August K Poems
It’s hard to be someone else.
"If Jesus could heal a blind person he happened to meet
then why not heal blindness?"--Christoper Hitchens
“This business can be brutal. I'm glad you haven't let the
NOs stop you from writing. I think it's so important to stay away from the
people and the parts of the business that can kill your spirit or take you to
dead-ends."—Susan Henderson, author of, “Up From The Blue,” an excellent
novel, giving great advice to writers.
"I don't know how someone controlled you.
They bought and sold you."--G. Harrison
One can sleep almost anywhere, but one must have
a place to work. Even if it’s not a masterpiece you’re
doing. Even a bad novel requires a chair to sit on and
a bit of privacy.”—Henry Miller, “Tropic of Cancer.”
What the hell was I doing
hanging around him?
He gets a little weird online
so I stay away from him.
Come to think of it, he was
a little weird in real life.
"It's like acting in a movie, when you've got the wrong
part."
--Elton John
Using a finger nail clipper to cut skin off
of your fingernail, is a much wiser thing
to do than to pull the skin off your
finger with your teeth, usually leaving
the finger nail bleeding that way.
Cards falling where they may
I don't feel like it
so I don't
and I suffer the repercussions
or partake in the rewards.
Life is about choices.
Where you are is the sum
of all the choices you have
ever made, but you know this.
Ying yang ugly pretty skinny fat
My brain is rattling
like that of a homeless dog;
every woman is like a doctor
waiting to give her opinion
some say they’ll pray for you
some start to scream.
Feb. 15, 2002
Cuz thats the kind of drinker that I am
Let me make myself clear; if I drink that beer,
I’ll have to pick up a white chip and you’ll have
to pay the bail to get me out of jail.—Mikel K
Mikel K
8.7.13
He went to the water to die
after hanging out on a rock
for weeks; getting sicker,
and sicker, until, one day,
I found him floating in the water.
His death didn’t affect me
on the day that it happened.
It had affected me six weeks
earlier when I first realized
that he was probably going to
die. I had to live with it all that
time. His actually demise was
sort of an after the fact occasion.
I was almost relieved to not have
to look at him, anymore, no longer
have to watch him die.
Cunt a lot
In his writing,
Henry Miller,
uses the word
cunt
a lot.
Squinting didn’t make it
After reading
a few pages
of a book,
my eyes
quit working.
They were
calling out
for reading glasses.
But I Doubt It
Video Surveillance In Use
On These Premises
the sign slaps me back
to reality. I have been
dozing in the library.
I look to the ceiling,
trying to find their cameras
but I only see water sprinklers.
Maybe they are joking.
Infinite Love
When my love
met your love
our love became
more love.
One love plus
one love equals
infinite love.
Heaven
Heaven is a place
where the pills start working,
a place where the depression
and the mania go away.
Heaven is feeling normal
when you’ve had several
bad weeks in a row.
Heaven is right now
with a smile on my face.
We don't know where we're eating at(in Helen).
For the last ten weeks, Joan has been talking about
how we are going to eat at this really neat restaurant
called, "Anthony's." Only, tonight, she called it,
"Paul's"
and then, as I left the room, I heard her holler, "Oh
Hell, I'm not sure it's called Paul's. I'm going to look it
up!"
I'm about to have dinner, baked shrimp
with home made french fries. What a lucky
and spoiled man I am.—K
Nothing out of the norm
Nothing eventful has occurred
in this house, yet, today. I ate
a couple of eggs on toast. I fed
the dogs and cats. I turned on
the turtle lights. I listened to
my lover sing to our bird. My love
and I are both sipping on coffee
to start the day.
The coffee is hot
It wants to burn my lips,
but I don't let it.
I pull the cup back in time
to save myself from pain.
Please quit pissing on it
I let the dew of the grass
clean the pee off of my
dog’s foot. When he
pisses
he, often, drenches his foot
in piss.
I promise
It’s a long way to the bottom
but I got there many times.
Always prayed to God if
he’d let me out of that drunk tank
that I would never drink again.
He’d get me out at four
and by five I’d be at happy hour again.
Wasn’t nothing happy about
what beer and bourbon were doing to me.
You don’t have to let me in
I already came in the back door.
Now, I’m sitting in the front row
with a big ole grin, and when I feel
like it I’ll get back on that stage, again.
Ain’t never been there
but I just heard it in a song
and now it’s on my mind
Tulsa
Tulsa, Oklahoma
I got you on my mind
just like the guy in the song.
