Five Poems by Stark Hunter

 

Nightmare Again

 

Another loose grind from bedtime to flickering bedtime
The white pills on my bureau sit there like lactose bugs
Lurking silently as sad dogs would, waiting for the door to close
Life is the uneaten fish inside the garbage can out back
The maggots there drink champagne cocktails with their dim wives.
Another nightmare now with hordes of death nurses sucking on syringes 
Their black marble eyes enlarging like stoned puffer fish.

 

 

Les derniers vivants

The mad groaning cities burn with frankincense and fear
The violent defenestrations in Reseda are blacked out on TV
The last ones alive are getting saved inside their starving cadillacs
They carry fiery crosses inlaid with rebar rubies and pepper spray
Commiserating flower girls now embrace the feathered allegiances
Here they come with unfurled rosaries and bubonic nose inhalers.
The shaved zipper girls from Canoga Park ride the sky like fireflies
Zig-zagging through the stereophonic sewers on brooms of gold
They cup their shadow ears now to hear voices in the soft choirs
Children dancers strew cupcake flowers as they pass the day-glo plazas
They sing the muted music of stray sanity bullets and justice bombs 
Now the sleek ambulances rush in like squid demons from Van Nuys 
They screech the hot boulevards driven by the exhaust boys in drag
The mad groaning cities smolder now amidst the cool raining vespers

 

 

Blue Stone

Sagittarius piano fingers waltzing splendidly upon my laptop.
I can hear your nervous ticking heart clapping and tapping—
Collapsing there— as the meat philosophers send their brocades— 
You never told me your name— whether real or frequently imagined—
As you came through my back door with nyloned legs shaking,
Your virgin-scented pearls shining inside my blue-eyed machinations,
Your curious feeders seeking certain electric favors with lip gloves.
Now you give your blue stone to me as one would gift a rich beggar,
To regale the climes with thousand island cadenzas and madrigals.
Sagittarius piano fingers dancing like salad fire upon my laptop

 

 

Allow Them To Eat Your Brain

You are relaxed as you scroll there.
Watch the endless turning and spinning.
The never-ending parade of ideas and images.
Watch closely.
Keep your eyes open and concentrate.
Follow follow follow the magic memes…
Let them consume your mind’s eye.
Allow them to eat your brain with relish.
Your eyelids are now getting heavier.
Relax.
Relax.
See the absorbing blinding images.
See the moving shapes make their strange sounds.
Don’t blink as they pass by.
Watch watch watch the endless turning and spinning.
Be open to all suggestions from them.
Let them consume and eat and swallow you.
You are their wonderful meal under the yellow sun.
You are their reason for spasming.
Don’t forget to keep your eyes open.
Follow follow follow the magic memes…
Relax.
Relax.
Follow follow follow…
Let them.
Let them consume your mind’s eye.
Allow them to eat your brain with relish.

 

 

New Poem Old Poet

I stand again facing the eternal west.
I am an old dude now and,
I miss the western sunsets on Hoover Street.
Those bright orange never-ending endings,
Presenting themselves again like hovering waiters,
Carrying trays of bottled heart-quenchers.
Life is the hat check girl in little orange cap.
When the lights are low,
She steps away privately to dance.

Born in Whittier, California in 1952, Stark Hunter was a high school English teacher for 34 years before retiring from the classroom in 2017. He has written and published 12 books, which are available on Amazon.com. and Barnes & Noble.com. His latest anthology, Covid Gardens, was published in August, 2021. 

Mr. Hunter’s poetry has been included in the following Poetry Anthologies: Stars In Our Hearts, Visions, published 2012 (World Poetry Movement); In My Lifetime, Chronicles, published 2013 (Eber and Wein Publishing); PS: It’s Poetry, An Anthology Of Eclectic Contemporary Poems Written By Poets From Around the Globe, published 2020 (PoetrySoup.Com). 

Fourteen of Mr. Hunter’s poems from Voices From Clark Cemetery were adopted and set to music by Dr. George Mabry, composer and former conductor of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, for his work, Voices, a musical drama which was performed at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee in 2015.

Four of the author’s poems were read on Diverse TV with host, Alexandro Botelho, for his program, “Live Writings On The Wall” in 2021. 

Mr. Hunter’s poetry works can be perused at Poetrysoup.com. and Allpoetry.com. Mr. Hunter is married with two daughters, a granddaughter, and resides in Chino Hills, California.