Meager Offer

Stray cats in my neighborhood
I look foolish calling them
They stop to look
Curious and wary
{Just leave the food and go}
One by one they know me
The one without a morsel
Squatting to offer love
Reaching my fingers
(Here puss cat)
See ya next time
And that was that


JM

Pest

I think there's a barnacle
On my hull
Causing extra drag
Or it could be loose paint
Probably caused by barnacles
Or maybe old skin is flaking
Not quite off
Barnacles love that
I think I"ll have to search
A little harder, deeper
For barnacle repellent


JM:)

Tumbleweed

Tonight on tracks long dug over
A Ghost Trolley took me away.
So sure at first of a short
Scenic ride, I drifted asleep.
Though I was dreaming, the
Sound of brakes and heavy wheels
Assured me of my passage.
Part of me awake noticed a
Long bending expanse and less water.
I even half thought of waking up.
Too late I noticed a sign in
A foreign language, some town...
Wake Up! This ghost trolley
Isn't going back,
It's only leaving!

JM

Balancing Axe

Chaos in curling smoke,
Like a cigarette or incense,
Coupled with a slight breeze
Begs me to create order.
An easy request, really,
The beauty of disorder wears
Down quickly without patterns.
So some I cull from random
Actions, while others are invented
Strips of meaning emitted
From curling smoke like
A well ordered sneeze.

JM

Cleaning Glass

In the mirror chair I can
See myself an accident of
Placement. Reflective
Surfaces tilt at me
From surrounding collected objects.
I turn the chair around
To hide myself. Intentionally
Placing reflections behind.
My eyes are closed, watching
My flashing pinball thoughts.
Rolling distortions bounce
On inside light. Did I
Create this reflection?
No pane, no frame
But it feels like me.

JM

Fetching

Not all my hunches
Are readable. Not every
Problem is solved by a poem.
Still, trying is no more path-
etic than a moth at a bulb,
No less natural.
Someday it will turn out to
Be the soft edge of the sun I touch
Instead of a glass wall.
Maybe I'll burn up or just
Turn around, bringing an-
other poem to the ground
Wondering where to plant.

JM

Odd Thoughts, Even Now

A flying fish or a sunken tree
A zeppelin or a submarine
A rock not tossed, dry between rains
Another underwater also remains
Wet yet dry in the middle grains
If you could check.
A diving bird or a floating duck
Each could be the same
Mistaken for the other at another
Time and place

JM

Wishful

I'm thinkin' if I don't
Give 'em an inch maybe
They won't take a mile.
I made my friend smile and say
"They'll take a mile either way.

JM

Marching Through

July is hot today. Even at
Night the heat stays in
Pavement and buildings.
The breeze is asleep while
House lights blink on for
Insomniac reading or T.V.
Even many pets are pacing
Just to feel the air move.

JM

Turning Bad

You creepy children scream
Scared of your pillow again
Wearing pajamas in public
Hoping to skip a night of sleep
Screeching the wheels
Bought with Daddy's blood
Rolling the windows against
Money from Mommy's love
Stinking of bitch cocaine
Smiling like a frozen corpse
Dressed for your funeral

JM

Flowers To Follow

They are beautiful.
That being said, I have been where the flowers
By their sheer numbers, wore my eyes
Way out and I got blurry.
This is not a brag, the city planted
In crisp regular boxes,
A brilliant unfolding display.
I don't want to buckle under guilt,
It's not so serious as that,
I want stronger eyes or deeper to
Let so many petals in.

JM

Static

Too close to my ear
With scant impedance
Though full distortion
Spits and growls almost
Words. Not music, just words
Projected with emotion.
Scattered like chicken feed.
It's hard not to seek an author.
When I do try, spaces fill
With imagination sight.
I stumble on my discovery
Of messages in the air.