There’s all kinds of people
There’s good cops and there’s bad cops
and there are cops in-between
who just want to be middle class,
have a job, love the wife, raise the kids.
You look at me
like I don’t give a damn
It’s me you’re talking to.
And I do give a damn.
Hold my hand.
Let me be your man.
Like bright lights or a new car
She: They have a huge sale on Nikon, more information and we
get tons of bonus points to use
He: Killer. We can get me something. I mean I don’t wan t or
need anything but, sometimes, it’s nice to feel like you’re are going to
acquire something.
In less than the flick of an eye
Those once blurred now clear eyes
didn’t see it when a drunk ran a red light
and killed him. In less than the flick of
an eye he went from driving home to
entering the pearly gates of Heaven.
Life is fragile. Handle it with care.
A set
It had never occurred to me that she had had a boob job. She
seemed like such a wholesome, down to earth person, that you would never have
picked her as a gal who bought her a set.
Nothing but sunshine
used to be all rain.
I’m so happy. I used
to be insane.
From humble beginnings
From humble beginnings I come.
From humble beginnings I stand on.
And into humble beginnings I will go.
Is forever too long?
Depends on what you’re looking for.
Depends on what you can’t live without.
If you’re holding the devil’s hand
you better let it go.
I danced with the devil
and she danced on back.
I never went anywhere
without her: stranger’s beds
after hour parties after the party
was over.
Then I became a father
and I put that bottle down
it was either be a good for nothing
or get on with being something good
for my kids.
And as far as fans that you want nothing to do with
You know who they are. They know it, too. They are
your fans, but they are not really good for you.
That crematorium is waiting for me
The day is set on the calendar
somewhere out there in front of now.
Ain’t nothing I can do about it
‘cept make the best use of now.
Never
I will never write a novel.
I will never rob a bank.
I will never shoot a cop
in the head for being rude.
I will never steal watermelon.
I will never steal wallets,
women, or hotel rooms.
I will never steal liquor or dope.
I will never steal cars.
I will never break into houses.
I will hardly ever go to church.
I will never kiss a nun.
Mikel K
You just never can tell
One guy makes a quarter of a million dollars in less than an
hour and feels pretty good about himself. Another guy writes 6 to 10 poems in
an hour and he is ecstatic.
Freedom of Speech
I can’t write that because she might
still read me and I don’t want an argument.
I can’t write that because she does
still read me and I can’t deal with
the repercussions of what if.
And then there are things that I could write,
if I was stupid, that would summon the
Secret Service and or FBI to me.
There are thing that I could write
that would make men want to hit me.
There are things that I could write
that would make women want to save me.
There are all sorts of things that I could write.
Mikel K
Everybody cries
“I bet he don’t cry,” she said.
“He’s mean not tender.”
And I said to her, “Baby,
everybody cries.”
To the poetry publisher and lover
who is about to throw you out onto the streets
Is that enough for now? Can you use any of them?
Can you go ahead and rip my heart out, right now,
and stomp it with your shoe cuz you know that that
is where we are headed out for you to do.
Dirty Thoughts
Let me fill you with my innuendo.
Let me fill you with my dirty thoughts.
Let me fill you with television
and things store bought.
Let me show you what they taught me
on the football team.
In the locker room,
I showed the boys your picture,
and as they looked I told them
what you and I had done.
Which was nothing
just like in the picture.
Neither one of us were into
taking our clothes off.
You burned a hole in their heads
You got behind the twisted mask
that burned a hole in the head
of everyone who’d ever said you
were ugly. And there were legions
of them. You’d come from truly tortured
childhood to being regarded as
fat and stupid on a national tv program.
But you paid them back.
Everyone of them.
And then you went on with your life.
No additional charges
This looks like fun, and it's for a good cause. I want to
go.
But I can’t because it’s already tomorrow. I missed it,
biscuit in my mouth, home with the wife and kids.
I don’t get out and I don’t miss it start out at the bar
wind up in jail I’d hate to know how many times. Drunk
on beer, drunk on wine, drunk, drunk way more than half
of me crazy, alone in that cell, screaming at Satan. And
wake
to the men in the cell across the way who figure out that I
was
the one screaming all night.
She’s putting on her makeup now
She’ll beat you.
She’ll steal from you.
She’ll have you wishing
that your dreams hadn’t
turned into such a nightmare.
She’ll caress you.
She’ll console you,
then she’ll put a
bullet
in your head.
That will be it.
You will be there dead
in her arms, a place you
always told her that you
wanted to be, one day.
