Posted on December 30th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
CREED
Let’s all get in the holiday spirit
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafor the war
Let’s all go shopping
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaato protect our freedom
Let’s all drive SUVs
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaato show our love of nature
Let’s all play with big toys
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawhile the rest of the world starves
Let’s all be little emperors
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaato exhibit our humility
Let’s all be cold ruthless lyin thieves
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand pretend we’re warm caring human beings
Let’s all kick [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on December 30th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
Smiley’s Laundromat on Colfax Avenue | (c) 2004 Trevor Brown, Jr., Rich Clarkson & Associates from Colorado 24/7.
MAGNETIC COLFAX
Whenever I’m downtown
I feel an irresistible force
pulling me toward Colfax Avenue
like metal filings to a magnet
Magnetic Colfax
body and soul inexorably drawn
the mend just goes along for the ride
as usual
I plunge into Colfax the river
Tumbling out of the [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on December 30th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
The Bees Don’t Want That Monsanto Food
Now the bees are disappearing
all over the world
There are those who say
that the reason is
They don’t like those genetically modified crops
brought to us by Monsanto
So now these industrious creatures
that we rely on for cross-pollination
are leaving
Turning their nose up at that Monsanto food
Buzzing away from our bad diner
Crummy cuisine
Lousy service [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on November 18th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
Miriam Halliday Borkowski | Photo by Jean Weisinger
I first met Miriam
at a poetry reading that happened monthly in an attic in New Brunswick, a small city in New Jersey, USA in the early 1980s. It was viewed as the ‘other’ reading in town, different from the ‘popular’ reading in one of the bars [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley, Miriam Halliday-Borkowski
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Posted on November 7th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
DON’T FALL IN
I remember well the times I was sent up
to work with the guys in Bulk Manufacturing
Way up on the third floor of the cosmetics factory
Where I worked the graveyard shift as a young man
A substitute for guys who called in sick
Up I’d go in the elevator
to factory heaven
At least that’s what my co-workers [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
Painting by Ernest Fiene
night shift poem
Beams of the setting sun
awaken us into action
moonrise our call to arms
as shadows spread,
and darkness fills the window
We put on our uniforms
and our game faces
again
preparing for our nightlong struggles.
You, day people,
will never know our singular nocturnal existences,
our time-line diametrically opposed to yours;
as you settle into your couch
we contemplate our night-day [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
detail of Le sacrifice d’Isaac – by Caravage
SACRIFICE
Look how far
The concept of sacrifice
has devolved
In our modern society.
Used to be
Sacrifice
was something that had to be done
to keep the sun coming up
the weather going right
the streams flowing
the crops growing
Sacrifice
Something you just didn’t skip;
Ancient requirement.
At least a portion of crop
given up,
Many times animals
Sometimes even ourselves
Our own blood spilled
to [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
CITY PLAYGROUND
Life can be tough
on a small boy on a city playground
Nothing but steel and concrete
stretching for miles in every direction
Young eyes greedily grab
for space green freedom
I remember
How it was all left up to my soul’s eye
How it transformed high brick walls
Into ponderous canyons
where Indians and outlaws
roamed wild
Holes in chain link fence
became portholes to other [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
Gasoholic
Gasoline-addicted americans
Roar down the highway again
In their SUVS
Hummers
And Super-Sized Pickup Trucks
With names like
Sierra
Ponderosa
Ridgeline
and Sequoia
All-natural names
for very unnatural vehicles
That drink a lot
Gasoholic americans lean heavily
On brittle fossil fuel crutches
Hordes of them
Buzz like angry bees
toward an asphalt-cracked horizon
Gas pedals stomped
by millions of feet
Attached to brains
that somehow never make the connection
Between oversized vehicles
Rampant fuel consumption
and the irresistable urge
of [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Monsieur K.
DEAD CANS O’ DAD BEER
Walkin through the woods
found a crumpled box
a scattered pile o’ cans
Dead cans o’ Dad Beer sittin in the woods,
Dead cans o’ Dad Beer drunk by teenage hoods,
Dead cans o’ Dad beer couldn’ta tasted good.
Looks like
some little punk kids
stole some Dad beer
Reingold or Black label,
Schaefer or Pabst
some shit like that
swiped it out [...]
Filed under: Ken Greenley
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