JM

Soar

Maybe the truth is I think
Too much
Somehow I developed and enjoy
The rush
Pondering deep where no one drills
Searching just to follow the trails
And maybe I can't quite quit
This touch
Which is reaching from beyond
Right here
Tickling my desire to think a little
Higher

JM

What Goes Up

Time was I believed
In stars and huge
Swirling galaxies

I don't refute the proof
Which is beautiful art
Gathered in lenses

I don't believe in
Stars that rescue
Or planets that care

I won't waste time now
Begging the cosmos
To notice my thoughts

Filling time I save
With greater creativity
Coming down from clouds

JM

Callous Memory

Barefoot all summer
Never broke a record
Hanging then dropping
Lowest branch up
Sharper ground waits
Quickly sitting down
Picking stuck pieces
A slow three steps
Then running to dusk

JM

At Once

Leave me happy,
Don't leave at all
I"ll wait for you
Not moving away,
You stick around.
Just we to be
A while in a small spot
Moving together to leave
Happily.

JM

Part Way

Love is every part of love
No matter how you slice it
Even if all the slices have names
And carving marks from seperation
Love is on the way to love
Tracks left behind become the road
The challenge is to leave it
When giving away let go of love
Another part of the road returns

JM

Flight Walk

From here on my perch
(I feel like a bird)
Traffic moves with the lights
(Featherless, without wings)
In clumps of cars and space
(No beak to speak of)
Here and there walkers pass
(Wearing shoes few birds could carry)
I only fly in my mind
(Just one eagle this season)
Moving over the rooftops

JM

Verb Centered

As if I could sit
And write about this
I sit and write about
Sitting
Quietly listening
And so
But I quit that
Eventually
In favor of sitting
Naturally quiet
Making the noise
Of created silence

JM

Just Another

Up before dawn again
Ignoring pop help suggestions
of regular sleep and excercise.
Eating candy in the T.V. shadow,
Later I will have a healthy breakfast.
Outside (smoking) the sky
Standing in my own fog.
Cold dark lifts in the East.
Bare trees, black against rose
Streetlights still burn.
I finish and unhitch my eyes,
Dragging back inside
Where I shut off the T.V.
Opening the shades

JM

Twice Baked

Appreciation

A yardful of daisies
Caught my eye, "A crafty
way to avoid mowing"
Thought I.
And further, "A beauty
for any passerby."
Good job, house with the lawn
Full of daisies
Carry on.

JM

Days

I spent time this way
A while in the margins
Of sense and intentions
Whiling my sight on wobbly tracks
Vibrations of mind traveling
On slack notions and dozing
Is this Wednesday?
AM or PM?
With all the shades open
I can still miss the day

JM

Free Fish

No forced rhyme this time.

Some rules remain as others

Break.

Though not "Free" or open verse,

The closing is not shut and worse,

The middle is vacant as a hole.

So leaving all this space caught,

The thrill of filling in the blanks

Remains to be claimed repeatedly.

JM

New Rule

Don't mention GOD.
Belief or not,
Faith or skepticism.
For the vast majority god is a pill
Taken on holy days
Or when feeling ill.

But really, don't mention any gods.

JM

Purpose

God is not dead.
Soldiers who defend,
Infidels who offend,
These and more have
Found their ending
Keeping God alive.

Is that not proof?

If God were dead
Nobody would kill for him
Or save a baby bird.
For him.
Good and evil deeds
Would need another force
To make them real,

To give them life with
Mystery.
Because, because
That's why
And God said so.

JM

Special Reserve Light

After even stars were black
The night I don't want back
So sunny in the morning that
I cracked the window wide

Something I would never do
Except
Today the right thing is clear
Wide open to the sky
I want this sunlight near

In wordless incantation
Bright spots blast to edges
Clearing up my nightmares
A daylight dream emerges

JM

Hollow Tree

This confinement I achieve is
A useful split from others
When reaching out is decayed
From lack of use and
From a driven purpose
This not really alone stays
Where I hear, see and feel
Plenty of people around me
Then extraordinary talk
Sublime and accidental
Catches my ear, lights blinking
A horn outside reminds-
This surrounded self keeps
Searching for connections and memory
Clouded by sparks of word rain

JM

Sometimes True

Embarrassing poetry happens again
Un- pre- pondered, full of dread
Will it fit once all is spilled
Into the cracks of another head?
Some message, sure
That might clarify the blur
Or a copout excuse- the freedom to see
The message could spring from anybody
But next year for certain, Love.
Some kind of incantation
A spell for peace...

