Five Poems by Wayne F. Burke

 

Class President

 

I went to my 10th year High School

Class reunion with a hangover, and

quickly drunk

and began insulting people, plus

pissed on the lawn

in front of classmates, and

after a scene in the bar, the

bartender called the

cops on me. The cops should have

taken me out back and

shot me, but

were kind and merely insisted

I leave, and

I did, with ride given me home

by my Senior Class Vice-President

who watched me

fall out the car door and

split my head open--then he

drove over my legs

because

secretly,

thought

he should have been President.

 

 

Bad Day

 

He went out the door early

morning with a trash bag

in hand he threw onto

a trash can and got sprayed

by a skunk and he arrived

late to work, again, and had words

with the boss and

got fired at break;

he went home to his clothes

strewn over the lawn, and

a note from his wife telling

him to get out; he skipped

his Friday night AA meeting

and got drunk in a bar

and after hours, wandered, in a black-out

into a stranger's house and

fell asleep on a couch

and was woken by cops who

took him to the station house

and charged him with B & E.

He could not produce an ID

because he'd lost his wallet.

 

 

Fog

 

stopped rollin' in--

is in.

Over house and

tree.

A mountain back thar

somewhar

behind the ridge line

and the fog line

get in line

(follow the arrows).

 

The eep eep eep of

tree limbs rocking

in the wind

with bud's out

blooming

Springtime

birds chirping

from the too-lip

vine--

 

having trouble lately

remembering anyone's name

but mine.

 

 

Aphorisms

 

The obvious thing about serial killers is their cowardice. Next, their duplicity. One thing other: their damaged brains--often result of physical trauma.

 

Baseball is the most beautiful game, but football best exemplifies the fierce and bestial appetite of Americans.

 

Humankind's love for Emperor and Empress is due to our projection onto them of attributes they may not even have a nodding acquaintance with. Hatred of such "highernesses" comes upon realization that out projections are chimeras.

 

For some, going to jail is just another unfortunate circumstance of their life.

Rome became great through honouring their gods--she was a religious state and not adverse to incorporating new gods--just as they, the Romans, incorporated Greek art & philosophy.

 

Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden after Eve came to consciousness of her own identity, and Adam, that snitch, went and told the Lord.

 

The job of poet is to name the world. The Biblical Adam, who named the beasts, was the first poet. (Eve, who came to self-knowledge by eating the apple, the first psychoanalyst.)

 

 

Local #27

 

Goober-Dork of the

demented saga

greater than Beowulf

or Star Trek or even

the Bibble, writ by

lying fishermen that

Hayzeus Christy formed

into a union, local #27

presented their grievances

to the Emperor's subaltern

Pontus Pilates who gave

Hayzeus three days to

disband the rabble or

face elocution, and he,

Pilates, was not, he

protruded, just whistlin'

Dixie.

Wayne F. Burke's poetry has been widely published in print and online (including in LOTHLORIEN Poetry Journal. Burke's most recent published book is BUKOWSKI the Ubermensch, Cyberwit.net., 2023. He lives in the state of Vermont (USA).