A Catalogue of Negatives

I will not learn Spanish this year.
My skin will not turn beige or mauve.
I won’t go gay, even though I have grown old.
I won’t get off the pills
That keep me alive and fuck me up.

The blank sky won’t
Eat up the clouds.
And the mountains won’t
Grow back up, not here.

The traffic is bearable
At night and
The strangers in the restaurant
Speak better poetry
Than I am reading...and
I love the poetry I am reading.

I have to go somewhere else
Where I’ll be alone more often,
Reading my books
And writing my notes,
But it won’t be the center
Of the universe.
It’ll just be less contentious.

Tired.
I only want to see the face of the city
Before I go to sleep at night.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2009 01:42PM by petersz.

custom malaise
Posted by: Johnny SansCulo (---.nycmny83.covad.net)
Date: September 13, 2021 10:45AM


I ordered a custom malaise
with built-in ennui
and the blandest of phrase

It comes with credentials unwound
unstylish, unfocused
in three shades of browned

It comes with a blotch and a stain
mechanical cliffs
and descending terrain

It takes them three weeks to construct
I've nowhere to wait
for the e-lusive truck

I've nowhere to wait
for my friends on the bus
leaving the stop
with a novel misspelling;

but my gratefulness grates
on the stars as they waits
for vacuum of grammatical traits.

someday soon//

the weak will be taught//

the strong fall short//

and life will forget//

all we have sought//

the days are fluid

we speak of marmalade//

they cry//

swimming in salts//

-with love

thanks, Fickledlife...I always think a poetic response to a poem is more than appropriate. your response shows you understand what my piece was an expression of.

amo et avanti.

Peter

I like this one Peter, spoken as a man who is content with the choices he's made; (choices) being the only thing in this world over which we have control.

Les

These lyrics may or may not be relevant:

Coldplay
--Clocks (Some words deleted) Video available on YouTube

Lights go out and I can’t be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Brought me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and plead

Singin’, come out if things aren’t said
Shoot an apple off my head
And a, trouble that can’t be named
Tigers waitin’ to be tamed...

Confusion never stops
Closing walls and ticking clocks
Gonna, come back and take you home
I could not stop that you now know

Singin’, come out upon my seas
Curse missed opportunities
Am I, a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease...

Oh nothing else compares
Oh nothing else compares
And nothing else compares...

Home, home, where I wanted to go
Home, home, where I wanted to go...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2022 10:08PM by les712.

Thanks, Les. Sometimes we do have choices - sometimes not. We eat from the plate we're served.

amo et avanti,

Peter

Sometimes we do have choices - sometimes not

I guess that's true, Peter, any one of us might have been born in Somalia, or Tibet.

But each of us, given our current circumstances, makes choices that effect our future. We could for instance:

Drive recklessly
Endanger our health by our lifestyle choices
Choose friends and acquaintances who are bad influences
Be mean or vindictive or
Treat the people we meet poorly

Les

Two out of five bad choices is not too bad, on a rainy day...I guess, or is it? I'm not always sure which are the bad influences. I like that crazy Mexican cowboy, but I wouldn't let him help me choose a candidate, though I'd trust him with my life I feel.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2022 01:11AM by petersz.

Yep, Terry was a good one, but there were many good ones here at one time, or another.

Les