other day
and I have eaten
most of it
plain
no fruit compote
or sauce at all
it's delicious

then there's
my favorite sport
hockey
a simple game
offensive plan
put the puck in their net
defenseive plan
keep the puck out
of our net

I see the light
Do you now?
Yes, I really do

I quake in fright...
You have a fearless brow
No one would think that's you

I see my faults too clearly
Blind men shuffle slowly
I've run away from pain

You've paid a price most dearly
I am the lowest of the lowly
You had nothing you could gain

Pictures don't do justice to my blackened soul
You look just fine to me
Peer deeper, deeper yet

Checkmate

I came to make my peace
And set foot upon his sands
Under the banner of trust
He deceived with blood on his hands

I came to give him a chance
And knocked upon his gate
The alliance was short lived
His arrogance was his final mistake

Discriminate, eliminate, annihilate
Intimidate, exterminate, eradicate
Check
Checkmate

Intimidate, exterminate, eradicate
Discriminate, eliminate, annihilate
Check
Checkmate

73rd street

rasping cough explodes
from cold, $2.00 room.

Leon peers through
filth-clouded glass, across
snow winter-scape at sparkling,
snow covered everything--
fretful city sleeps.

I can be calm with you
feel the settling
of crashing emotions,
my internal tempest.

I wear your affection
draped like a favorite quilt,
quietly my heart sings
with the clear, amiable
tenor of your voice.

I am mesmerized by your
astral eyes,
cinnamon sugar stars
trimmed by velvet brown skies.

In your tender embrace
my breath is relinquished,
ceasing time
I lose my place.

I am intensly aware
of only your presence
soothing my impoverished soul.

Loreli

. . .

A poem in rhyming couplets ( I think )

The chicken farmer almost cried
when his last good rooster died

Without a cock to breed his hens
he'd go broke and lose his friends

So he called ROOSTERS- R- US
but their reply just made him cuss

They had just sold their last one
to his cousin's nephew's son

What the heck was he to do
without a bird to see him through ?

After much worry and thought
he said, "The farmers' jockey lot !".....................(an outdoor flea market)