JM

Arty Facts

If I stop making pictures
They seem more precious or valuable
Which can"t be true.
The worth of making is not moved
To the value of what is made.
"A lot of time went into this"
But it won't come out.
The value of made things remains
Inside the one who sees
A beholder because holding can
Only lead to release

JM

What To Do

My presence
Heavy on this birthday cake
My wind noise
Unknowing annoys, escapes
My word silence
Still heard on old tapes
My leaving
Heavy at this funeral wake

JM

Mist Taken

I see what I'm looking for
Most generally
Plus a little of what I see
The rest I miss, it must be true
It goes by magically
Unless that's what I'm hunting
Some conjured hidden view
Which I can do quite easily
Even when looking at you

JM

Insane Noodle Pie

(with jalapeno)

Piled chicken heads
Slumping in sunlight
Crazy bloody beaks
And eyes without sight

Black crow snake
Has wings and a beak
It can swim across a river
And digest rancid meat

Spoon pike perch
Carries water ashore
An easy fish to catch
That tastes like parrot spoor

Toad skin trees
Weep you-know-what
Off bending branches
Of blooming toad gut

JM

Participant

In time for one more joke
I thought it was later
Don't get me incorrect
I appreciate humor
So I sat to listen
Opened my eyes and
The stage was underneath me
Long windows cast a glow
"Election year!" I shouted
The shadows croaked with laughter
The podium on fire said
The stage is soon to go

JM

Old Episodes

Don't listen too sharply
I'm hearing you back
From further here today
Where you ought to be
Not so far that I only see
Your ghost from memory
And don't watch if I can't
see you, where my prattle goes
Chasing a former life

JM

Who Do

A name I wrote became myself
I wanted someone new
The time to leave my shell behind
Was getting overdue
The name I took from hearing
Sounded like the past
A mountain climb I left behind
Sticking to me fast
The name I made no different
People like to talk
I'll keep myself the way I am
A piece of the old block

JM

Two Faced

I smile at people
Sometimes they wonder why
Either by frowning askance
A question of my normalcy
Or a shield of "How ya doin'"
Goes up supporting distance
I smile at people and you
Smiling back
Lock eyes with me in confidence
Sharing joy does not deplete
Still we break our glance
Discreetly chancing a second look

JM

Roadside

Maybe snowdirt is a good name
People call it whatever comes to mind
Seeing snowpiles left behind
slowest to melt and heaving up
pieces of lost and discarded stuff
dropped by shovels and plows
who made the heaps
that turned into sooty bumps
The melting snowdirt of March
running into April streets

JM

What Use Religion?

One possible function
In the crumbling of states
While transportation and communication
Scatter tribes
Herds of hatred and seperation
Can test and assure allegiance
To one or another religion
While freedom remains
Difficult to express and scary
For the authorities

JM

Off The Top

In the cold, sweat still rolls
Under the warm coat to shoes
Colder yet and sweat will freeze
Rolling in chunks around the eyes
Not falling, stopped in nose and throat
Until a small bird froze, there was safety
This was a warning
Bird said "I did not starve, ate no poison
just left the nest for a drink"
Dead now, no bird sweat, no cheep.
Soon this finish will find me.
Where I fly now cannot frost my feathers
Ahh dreams in bed. A covered head.