She took you literally.
She never got caught.
They never even suspected
that a man like me could go
missing. Oh well.
He drank all during the hurricane
He started drinking when they said that
the hurricane was coming and he didn’t
quit drinking until the hurricane was done.
That’s what I ought to do
I ought to walk right out of that door
and never come back
I ought to tell a bunch of folks
exactly what’s on my mind
but I won’t and it’s because
I’m indoctrinated.
This is the walk I’m supposed to walk.
This is the talk I’m supposed to talk.
I ought to tell them what’s on my mind.
I ought to shake my finger at them.
I ought to tell them how things should be,
but I won’t cuz I need to get my pay check
on Friday.
You had other things on your mind
You don’t mind being smothered.
You don’t mind being swallowed.
What will you do when they try
to drown you? Will it be too late?
Will you accept the fate that they
have bestowed upon you?
I don’t care
We can go now.
We can go around two.
We can never go.
See, cuz I don’t care.
Something I learned
I thought maybe I’d learn something
but it was more and more of the same.
I didn’t get any answers just more questions
plaguing me.
I been down so long
seems like the sun is shining,
when it’s way past midnight,
and I’m in the drunk tank, again.
It seems normal to be here.
Can’t say the jailers have become
like friends. For them the insanity
never ends. Here comes the judge.
What should I say? I’ve already
promised The Lord that if he lets
me out I won’t have a drink from
this day forward. Oh no I’m out
and my thoughts are of that little
girl who works at the bar downtown.
I cant be the man
that I can’t be.
I can’t be a man
unless that man
looks like me.
I can be no other
mother-fucker.
Can’t you see.
There ain’t no other
man like me.
I never thought they’d sell out
They seemed so secure in outsiders’ shoes
I never thought they’d sell out
But unless you been there who knows
what all else fame brought
when it kicked your door down.
Me and you and Mary Jane
we used to share a room,
and one day you said
cleaning up the room
that one of us had to go.
I sure miss Mary Jane,
but I’m in love with you.
Let me tell you about all
the movies that I been in.
Well, I ain’t been in any, Mister,
but I could have been a star.
Well let me tell you about
all the plays I have written,
nah, I ain’t written a one.
Let me tell you about
all the tv shows that I starred in.
Wasn’t one. Not a one.
Now, let me tell you about
all the books I wrote…
I’m the guy who ain’t been there
I’m the guy don’t like waiting in line.
I’m the guy who ain’t been there
if everybody else already done it.
I’m the guy not stuck in traffic.
I’m the one don’t go to the movie
that the critics like.
I’m the guy don’t like waiting in line.
I’m the guy don’t like waiting in line.
I’m the one won’t take no for an answer
if it’s something that I really want.
I’m the one still getting books at the library.
I’m the one who sobered up to raise his children.
I’m the one cutting back on coffee.
I’m the one who quit booze and cigarettes.
Staying in trouble just feels normal now
There was a time when I had never been
in this deep before, but that time was many
times ago, and staying in trouble just feels normal now.
There is always a first time, but, now,
there have been many times before.
Your love couldn’t save me.
You had to let me go, somewhere down the road.
Keep moving on
The big wheels keep rolling on
I’m standing here on the side of the highway
trying to thumb a dream down
I know if I can get to California
that I’m going to be a star.
I was always drinking.
I was always breaking the law.
I used to wake up in jail
covered in blood and bad moments
from happy hour.
He can
He can catch a rattlesnake
put it in a burlap bag; kill it; cook it.
He can keep his wife and children
in food with his gun and his bow.
He can build a house.
He can fix a car,
but he won’t go near Jim Beam
no matter what is going on.
He used to fight a lot;
he only lost one fight
and that was with his best friend
a bottle of bourbon.
In bed with the babes
Jesus left me
shortly after I
got out of high school.
He didn’t like me
in the bars with bourbon.
He didn’t like me
in the bars with the babes,
and he certainly didn’t like
me in bed with the babes.
She’s got big boobs
but she’s not very friendly.
Tired of everybody looking
at her chest. If she had a
dollar for every time someone
went there she’s be a millionaire.
Might be headed for trouble
I’ve got a bag of heroin
and I’ve got you.
I’ve never been an asshole
I was a disco dancer.
I was a punk rocker.
I’ve been a bouncer
and I’ve been thrown out of bars
but one thing I’ve never been
is an asshole.
A kink in my armor
There is no kink in my armor.
I am strong, strong, strong.
