Virus in the Air, Spasms in my Back
By Michael
Lee Johnson
There's a virus in the air, but I can't
see it.
People are
dying around me, but I can't save them.
There are
spikes pierced in my back,
spasms, but
I can't touch them.
Heartbeats,
hell pulsating, my back muscles,
I covet in
my prayers.
I turn right
to the left, in my bed, then hang still.
Nails
impaled, I bleed hourly,
Jesus on
that cross.
Now 73 years
of age, my half-sister 92,
told me,
"getting old isn't for sissies."
I didn't
believe her—
until the
first mimic words
out of
"Kipper" my new parakeet's mouth,
sitting in
his cage alone were
"Daddy, it's not easy being green."
Leaves in December
By Michael Lee
Johnson
Leaves, a few stragglers in
December, just before Christmas,
some nailed down crabby
to ground frost,
some crackled by the bite
of nasty wind tones.
Some saved from the matchstick
that failed to light.
Some saved from the rake
by a forgetful gardener.
For these few freedom dancers
left to struggle with the bitterness:
wind dancers
wind dancers
move you are frigid
bodies shaking like icicles
hovering but a jiffy in the sky,
kind of sympathetic to the seasons,
reluctant to permanently go, rustic,
not much time more to play.
Group Therapy
By Michael
Lee Johnson
Wind chimes.
It’s going to rain tonight, thunder.
I’m going to
lead the group tonight talking
about
Rational Emotive Therapy,
belief
challenges thought change,
Dr. Albert
Ellis.
I’m a hero
in my self-worship,
self-infused
patient of my pain,
thoughtful,
probabilistic atheism
with a slant
toward Jesus in private.
Rules roll
gently creeping
through my
body with arthritis
a hint of
mental pain.
Sitting in
my 2001 Chevy S-10 truck,
writing this
poem, late as usual.
It’s going
to rain, thunder
heavy tonight.
Fiction Girl
(Transition)
By Michael Lee
Johnson
Drawings, then poems flip over to
fiction;
the flash girl
rides this ghost of the invention.
Insecure in
youth, switch girl from drawing
to poetry,
extension flight, outer fiction space,
yours is a
manner of words at work.
Mercury is a
god of movement.
A new skill
set, brain twister, releases 100 free plays.
Life is a
version of old times, fresh starts, torn yellow pages.
I focused on
you last night; I watched your head spin
in sleep, a new
playhouse of tree dreams, high shifting.
Changes are
leaves; I lift your spirits to the gods of fire,
offer you
thunderbolts practice your shooting in heaven
or hell, or
toss back to earth.
Change is a choice
where your energy flows.
No computer
gods will help this poetic journey.
May you cry out
loud on route to fairy tale creations.
You are the
chemist, the mixer girl shifting gears.
Creativity is
how the gallery of galaxies cement.
Flash fiction lines cross stars.
Cold Grey (V2)
Below the clouds
forming in
my eyes,
your soft
eyes,
delicate as
warm silk words,
used to
support the love I held for you.
Cold, now
grey, the sea tide
inside turns
to poignant foam
upside down
separates-
only ghosts
now live between us.
Yet,
dreamlike, fortune-teller,
bearing no
relation to reality-
my heart is
beyond the sea now.
A relaxing
breeze sweeps
across the
flat surface of me.
I write this
poem to you,
neglectfully
sacrificing our love.
I leave big
impressions
with a
terrible hush inside.
Grey bones
now bleach with memories,
I’m a
solitary figure standing
here, alone,
along the shoreline.
Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in Itasca, DuPage County, Illinois. Mr. Johnson published in more than 2,013 new publications, and his poems have appeared in 40 countries, he edits, publishes ten poetry sites. Michael Lee Johnson has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards poetry 2015/1 Best of the Net 2016/2 Best of the Net 2017, 2 Best of the Net 2018. Two hundred twenty-four poetry videos are now on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/poetrymanusa/videos. Editor-in-chief poetry anthology, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1530456762; editor-in-chief poetry anthology, Dandelion in a Vase of Roses available here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545352089.
Editor-in-chief
Warriors with Wings: The Best in Contemporary Poetry, http://www.amazon.com/dp/1722130717.
https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Lee-Johnson/e/B0055HTMBQ%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Awesome verse and loved the bio Wow allot of credits to your name. Impressive.
ReplyDeleteThank you Eva, you are not too bad yourself.
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