David Spiering- Three Poems

a poem caused by tea

tea is the necessary

bifocal for me

to make sense

of all dreariness

that’s further

complicated

by the weather

it’s the varnish

that makes

my faded paneling

standup

to the sun glair

it allows

for needed and necessary contemplation

that’s a better option

than behaving like an ambush

predator toward

possible confrontation

tea helps smooth

out my thoughts kinks

and crannies

where debris builds

up it’s corrosion

I hope it clears away

 before my tree full of owls

spots it and they feel

 the need to save

me from their honest

pins and splinters

a poem to a reluctant teetotaler

my life is weak tea and throughout the years that’s been true by my choice

and besides that my bad habits kept dealing me lousy hands

and my they kicked me in my stoned optimism

and while I was down they went to work on my head

even caffeine coils me into a tight squeeze and I feel most of the pain in my head

and afterwards I’m ready for the solaces of the mattress and intense vomiting

now I understand fully that I’m a weak tit and I’ve made my peace

with that fact and I know my life is better off because of it and the tea

tastes much better to me and because I’m not heading off in the night’s

dull to the toilet to tear my guts up

the shield of tomatoes: a prose ode

Tomatoes stand guard over my life with their skins and juices and seeds. Tomatoes are red pods made by the sun and they’re intoxicating enough to turn heat and humidity and the blustery chill into type of pleasantness. They humidify the day’s dry peelings to make them seem more tolerable. Their vines jail the grim reaper and shrivel his/her plans into dry brittle seeds. Tomatoes keep my blood thin against the viscosity of stress caused by anger.

The battle starts as I make a sauce with garlic and herbs and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Soon my phone cord pasta is al dente. I sluice them together in a large bowl and I sprinkle it with Parmesan and Romano cheeses. As my body absorbs the red juice it bursts like a supernova and flashes the grim reaper’s army of death into a thin black light.