twisting he tugs
as i imagine white roots
appearing like hardened snow
on gummy blood, my
molar protruding unnaturally
dangling out of jaw socket
waiting for the final yank
and this is what
i came for, the concluding
moment where self leaves
body and is gone
he holds it up for me to see
that indeed life is real
and things do end
Category: Poetry
Listening to Chet Baker
again we remember
to love on
this day of
chocolate and red
hearts swoon or
pretend with hallmark
memories of
cold february wind
blew cupid arrows
and i loved
you too, all
of you, were
once my funny
valentine
By the Pool
sunken ground, watery
blue, it whirls
with summer sun
dug into the
dirt and rocks
pushed aside for
me to be
here surrounded by
ants and trees
bees and breeze
on my perch
like a dragonfly
watching the earth
Avoidance
no, not the
details, foreheads trickling
blood of children
and i’ve seen
this before in
israel and gaza
the photos and
headlines, hopeless
but then i
turn off my
phone and it
all just disappears
and i think
about the basketball
playoff game instead
Sonny Rollins Is Alive
when enough times passes
we begin to think they
are all dead
those jazz musicians
who cradled gold
instruments, lung life air
pulsating into
penetrating through everything
with their reverberating
notes of truth
it all ends
but his saxophone sound
is still here
and perhaps
will be
forever
Conform
just do what i do
five words in a line
just do what i do
be like all the rest
it is just so easy
to lose that inner voice
four words in a line
do not do that
Baseball Cards
i’ve begun to hold you again
colorful cardboard portal
young men gripping bats
like no one ever ages
i used to take you for granted
trade you, shove you into
shoe boxes, stacking Tigers
and Orioles, reading statistic
after statistic, the only math
that ever made sense
now with gray hair, you are
mine again, behind plastic
i cradle delicate memory
this time around i know
nothing lasts forever
Magnus Carlsen
thinking always about chess
like words gliding through
space and time, these
pieces of royal motion
an endless game of poetry
No More Snow Days
those frozen crystals
one after the next
swirl and gust, dance
in sky, as we stare
hoping streets turn white
with each inch on ground
silent time arrives
waiting by the radio
listening to county
after county close schools
for children only think
of sledding and cocoa, and
knocking powder off oak branches
landscape like the untouched moon
today with Zoom the flakes
still descend, but screens trap
the young inside their computers
a flat warm world without end
no more snow days
Artificial Intelligence
evolution, acorn becomes
the tree, caterpillar a
butterfly, soar into future
skies, on screens with
robotic machines choosing
videos that emerge to
distract us away from
here, the present day
always leaving the
past behind, and perhaps
this should be
until we finally
become like drawings
in the cave
look how those
humans used to be
so simple and so free
now we are all
just technology
Daniel W. Polk 