JM

Yarn Circle

Sometimes I take a walk
unprepared with where to go
And it's fine
Other times the way is distorted,
made pointless by unpointed wandering
The empty purpose gathers weight
Pecking in rhythm with my steps
Drawing thoughts like excercise,
traffic/building/sky...views
Breathing different air
Then the ultimate destination
Rambling right back here

JM

Accumulation

Today the wind drove
Snow through my screen
Rising on the window
Finding the space between

Today the wind broke
Branches from cold trees
Tossed to the ground
on last year's leaves

Today the snow fell
the long way down
Swirling and slanting into
Corners all over town

JM

Next Day

Waking to music from next door
A lit candle from last night
Wax on the floor and tablecloth
Grey light in the windows
Softening the view of this disarray
Tunes bleed from the wall
Flickering like the candle
Our runny dreams rest on pillows
Uncollected while sleep fades
A party mess undressed by dawn
Dark covers are gone again
The music goes on for a while

JM

Ting-A-Ling

A penny carefully wedged in braids
Shiny and new but tiny
Just a few could know
Repressing laughter until
Her turn at the board
The penny jumped for it
Ding, ting-a-ling, roll
Nobody could not know
Then since Patty Braids
Blushed with shame and rage
It couldn't be brushed off
Mr. Instructor called for the culprit
To even the score
Embarrassing the boy not nearly as much
With a penny on his nose 'til the bell
And it only fell once

JM

Won World

Firmly enmeshed in us at times
Common seems real
We feel and hear the same roar
Jets flying over
Even if every head does not tilt
Experience ricochets
Off focus, dreams and covers
Distance, proximity
Quicker than a rock or sunlight

JM

Forehead Lines

Taking Medicine A Sin?

Half Agree With Split

Blackout Worse At Night

Countdown Begins In Two Days

Hee He JM

Mistaken Sacrifice

Tonight a bomb went off in my head
I thought to wrap around it
Like heroes do a hand grenade
A protection for anyone near
The concussion sustained in only
One brain for now
Blew up
Detonated
The inert case of fear and hate
Carried by all who lift it up
Remains inside and out, receding
Encroaching to fill what crack is left
When something else
Love?
Water?
Blows up perfectly undead
Detonates a reshuffling of energy
Outside my hero lust to affect
The schrapnel of exploded fear
It shatters my mistake

JM

From Here To Here

Way too sad to sit inside
Walking I look away
From headlights, eyes and windows
Kind of tricky, sometimes I miss
To stare at something human
Over my gut I watch my shoes
Step, step, clumping along
I hear the walk go quiet
Wandering into residential
Finally the sadness leaves
I don't try to chase it
Back at home I close my eyes
In a chair by a lamp
Gratitude has room to speak
I hear my simple comfort
And think of making tea

JM

Ghost Call

Ghost Call

A persistent no-answer comes
To the question "are you there"
Or another "can you hear me"
When through the hedge leaves, whispers
Turn into calls, voices bounce off walls
A special cadence of speech collects
The hazy volume wavers
Almost patterns reach out
To a persistent no-answer
An almost functional, actually desperate
Fear of the not yet known
When confusion remains between
The source and who would answer

JM

Allow 4-6

Allow 4-6

I'm a late bloomer
If I bloom at all
Clear at the end of Fall
Maybe busting through snow crust
My flowers are unremarkable
Serving their intended purpose
Flexing which seed they are to promote
The puzzler is my soil
Moving with the weather sometimes
While almost opposite others
I bloom which is enough
Unless patience is too tough today
Then I have to wait

JM

Arrange Meant

Arrange Meant

Memories are fine and useful
A trap where you lose part of the day
Sinking too long into what went on
The years collected on dust around you
All the fine and useful experience
Hanging on a wall or in that car
The look of the kitchen after meals
Especially at leaving or redecorating
The urge is strong to speed along
Listening to the way things were
Making changes heavy to move around
Into more useful and fine memories

JM

Reading/Show

Reading/Show

A woman walked in with covered head
A long heavy black dress
She sat to the left in front of me
Where I could see the silhouette
Of her small chin pointing at the stage
I tried not to stare
In just enough light to put a glow
On her full lips, round cheeks
And her brown eyes twinkling
As each participant, even me,
Got up to bounce light beams
Off ourselves and into the open face
Of the woman with the covered head

