Mary Won't Allow It
Copyright 2023 by Michael Walker
Mary won't allow it
Sunshine
As anodyne
Sweet chords
On a
Hummingbird
Guitar
Mary won't allow it
Her staff of
Busy bees
All the honey
Yet to be
Gleaned…
Her son didn't die
For your sins
Her son died
On a cross
Of Gold.
Her son died
In foreign wars
Her son died
Before
He was...
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La Guerre
Copyright 2023 by Michael Walker
They came down from the Tower of Babel
In their crazy quilts of words
They could no longer
Understand each other
So they threw stones
Instead
And that was the beginning
Of war
And a million
Wars more…
We'll have a splendid little war
In the wake
Of the Archduke's bier
Send the boys
Into No-Man's Land
With...
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She ended by saying
Nothing ever ends
And then
She died…
The room was
Small and hot
And the world outside
Honked all its horns
Just as it had
Seconds before
Imperative
Michael Walker copyright 2023
"Elevate your brand"
I don't even know
What that means
Anymore.
All I see
Are tattoos
On dubious
Packages
Flotsam
And
Empty stores
Thought
I was
A spirit
Once-upon-a time
Thought I was
A thinking
Feeling
Bleeding
Human.
That's not enough
Elevate
Your
Brand
Sell more
Jetsom
Get tattoos
On every
Inch of you
An Elderly Lady I Know
Copyright 2022 by Michael Walker
Her eyes
Those rapacious
Cave dwellers
Hunt for more light
As the sun prepares
To take
Its final bow
They hunt
For a bloom child
Of flowers
Something she never grew
In all her
Many
Window boxes.
She craves
More paintings
More quilts
More
LIGHT
But bats have come
To roost
In her eyes
Rain...
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Walt Whitman
Copyright 2023 by Michael Walker
Walt Whitman went forth one day
Out in Brooklyn at the break of day
Walt Whitman went forth one day
A blue cathedral
And an urge to pray
Say hello to the ferry driver
Say hello to the river
Say hello to all the diamonds
Dancing free
In the sky…
Walt Whitman went forth one day
Manhattan yeah...
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Epitaph For A Working Man
2023 by Michael S. Walker
Bing Crosby said
That was a
Good game of golf
Let's go
Get a Coke
And then
He died …
As good an epitaph
As any
A day in the sun
With friends
A day with laughter
And refreshment.
I do not think
My own
Epitaph
Will be so
Light-hearted
More like
"I can't lift...
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Night Bus
Copyright 2023 by Michael Walker
I was on a night bus
In South Carolina
South of
No North
I thought
As I stared out the window…
And there was a
Black guy
Sitting across
The aisle from me
Surreptitiously
Drinking from a
Brown
Paper bag…
He told me he was bound
Bound for
New York City
"Gonna be a big star"
He said...
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Shameless
(Copyright 2023 by Michael S. Walker)
She’s so shameless
Nothing makes her wince
Inside the Matrix.
Every day she goes and
Does her makeup.
And does the things
Yeah, she has to do.
She’s so shameless
With everything out there
Falling around her.
Every day she goes
And plays a flower.
Does the shameless things
She has to do.
Shameless walkin’ in the sun...
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On Acting
(Copyright 2023 by Michael Walker)
And there they all are
All the bit players
Spitting their
Rote prayers
They populate
The skies…
They lack
All conviction…
There they all are
Mother and Father
Beast and
Burden.
Priests and
Debutantes…
In Sixty-one years
I never learned the language
I never learned to enter
On time
I thought I was some prince
Wringing his hands...
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