An Old Man’s Story
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
I write a page a day
In this simple story
I don’t know
What the ending is
I just
Write forward.
I used to write
In a fever dream
Like St. Paul
Blinded on the road
Now I squint
At street signs
And just
Write Forward.
I don’t know
What the ending is
It may take...
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Lo and Behold
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
Walking down Granville
I saw a djinn
Something out of
Arabian Nights
He was snapping at twigs
Like it was some perverse
Master’s
Last wish
Unrobed he was
Except for a pair of
Frayed
Jeans
And his bronze tits
Flapped
Undisturbed
In the winter
Wind.
The traffic flew by
Blind to all
Incongrous
Bells
Like this one...
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Screwball
(Copyright 2026 by Michael Walker)
I have been watching a lot of screwball comedies
Things from the 30s and 40s
Movies set in drawing rooms
And on ocean liners.
Cary Grant
Barbara Stanwyk
Irene Dunne…
Crashing roadsters
Tearing up checks
Dancing the lindy
I can imagine audiences
Laying down their quarter
Warming themselves in a life
As impossible
As their own
Escaping to that...
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Day 3
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
I am going to
Get back on the horse
Although
I don’t know
What that horse is…
This is Day 3
And I wake up
To the same scraps of hours
I go and check the mail
It’s the same
Scraps of paper
No sound of hooves yet …
But I will not despair
I will NOT
Sucumb...
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Simplistic Thinking
Michael S Walker (copyright 2026)
Simplistic thinking
Giving oxygen
To fire
Simplistic thinking
Framing policy
Black vs white
Good vs evil
Jesus vs the Devil
No nuance
No complicated
Issues
No quarter
The army vs the
Enemy
The Rapture
vs
The Future
A Holy War…
Simplistic thinking
Giving oxygen
To fire
To The Reader
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
Some people
Wear it as a badge
Of honor
That they don’t
Read
Books books books
I don't know
I think the glacial pace
Of all those lines
Is the balm
We need
Desperately
Right now…
A Drunkard’s Daily
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
There are no miracles
There is only waking up
In the grey afternoon
To the grim
Impossible
Maze
That is your life…
Hovering
Over a toilet
Cooking an egg
Staring out a window
At the funeral
Home.
There are no miracles
No love
At first sight
No Noble prizes
Unless
They are bought.
Time to start drinking...
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Alone In A Diner
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
I wish these people would slow down
To talk occasionally
Instead of throwing out
Sugar-coated cliches
Hurrying
To the
Time clock
Work is
Overrated
And I
Need
A
Goddamn
Job
As I sit in
This restaurant
Wishing I could order
The
Beautiful
Waitress
Instead of
A bowl
Of chile
I probably will leave
Unfinshed …
Gone
copyright 2026 by Michael Walker
The gift is gone
She said
Our love
Is gone
I thought about that truth
And then
Went outside
To
Smoke…
The kids next door
Were building
A snow fort
Enthusiastically
Magically
That too
Will soon
Be gone
I thought
As I lit
Another cigarette
And then I thought
Of that old
Violent Femmes
Song
Gone daddy gone
The...
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Dear Donald J Trump,
If you were an eight-year old playing these fantasy vituperative games of yours in some bedroom, well, that would be one thing. But you are supposedly the most powerful man on this planet. All your absurd and addled plans, all your vindictive tariffs, all your boasts and empty rhetoric DO have consequences in the REAL WORLD. Somehow, inexplicably, you have managed...
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