complaint dept note 1

heard a few say
their best poems
were processed
by cheap wine
then pissed or puked
into the toilet
forever lost

some
bitch about
all the reviews they never receive
as if poetry is a well-defined
career path
academia mapped
& packaged

then there’s the fucking writer blocks
meticulous constructs
red badge of....
don’t say courage
obviously
more blocks
more walls
still needed

maimstreetmedia
funding grants
corporate jingles
never seduced
lorca
.....died for his poems
yet we complain
about oppression
seemingly
locked in position
on our knees

--- e b bortz

quiet time surat thani thailand

just after morning tea
just before my 6am
walk thru the back streets
on out to the avenue
traffic buzz
i wait for my hour-long
ride to the power plant

srimorn pulls in a firm gentle embrace
i start for the door
wanting immediately to turn back
melt into the teeming brown
chongkasem neighborhood
of her brown hips
or our walk thru downtown markets
& motor scooters

this morning our lips taste
the last cool air
before the heat wave

--- e b bortz

previously flat-roofed porch

roof
is growing cisterns
on the edges
some looking
like long troughs
an inch of water
rests short
of the downspouts
telling us
we should
be collecting and
redistributing
to each according to needs
hoping for three foot sunflowers
before the frost
white pines pushing up
winter wind barriers

still
hard rain & good intentions
won’t get it done

--- e b bortz

asking a big favor

let me know
the minute
you think
i’ve lost
that spark

you’ll know it when you see it

each syllable will struggle
with every other one
broken into too many vowels
filling in where thought
anticipating eyes
emotion once thrived

when it happens
i’ll throw myself
at the altar
embracing thickest maples
walk greenest ridges
straddling alleghenies
soft-needled strapping pines
rounding apache white mountains
frozen lakes deep laurentides
or maybe the hot & humid rubber bounty
trees of khao sok

let me know the minute of transition
i’ll need to find my way there
and back

--- e b bortz

you don't need validation

by a politician
even one you believe in
perceptions of ‘strength’
‘the leader’ has got it
back ass words
your power is in your sweating
belching being
not your allegiance
vanguards authorities conventioneers
can be cut from the same cloth
and cheaply dyed to suit

don’t ask me
ask yourself

--- e b bortz