hey zebra

today, i thought
today i will yell "HEY ZEBRA!"
in the crowded subway station
and maybe a zebra
will turn around
or any other creature,
i'm not picky.
i thought "HEY ZEBRA!"
and rehearsed "HEY ZEBRA!"
and i was surrounded
by the strange silent overcoated herd
perhaps
a zebra among them
but, i felt the strange silent pressure
of the overcoats
and i couldn't yell
i only squeaked
"hey zebra"
and it didn't work.

Pain

Cinderella thought
She had it bad
She obviously didn’t meet
Jesus.

my ascent from poverty

Today I had only three dollars and twenty-five cents
I bought water, flour, salt and yeast
Now I am rolling in dough.

household objects

that dorky teapot is staring at me.
those prissy curtains are judging my outfit.
the svelte spatula thinks i'm chubby.
the socialite dessert spoons think i should get out more.
those sociopathic dish rags are plotting to kill me.
your fundamentalist doorknob is praying for my soul.
that brawny waffle-maker thinks i'm a weakling.
my clumsy ice machine has a crush on me.
your red-checkered tablecloth disagrees with my politics,
and my overweight backpack is stalking me again.

the towel

the airline stewardess
handed me a warm, wet towel
but
i didn't know what to do with it.
other people
wiped their face and hands.

ginsberg

this morning i sat on the train
while sitting, i watched men in yellow outfits
hired by the government
burn piles and piles of garbage
while sitting, i listened to allen ginsberg read "america"
somebody else was blasting techno music
from their handheld technological music device
i listened and the suburbs went by out the window
garbage, grafitti, half-dead buildings push the ugliness away from the center keep cholesterol away from the heart.
i mental-blocked-out the techno
as it was, ginsberg was a private visitor
all-access pass
welcome to my neurons.
ginsberg says: america i still haven't told you what you did to uncle max after he came home from russia.
i get the feeling from ginsberg that america puts its shoes on first and its socks on second.

the definition of super-fortunately

she twists the twine around her waist
jumps off the cliff...
the thin twine breaks.
she twirls and screams, careens
through tender sky...
"my my" she thinks
"i am about to die!"
...but what is that? a giant bat
returning home at dawn?
no--not a bat! my stars! gee whiz! that´s a pteranodon!
she lands upon his wings, and sings
"what luck of clover-four!
instead of splat upon the ground
i´m on a dinosaur!"
past rocks and trees they ride the breeze
and reach speeds meteoric
instead of suicide, a rollercoaster prehistoric
she rides, they roam, then she goes home
she bakes herself some ham
"my climbing rope snapped off today...
how fortunate i am."