Here comes the rain
Here comes the rain
Here comes the bills I can’t pay.
Here comes the rain
She’s running away again.
Here comes the rain.
I can’t take the pain, no sir.
I hear thunder in the distance.
The end from this is not in sight.
Here comes the rain.
Here comes the rain,
and I forgot my umbrella.
Here comes the rain
and I’ve forgotten my name.
When I quit cheating
I quit cheating
when I quit drinking
and that was a long time ago.
Word choice is important
She is concentrating hard.
She is concentrating hardly.
She is concentrating hard on.
Your felony police record
There’s always a first time
and since I screwed it up
the last time, I ain’t in any
hurry to screw it up again.
I’ve done my time, paid
my fine, done the probation
and community service work.
Man I feel like such a jerk
but they don’t write that on
your felony police record.
Next Time
Next time, if you call again
I’ll answer.
Next time, if you come over
I won’t yell at you, again.
Next time, you won’t walk
out the door.
Next time we won’t say
this is the end.
Next time, will next time
ever come again?
Seems like things have gotten meaner.
Seems like days are longer
and pay checks are shorter
than they ever been
I’m no longer sick and tired
Ain’t seen the inside of a drunk tank
in almost 23 years.
No one but me
You must have taken me
for someone other than me.
You must have mistaken me
for that other guy.
I ain’t out to hurt no one.
I’m just trying to get by.
I write a song every once in awhile
but I don’t sing it to no one but me.
Distraction
We’re going to send our troops
into another war and all we can do
is look at and talk about some kid’s
bad behavior on the video music show.
I don’t believe
I don’t believe in Christmas.
I don’t believe in Halloween.
I don’t believe in The Easter Bunny.
I don’t believe in much at all.
Politician
He was just out for himself
but he shook your hand
and looked you in the eye like
he loved you and would
look out for your wife and family.
Things don’t always go down the way you want them to
Have you ever felt like something
big was about to happen, but it didn’t?
Have you ever felt like love was
about to come, but it never arrived?
Have you ever felt like every dog
gets its day, but it doesn’t?
Have you ever wanted steak
but wound up eating chicken bologna?
Have your heroes ever let you down?
Have your dreams ever turned into nightmares?
I wish that I had a solution, but I don’t.
I need a place to hide.
I wonder if they can find me.
I’m going to try to hide in plain sight.
Dress like them. Talk like them.
Walk like them. Work the same job as them.
I wonder if they’ll figure it out
that I’m not like them.
I just need a place to hide.
Highway Song
I thought that that last shit that I took
would last but it didn’t; I got to go again
or I’m going to shit my britches. Ain’t
no fun to be on the highway when you
need to be in the head.
Whatchamacallit
She came home crying
told her roommate that
I didn’t love her,
but that wasn’t true at all.
"Religion is used by those in temporal charge to invest
themselves with authority."—Christopher Hitchens
Other than our own
I don’t remember cheating.
Started out at a bar
woke up in her arms
in a bed other than ours.
Didn’t know what her name was.
Didn’t know what we had done.
Good thing you were out of town
on business. Maybe you did some
cheating of your own.
Shake
Shake my body.
Shake my booty.
Shake my heart
and soul.
Mistaken
I was wrong wrong wrong
but I felt right right right.
I like to take pictures,
but I have no interest
in being a photographer.
I like to drive cars
but I have no interest
in being a mechanic.
I love going to the library
but I wouldn't want to be
a librarian.
I like going to the movies
but I don't want to be an
actor.
If I could sing, I would.
I thought I was a bad ass
then I got my ass kicked
in 1983. Man that loud mouth
kicked the shit out of me,
but I learned a lesson
I couldn’t have learned
any other way.
Don’t write a check with
your mouth that your ass
can’t pay. It’s an old saying
but it finally made sense that day.
I was beat and bloody,
but I could have been killed.
I thought I was a bad ass,
but I wasn’t. That was my
last fight and I got all my teeth, today.
Free as a river flows
Free as a river flows
I didn’t know where
I was going
but I knew where I’d been
and I was never going back
there again.
Seems like this bit needs
a few more words, but I ain’t got
nothing else to say.
Free as a river flows
I didn’t know where
I was going
but I knew where I’d been
and I was never going back
there again.
Beer Tear
You shed a tear
after your 15th beer
but on beer no. 12
you hit your girlfriend
and as you started
on beer 16 the cops
knocked on your door.
You never got to drink
that beer. You never
saw your girlfriend again
except in court.
