earth note 319

smathers beach, key west

a mustang convertible

barges onto
the atlantic ocean
bicycle/walking trail
just to put pretty bodies
up
to a scenic backdrop
bringing everything else
to a halt

i bite my tongue

before saying
oh fuck     your tan is good enuf
generalizing
a worst case scenario
of when school ends
&
they take on the world

--- e b bortz

 

sure as shit

a war resolution
from congress or duma
will heap unforeseen tragedy
on every red-blooded young body
thinking that it's time for them to
answer the call
of iraq syria ukraine

the decapitators & zealots

will cheer them on
cashing in another bank note
for a new facebook page
of surface-to-air missiles

what good is a nation or caliphate

if you can't grease
the machinery of private profit

eugene victor debs knew the score
     look him up

all blood flows downhill

the rain turns red
like the desert

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, March 16, 2015)
 

earth note 318

bicycle tires
wear like my gloves
might
with no permanence
here
the mark i leave
is less than
what's expected
with the road
by default
another beginning

--- e b bortz

two hots & a cot

red & white abandonment
just another building
across from key west salvation
army
& chapel
like another southernmost
former burger dive
poet outcast artists
not welcome
in the world of 
do not trespass
on
surveillance cameras
& parking spaces

so this is what

the beat evolution
has come to

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 317

dark shadows
shallow water
sponges tremble
just below the body
of the kayak
occasionally some grunts
school
near the culvert
white ibis
dilly-dally nearby

a perfect angle of sunlight

lights up the ocean floor
manta ray quivers out
just ahead of my approach
waits
slips ahead again
waits

a hand

has opened
i follow

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 316

there's no copyright
on the flight pattern
of an osprey

it has those broad

cursive sweeps
easily confused

even when the intent

should be enough
to satisfy the archivists

when there are two or more

there's the beauty
of disorder

--- e b bortz

(published in Green Panda Press digest, March 2015)
 

music for tips

big pine key flea market
another saturday
busting out at the seams
if two guitars & a harmonica
won't move you
then go further down
past the diver stalls
wood & jewelry artists
a thousand tee-shirts
to where
original poems for tips
hangs out
gathering up
little more than a sunburn

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 315

hearing the rain
for what it really is
     a drifter tapping
     on the roof
bare feet
like a sculptor's hands
there are signs of gray clay
by the roadside
moving on
when the wind
says so

--- e b bortz

no joke

a day before
the super bowel
a cruise ship
docked in key west
full of uneaten buffets
stacked red wine glasses
and a shit-load
of hyper-ventilating sport shirts

unfortunately

not a plumber
on board

--- e b bortz

earth note 314

when the retaining wall
finally gives way
underground will become
above ground
an elaborate root system
beginning anew
finding the sun again
recovering water
equally
from the mountains
rain from
the heavens

--- e b bortz

 

ideas small enough

to fit on the sidewalk
on fleming street
in key west
with tree overhangs
and crowded porches
tossed-around bicycles
steroid tourist traps
just down on duval
but liberated also
from the mundane
of empty
cliches
money
gas guzzlers
still looking for directions

with darkness

begins a reevaluation
of the milieu
(i thank many minds for this word)
and with each step
another phase
to be absorbed
     within
     and without
a landing

--- e b bortz

 

in the here & now

let every breath
share
its own
magic

think oxygen

& blood flow
godliness
without the dogma

legislators

an extension
of their own
spreadsheets

have no place here

--- e b bortz