JM

Grim By Default

Grim By Default

These artificial means
Are easily as bad
As artificial pleasants
Though they fool more thoroughly
The face reflecting my facade.
To play at being angry
Serious business, that.
To gather those reflections
I must be mad.
When all but sometimes
I can portray glad or contented
Mock expressions

JM

Dead Day 9/11

Dead Day 9/11

Another day got famous
All of them have various claims
This one is shame and fear
With the strongest being hate
Blood lust, killing justified.
We remember the day together
Separated by what it takes to kill
Some pay life, others taxes.
Very many lose mental health
A psychic virus bites into them
Penetrating on each anniversary.
So loud, patriotic and grievous
In enough decades it will die

JM

Times Fly

Times Fly

We have more time than patience
Waiting is an art and a torture
A fly died slowly in my studio apartment
Neither of us had anywhere to go
She finally landed on my shirt
No more flying, she crawled
I killed her quick, impatient from
Two days of missed attempts
Though we were kind of roomates
There for a while, stuck inside

JM

Shuttered

Shuttered

I shut down time
Like a curtain on my window
Closed my view on moving shade
I made a stillness appear
Slowly as my heart bent light
Breathing still, I applied still sight
A race of emotion then
Urges to think in words
The clock returned, I heard
A squeak in the wind
With my chest full and lively
With shade still travelling
I opened up time
Like a curtain on my window

JM

Ill Delusion

Ill Delusion

A moment of clarity tells me
Which self is tragedy
Where the details marking reality
Are collected by certain
And uncertain phases of being
Which self is strong today
Clarity can't take too long
A little bliss and a taste
Of illusion belong with
A self surviving scrutiny
And accurate humility

JM

Audio Mirror

Audio Mirror

They know my name
At the bottom of my breath
In the sound of cooling bricks
Are whispers chattering
Not all repeat myself to me
Not every television bleed
Is a conversation
Some though, enough to hear
Whisper or mumble my name
And I know it's just me
Reflexively I'm thinking "Here I am"

JM

An Experience To Write About

An Experience...

What I saw on the way to the zoo-
Wild animals between the cars,
Cramped into the odd tree
And green spots by the stores,
Hiding in silt of sidewalk cracks
And just plain flying.
At the zoo I saw
More variety in the cages
A little less wild though.
With people all over
The feature attraction,
Out of their cars and almost
Naked in just their clothes,
I sat down knowing mine
Would barely cover my gawking
On the way to the zoo again.

JM

Camp Pain

Camp Pain

Noisey haloes on political pulpits
Glowing about their destinies
Never showing hell they make
Promising to stop ourselves
By force if necessary
"We shall impose new limits"
And "Work to undo our mistakes"
Then each meek vote shall inherit
The worthiest political preacher

JM

I'm Afraid Of The Lone Man

I'm Afraid Of The Lone Man

Just to fit in and get along
I learned to avoid
Approaching a man by himself
Sufficient, perhaps pondering
Or drunk
It wouldn't matter, it is alone
That counts
I saw the looks he drew
Resolved myself to stay inside
Or among friends
Yet here I am and not that long
More and more alone
And I am him, I like him now
Walking alone, waiting for the bus
Where the scattered shyness
When I was a kid
Has been gathering together

JM

Sleep Cells

Sleep Cells

Sleeping was tough last night
So the morning gets here early
With my door cracked on sunrise
Birds precede the rising traffic
Giving up the bed for now
And jealous of the workers
I watch the day get started
Through open shades the skies brighten
In bare feet with coffee awake
I know a nap will happen later.

JM

Fresh Ground Words

Fresh Ground Words

Between force and release
My words are not grease
When life is dry I grind
As phrase and pieces of idea
Find new shapes slower
More painfully, waiting
For something wet or living
To swell with what they said

JM

Been

I have been writing a little less. Posting fewer
I have slow days.
I tell you now with vigorous unction
There will be another day!
And another poem...

