I’ll be damned. T. S.

I’ll be damned if I need to roll up my pants
I’ll wear socks with sandals and eat lobster claws:
No I’ll rage rage against the dying of fashion laws

I have learned which way to pee out the car window

Time is passing : not leaden stepping
But sprinting on winged feet,
Quick silver slipping by.
I’m tired, the bars smoky haze makes
Me want to run around the house curl up to be
Or not, as the river runs in Joycean fashion
Through the channels of my mind.

As the women come….. And
Go basking in the afterglow

God is my superman
I tug on his cape:
Like trying to peel a Concord grape
With my teeth; my tongue gets in the way.

Looking out the window while following.
Cars with their windows down.
I wonder if Kerouac would say
“Keep your head down or
You will need wipers for your eyes”

As the women come…. And
Go basking in the afterglow

Will a Windsor knot be the answer
The clock: It seems hand bound,
Or just the battery winding down
By the certainty or insanity of time.
Am I going to be an unfinished work in progress
If I stay at the same address;
If I stand my ground?

As the women come….. And
Go basking in the afterglow

Stand around and get run over.
The clock hands never shake with me.
The morning provided grazing clover
And noon had pretentious lovers,
The evening gives way to to stability,
But the clock winds on to end the day.

So far from the beginning;
Socks with sandals are
Loosening my under pinning.
Walk with uneven gait thinking
Of not falling, stopping : no, damn no
I should go and go like Pheidippides

As the women come…. And
Go searching for the afterglow

 

“Church Kitchen” © Edward S. Gault

 

Richard L. Ratliff is a baby boomer, born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, his midwest ties have built the foundation and setting for his poetry. He is a Purdue University graduate with two years of engineering turned into a degree in English Literature; along with being a two year letterman in wrestling. All of these eclectic combinations have given him a career as a boiler and combustion expert and poet.He has two published books: It’s About Time and 3420:Backyard conversations.

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine art photographer. He lives at Mosaic Commons, a co-housing community in Berlin, Ma. He has a wife Karen, and daughter.