This batch of poems were written and posted for Miz Quickly’s QKJ (Quick Kick January 2017). When the going gets tough, I go quickly!

SHE’S WITH THE BAND

A comely wench with her talents
and musical laments to accompany her
creative soul. No droll melodic schlock,
just the need to rock the house.
Barron Van Halen riffing on his theorbo ,
putting on a show. She’s ready to throw it
into the cistern to the strains of her haunting
cittern. She yearns for a solo career!

Miz Quickly’s QKJ #1 – January 1, 2017

CURIOUS CURIOSITY

He stands instead
to scratch his head
about his new invention,

a brilliant scheme,
his lifelong dream
a thing without pretention.

this thing-a-ma-jig
if built really big
could offer some amusement,

around and around
above the ground,
that is his grand bemusement.

And never ask him what to call it,
he wants nothing bad to befall it,
Albert Ferris’ mind keeps on churning,
because his wheel is always turning!

QKJ #2

CHAOS

A return to work on the first day,
chaos reigns, there’s hell to pay!

And what within this chaos lurks?
Back to the grind with mindless jerks.

A stack of papers left to push,
solved by one chaotic flush!

The Coriolis swirl sedates me
in this chaos that awaits me.

But peace is found within my mind,
And no more chaos will I find.

The new year’s come, I start anew,
and last year’s chaos I’ll eschew.

So another year here to explore,
with all new chaos to abhor!

QKJ #3 – Word (Non-Ghazal)

BILL NO LONGER VISITS

I notice Bill no longer visits.
His bench sits in solitude.
Frank shuffles alone.
His “partner in crime” has met his time.
A daily trek beckons to unhearing ears.
“Hey Frank, how are you doing?”
“Haven’t seen Bill in a while.”
Frank sadly smiles and shakes his head.
“Well, you take care of yourself!”
Frank waves and shuffles along as
the winds blow loose leaves
where no one’s toes have trod.
The gulls screech a cacophony,
no conductor for their raucous symphony.
And me? I usually watch for signs,
but this empty bench reminds me.
Bill will visit no longer.

QKJ #4

THE WIZARDS IN BUFFALO

In Buffalo, wizards go naked to the club
and dance. The dancers wanted drinks,
but not beer. They are wont to drink “thunder water”.
They have pipes for pot, a particular type
of New Guinea grass, and climb up trees and fall down.
Halmahera, the rain-maker, wanted
women and girls with mud all over their faces,
buried in the ground. Society beckoned the children,
but they needed one of them to imitate
the people of Central Angoniland.
The wizards mounted the roof of his hut
and danced with beer in their mouths
and hung over, getting knocked to the ground.

QKJ #5: Limitation

FIVE AND A HALF HOUR COMMUTE

It was a beaut of a commute!
Snow falling at a three inch per hour clip.
I’m hip to the weather here and let’s be clear,
I am no wuss when the elements push the limits.
In my lighter than air auto, I ought to have stayed
and not be delayed on my usually 20 minute ride.
But inside my cramped car not moving an inch
in 45 minute intervals with stalls and spin-outs,
crashes and rehashes of storms of old, I am told
the delays will take a millennium. This tedium
is quite annoying. I am toying with the thought
of parking where I sit and hitting the road on foot.
I grab my trusty snow brush instead and head out
to brave the elements and challenge futility!
A utility of insanity, snow filling in faster
and I can brush it away! I get back in and wait!

My adventure driving home in a lake effect nightmare yesterday!

QKJ #6

QUARTER PAST A FOOT AND A HALF

Time.
Measured in inches
of snow per hour,
its fall accelerated
as I sit exasperated
in my seldom moving auto.
Self-propelled to hell
in seconds and squalls.
As the snow falls
time flies from the skies
Measured in inches
of snow per hour!

QKJ #7 – Situation: Time

UNKNOWN YOUNG MAN AT HIS OFFICE DESK

They do not know who he might be,
but his work is damn impeccable!
He works each day along the way
from nine-to-five and then some.
Some consider him handsome
though his feature are quite pretty,
and still he toils, burns midnight oils
and lives somewhere in the city.
For it’s all Hans on deck as the
younger Holbein is seen at his desk
working at a rapid rip. No one knows
Hans comes each day to steal paper clips!

QKJ #8 – Unknown Young Man at his Office Desk

SUN IN AN EMPTY ROOM

Courtesy of www.EdwardHopper.net

Her vacancy gapes, a stagnant yawn to the afternoon.
It was once a comfortable room, a place where grace
and decorum were the norms. But life is rife with storms
of a virulent nature and relationships sometimes divorce
themselves from clinging combatants. No drape or curtain
can hide what is inside… or what it lacks. It comes back
to the fact that every building has many stories
and each room therein has a tale to tell as well!
No one is here to hear her testimony! She is lonely!
No one is there to know how sun glow warms a decrepit space!