Post-it Pome

Post-it Pome

Short like strobe ads
Quick as a bullet
Sizzling through before
You know I'm hit
Skull wise crumpling
Over buckling knees
Heading for slow stones
The edge of a short sheet

JM

Inside Job

Inside Job

The attempted theft
Of our way of life
By means of fear
Is not so effective
As theft by war spending
Theft by ignoring our ending way of life
And worst of it we wonder
What way is that to live?
What living way requires war
And what defense is necessary
When we steal from ourselves
Generosity?

JM

Aground

Aground

When it's too beautiful to walk
Just sitting without talk or traffic
Only waiting as face after face
Turn looking from their jog
From their stroll, their car window
Glancing some surely notice
A contrary lack of speed, dozing
In a tree tickling breeze

JM

Onionesque

Kollege Killer attacks gun rights



Recently a few famous rampagers have conspired to amend our right to bear arms. While not killing gun control advocates, the students at several schools have left the job to us. As licenced and current gunowners it's up to us to be the new guard, the new wave of rampagers.
Fortune has provided us with a reason for anti-gun forces to collect themselves and that's our opportunity to strike. FIGHT BACK FELLOW GUN NUTS!!
Let us lead this lost country out of the non violent future that seems to be all too inevitable.

From Underground

From Underground

Nobody needs to know it all
I didn't but never stall
Impressing myself with clods of earth
Like these can replace, even worth giving
My family or yours, odd worth adding
My friend I almost know, sadly
How punishing can be too slow, unkind
When ignorance is speaking now
I hear your voice like mine
Somehow we both may be clods or clouds

JM

Mortal Clouds

Mortal Clouds

Steam became a cloud today
Like that needs to be said
My steps condensed and rain fell up
Downtown the streets were wet
Along another line of sight
A bell was tolled or maybe rang
Vibration sang to tell a code
So writing this is only a bone
Hiding in the cold waiting for steam

JM

The Day Kurt Vonnegut Died

The Day Kurt Vonnegut Died

By the way it was yesterday
I only heard it today, dead
So now I know I'll very likely
Have to wait until we're both dead
When we have more in common
I can meet him then
Although I was in New York just last month
Manhatten at that
All I saw were famous faces
We may have met already
Yet his books met me young
Returning through age delightfully
He gave me sage advice
Encouraging sight beyond my eyes
This reader and all the rest
Under a lamp at night with Kurt

JM -4-12-7

Ghoul Curse

Ghoul Curse

Happy trails good-bye
I wrote your death today
So exhausted, I saw you panting
Words were less and less then
Turned to simple breath, lighter
Wispy and gone, I lit a wick
The steady flame said nothing
Your mouth stayed open
Your eyes still not closed
I tipped the wax to coat them
Yelling my own breath loud
I danced around and on your shadow
Stepping you back to dirt

JM

Looking Away

Looking Away

On the farm too long I guess
Now missing the sound of wind
In tall grass and stronger in pine trees
Missing the slow sunset the orange dirt
After the trucks stop, after a rain
The smell of heavy dew at dawn
And a ruckus of birdsongs
In the city too long I guess
Those rumbling hours of day traffic
Sirens, mufflers and car stereos nightly
How I yearned for those signs of life
Looking from a farmhouse window

JM

For Boo

For Boo

I told gramdpa kitty
I'd be just fine, see
I've been in the woods.
From shadow to shine to city
I've seen the various kinds of vine
The good the bad and the deadly
Don't worry for me old man
And he purred and tried to explain
The danger and wonder
So I listened a while, though I think
He knew
And we shared a homemade moment or two

JM

Know: Ah

Know: Ah

A rainbow was a promise
This poem is prophecy
I am building without plans
One to come, home two
All to hear, three, four
Few before then after
Safety under the arc
Not yet appeared
Yet not unseen
A prophecy from between
My words to future hope;
Some water will be clean

