Three Poems by Jack Galmitz

 

He Is Risen

The rising man

the showman

the big shtarker

did a turnaround:

moved the boulder

clear of the cavemouth

and bowed in three

directions to applause

you've never heard

the likes of; maybe

once before when

Horus rose from the dead

and greeted the sun

as anyone would after

that turpor the cheers

were louder.

In the bars, they only talk

of their guy who came

after as the one and only

to shower with gratitude.

And damn the unbelievers.

And don't be mentioning

Asar in these quarters.

 

March With The Zappatistas

There's something to think about

in the movement of the marching

toward a goal that's distant enough

to become uncertain of its outcome.

The men are tilted forward

as if leading horses onward.

The women are devotion, their arms folded

in the creases of soutanes placed as columns.

Determination is depicted. It is a colour. Red.

White moon. Blue of moonlight in the mountains.

They go to fight. You see the swords. There's no

deception in it. Their figures are their speech.

Though wearing peasant dress they're contemporaries

and we slowly merge with them without distress.

Evasive Action

It's all we've got so let's keep it.
Wouldn't you run into a burning building
to save a child? You wouldn't pour gas
on it. Let's get together and make an impact.
Give up those old clunkers you're still driving.
Sell off the cattle you're raising in your garages.
They're dooming us to extinction. Beans
are much better for you and so are bicycles.
Take a walk with your child and have a conversation
without lighting a cigarette. Purchase
solar panels, buy green tags, adjust your thermostat.
Throw yourself to the ground to stop a convoy
of tanks slowly emitting CO2 gas in the countryside.
And get those B-2B's out of the sky. Their GHG murderers.

Jack Galmitz was born in 1951 in New York City. He attended the public schools from which he graduated. He has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals, both in print and in e-zines, over the years, including such journals as Otoliths, Synchronized Chaos, otata, is/let, Alien Buddha, and Fleas on the Dog. He is married and lives with his wife in Queens, New York.