Jay Passer- Three Poems

BORN AT THE END OF THE LINE

can’t write about

smoke

only pollution

what about birds

choked in oil spill

talk about flightless

try growing wings

I used to be languid

silvery at the bar

joking to scotch

on the rocks

and jukebox rumble

it was cool so cool

that it’s now

on ice

can’t write anymore

about how I used

I used you

my love my body

that day when

it was raining

the prelude to

armageddon

I used to be romantic

now the birds 

choke 

on our refuse

LIKE A MIDDLE FINGER

I could watch a Western

I could eat a pineapple

I’m lucky that way

get on my bike

go get a book

at the market choose between 

a hundred different cheeses

in the drawer

there’s shirts made

in China, India, Haiti, Mexico, Malaysia

I could go play the ponies

or frisbee golf

or hit the strip club

and suck down vodka rocks and shoot speedballs

till the neon blurs

and the vein bursts

I could wake up

turn on the fan and have hard boiled brains for breakfast

and walk the promenade

along the Embarcadero

with gulls crying

the bay water slapping beneath the piers

hit Chinatown for dim sum then

Washington Park to study

Tai Chi dancers or somber cathedral arches or Coit Tower

like a middle finger thrust into the sky

I could trade it 

all

for a razor blade

or a bullet

or a nice long pharmaceutical dream

say I wasn’t into histrionics

ORLANDO

it won't stop

50 dead in Orlando

bear in mind those arms you bear
meant to defend your freedom
not senseless slaughter of innocents
it can't stop
humanity is at population overload
and all time spiritual low
while munitions corporations keep us force-fed
media dropping 'bombs'
how many films out of 10 where a person doesn't
get blown away
stop it
"why should I
I have a right to my opinion
I have a right to bear arms
I have a right to be ignorant
I have a right to be insane
I have a right to walk into a club and hate on
total strangers"
it won't stop
it can't stop
until humanity drops the I
in favor of we
we're waiting
we'll be waiting a long time
but in Orlando the wait is over