JM

ROTC

ROTC

Is there a safe school
To send my child to
Where dealers don't push violence?
A drug that promises honor
Uniformed thugs who smile
Obvious liars
Really Obvious Terror Creators
Reeking with pride
Pretending they are a better Dad
Slimy grins and secret handshakes
Lies and bribes enticing
New adults to learn old war
Rotten to the corps
Give us safety from you

JM

Not Quite Dry

Not Quite Dry

The sun wobbles in a puddle
Close to the curb outside
Jumping in slivers on the wall
Next to my door I stand
I am not inside just now
Curving my neck to the sky
As many clouds go by and one
Near the sun and the puddle,
When I look back down, is only water
Shallow on a bed of street soot

JM

Over Sleep

Over Sleep

Before there was a day ahead
Before I got behind
The hope of every morning rising
Rested in my bed
That graceful pat of comfort
Lightly on my hair
Enough to send my dreams again
Asleep without a care

JM

Search

Search

Looking again for the middle
I must be edgy
Why is this not comfortable
Where I spend my life
Somewhere else, not edgy
Seems like what I need
And looking ceases when I see
The everywhere is here
The middle is not running

JM

Forever

Just one more thing
There is no real end. Just overriding beginnings.
This spring will be nice.
Gardening, hiking and birdwatching.
ENJOY!

Pivot

A time to leave again
A feeling of not still here
Not yet there
And this is when, right now
The sense of time is slow
The sense of space is deeper
With more details
A feeling of short, shrinking air
Returns at dreams of yonder
Or dreams of leaving behind

JM

February 8th

A pencil breaks in cold weather
My back is sore again
Unkind cold, unkindled pile,
Snow on the scrap wood
So inside is where this is
With socks under my legs and radio
Sunken like a wet log but dry
Into the cushions where soon
My legs will itch to walk outside...

Damn the wind chill
I brace into the crunching tracks
The wrinkling face of winter

JM

Travellin' Lately

Hi from me.
I've been keeping my home in a few suitcases this past month.
I left the fair city of Omaha on February 1st. The new house of hospitality there is in the capable stewardship of my Catholic Worker friends. Spent some time in Iowa City at Kitty Nation, a house with five bossy and irresistable cats.
This is my second week in New York. It's a nice change from the quiet of the midwest but I've been able to find plenty of peace and serenity right here local. I love being able to walk to shops and mini attractions. There is too much to do here and that suits me fine. I have another week before the train is scheduled to trundle myself and my good friend back to Iowa.
I have a bunch of poems but none strike me as chopready quality, whatever that is.
Happy March forth. (fourth)

Hole, Empty, Change

I can't know what another person
(knows, feels, experiences)
And no one else can know
How that chunk of star hit me
They might see the hole it left
But how is that feeling it?
Even the exact dimensions
Caused by an identical star chunk
Could not be the same as my life
Or another who got stuck with a hole.
The emptiness may resemble another
Although another empty, holy person
Is known by being
I cannot be that as well as this

JM

Blazes

chopready

Blazes

I blot the books that taught me
Through the ink I write
Sold a lot of what I bought
Through the night I think
I strike the fire, pages thick
The smell of written smoke
I blow and watch the embers catch
Then catch a little back
Smearing on the student page
All my wrong and rage
To clot and blot it into me
And chance another fire
Out of my cage to dance

JM

Lower Calling

chopready

Lower Calling

Told lower now, the case for love,
A proof too large when held above
From this down here and we who crawl
A voice is speaking but not for all
Alive told lower and fewer words
Dead told lies to fewer herds
Then God ran off, took to the sky
Left all that glory not wondering why
For love
To go ahead of us
For love
To come behind

JM

Warm Sleet

chopready

Warm Sleet

Rain is gnawing in regular bites
At the edge of the roof outside
My window does not open but the close
Sound is in my head
The hiss of my breath intrudes
The rhythm adjusts a beat
Between the air outside and here
I breathe through open teeth
Quietly to hear the sky descending

JM

Clench

chopready

Clench

Foriegners, lousy foriegners
Never speak to me in funny language
I don't know you so be apparent
Act predictably, do what I expect
I will not know you beyond foriegn
My mind is made up and small
I don't think about all of us
Very few actually and mostly me
My hate, my fear, my ignorance
If I don't keep this, who will I be?

