Three Poem Wednesday

BUY, SELL or TRADE

Life is a pawnshop window

A leather jacket next to a microwave next to an electric guitar

The old stuff of one life

Becomes the new stuff of another

Life is a pawnshop window

An art installation of longing

Look a little closer and you’ll see the story

The pride that ring was worn with when the marriage was forever

The drum set begged for but never played by a daughter who hasn’t been seen for years

Life is a pawn shop window

A calm rearrangement of collective desperation

We do not go to pawn shops willy-nilly

We go with our backs against the wall

Knowing that we will be undervalued

And too far gone to give a shit

AIN’T THAT BIG A DEAL

Let me tell you gently

Lean over and whisper in your ear

I don't have anything big to say, no poems or books or stories

I have neither the strength to testify

Nor the certainty to declare

When I see my words piled on the page

I scoff

And think, what the fuck is this cat trying to get at?

Cool out motherfucker

It ain't that big a deal

But a bird's still gotta sing

So, I sing to you

Not the world

Or country

Or city

Or town

Just you

Lying by me

The bottle I put my message in

WARM

Warm in December and I'm swimming at twilight

Oh, the mistakes I've made

Warm in December and I'm swimming at twilight

The breast-stroke. The stroke of kings

Warm in December and I'm swimming at twilight

I know you all think you're the hero of the journey

But you're wrong

It's me