Tom Hatch- A Poem

What do I have to do for her love?

 

What do I have to do

Become an Acapulco cliff diver

To make you happy

Climbing up to the top is hard enough

Then the courage even to look

Down drives me to drink

And you expect me to have it too (the courage or maybe the drink too)

My youthful colleagues don't have a problem

They dive like they have rucksacks

Full of money

Currency spending spent pouring, pouring

Out of their sacks into the sea below

This is the way they dive fearless

Off the cliffs all the money in the world

 

One after another they fly

Maybe I should have started at the edge of the pool

Worked my way up to a diving board at least

Then maybe…

I slouch as I approach the ledge

The smell of the smashing breakers

Way down below the sound of swish

Makes me intoxicated invigorated

Standing tall my toes are curled

Over the verge 

I look good in my diving suit

It's tightness and the fresh air

Causes a thorough hardness

 

I'm on that cliff hard and huge

Isn't this enough?

But my gigantic enormousness gives me

A giant hit of confidence spreading

My arms stretching out like the angel of death

I lean forward I can see the largeness very bold

I lean farther toward the open air 

That will fly me to the sea oh the smell

Panting racing heart

O graciousness no turning back

It's time for my Titanic to set sail

I hit the water just as the breaker has filled

The grotto to its fullest ever...ever

Does this make you happy? Oh yes it does.

 

 

 

Bio 

Tom paid his dues in the SoHo art scene way back when. He was awarded two NEA grants for sculpture back then. And taught at various colleges and universities in the NYC metro area in art (including Princeton and U of Penn. in Philly). He is a regular at The Camel Saloon, Dead Snakes and BoySlut. He has published at The Mind[less] Muse, Jellyfish Whispers, Napalm and Novocain, Rusty Truck and Pyrokinection among others. He lives in CT with a few farms up and down the road works in Manhattan. His train ride to and from NYC is his solace, study and den where it all begins.