Three Poems

What’s Good

Gottfried Benn made a list of “what’s bad”
And it’s pretty good.
I guess that would put it on my list
Of countervailing forces, i.e. of
Things that are good


What else would be there?

Dogs, I’m sure

And crossword puzzles—
That is,
When they are just easy enough to solve
And hard enough to bestow cleverness on the solver

And coffee with cream and sugar

And mornings with no clear terminus
Spent with a book written by someone who’s smarter than me
But not too much smarter.

People?
Sometimes.

Of dogs I’m more certain
Byron had no doubt that dogs were better than people
In his case, I wouldn’t disagree.

Bad Day

I am a virtuoso of grievance

A connoisseur of hurt feelings

I am a maestro of mulling

And a Panzer tank of pulling faces

I taste resentments like a man sampling grapes

I nibble on hatred because I know

The banquet is never-ceasing.

The mind is a cruel beast in its cage

That paces back and forth

And springs periodically forward

To claw fruitlessly at its bars.

If left alone it starts to chew

Its own leg clean off.

A Solution

Supposing everyone in the world
Was given five minutes each
To uncork themselves

And suppose everyone else—you and me included
Absolutely had to listen
No buts

What a stream of pain and anger
And misery!
Would be released

What horrible abuses and regrets and rages
Would come pouring out!

Yuck!

That would be minutes 1-4.

And assuming we all actually listened all this time
And didn’t check the time or our emails or shoelaces

Then Minute number 5
I suspect
Would be different.