JM

Job

chopready

Job

If it was MY work
It would not get done
Finished over and over and polished
Not done
MY work is to do
Yet. Not done.
If there is rest it is yet
The other rest is work to do
MY work it is.
It is not done.

JM

Travel / Lodge

Travel / Lodge

Taking little prayer walks in wheels
While sitting, not touching the road
All the way home
Where a little spot waits for walking
Where leaving without wheels leaves room
For many steps, befor returning
To a little prayer of steps
Taken alone to touch the floor
Savoring a lipless word yet heard
In each our own

JM

Sniper College

Sniper College

Advance Rifle Training grounds explode,
Expand to include the shops, the 'hood
Circle of kill zone wider, brought home
At first just targets, laser or video games
Then recruits were authorized, recruits were mandatory
And training grounds were needed
Besides "..we're fighting a war against Evil
One person at a time..." -(GWB) and that's We
With a capitol
Everyone else is Evil, one at a time

JM

Nearly Full

chopready

Nearly Full

Believing in words to come out right
I string along again tonight
Body motions under a moon bright sky
Ripple clouds watch me stumble dance
Particular about a serious direction
Why I take my circles always given
Where I touch the ground
With all that covers it and it covers
Light steps and a lighter shadow
Believe the words for stride or walk
Can move with written talk again
Tonight where the moon is out

JM

Staying Gone

chopready

Staying Gone

So the sight would remain
No sound at these ears
The quiet pair of birds glided
Clouds were much higher
Where the sun broke through, their wings
Were shining back and down to me
Once in a while flapping slow
So a moving sight would remain
When the pair had gone, flying away
From down here now

JM

Clock Stand

Clock Stand

Too slow today while many wheels
Spin quickly, missing their teeth,
Not caring anyway whether they mesh
Just spinning knowing that often enough
The big wheels slant and tip
The turning bitten by many teeth
Whether slanted, tipping or missing
Just spinning and bumping the time
The climb of one chain on another
The links all opening to bite

JM

Diet Tribe

chopready

Diet Tribe

To spew and chew this line is left
The agreed upon markings, right?
Not yet out loud but soon enough
A muttering of the short sound
We share a bite of word, but you
Must finally choose your food

JM

Looking Back

Looking Back

There were real streams
And words were streams of streams
There were tall waves
And shorty me or so it seems, they fell
Not so tall from a distance
There was real sand
Less common than the hourglass kind
Which seems fast, close or distant
The real sand slow
Even looking back as a salty pillar
Of the community
Of a working ethos for junior
Of just regular salt that sees
How slowly even I was made
How much water goes all over

JM

Voter Registration

chopready

Don't vote to forget

The victims of election
Winners of our correction
None so fast can rebuild the past
Only our steadfast vigilence
Can last until the future

Another Day

chopready

This is Sunday. An anniversary for me.
My poems are in a stack and when I read them I feel less than certain that they are chopready material.
I'll be writing this evening for sure. The keyboard is not too friendly as a device for creating these bits of brand name poetry. I like the pen and paper.

Travellers Code

Travellers Code

Lost belief I thought I found
Some big enough and strong way
Lost among the many sounds
Never releasing language
Competing for signs all used and
Intertwined
I thought, I found, I heard
Another ground out walking
A solid motion moving
Another walker choosing a path
Smiling as we pass each other

Free Tickets

chopready

Free Tickets

I got to go when everybody
Stayed unchosen at home
Just like you, leaving home
Then leaving for the show
Where only the lucky go
yeah I went and never won't
I don't come back in any version
Of anybodys past
Where you don't either
You stay gone to living friends
Until arrival or visits
Or celebrations of different endings