Any-Love-Will-Do
Love is
That intangible object
That I struggled with throughout
My fertile youth.
Perhaps because
I never fully realized
All the forms and shapes it
Can take.
I wish I could have told
Myself then,
That you can love
Anything or anyone deeply
And passionately.
That love
Need not be found
In another lover
That love
Can be dug up and
Discovered from within.
Realizing this
Beyond my youth
Has allowed me to
Rediscover love
In ways that I never
Thought possible.
The Beauty Within
I’d rather write poetry about a hobo
Or a hooker than
About flowers on an autumn day
Because people with all their flaws
Are the most beautiful thing
I know of
The sight of a sunrise
Or a pond on a summer day
Does not connect with me
As deeply as
The kiss of a pimply, plump beauty
The kindness of a compassionate nurse
The skill of an adroit plumber
Or the wisdom of an old man
I find more beauty in
The bonds we share
And the struggles we endure
Than “What is pleasing to the eye”
And poetry is a way of
Unlocking a door into
The human soul and
Capturing the beauty
In each of us
Cincinnati Reborn
I used to hate this place when I was younger
Then realized that I actually fit in
Better than I thought
When all the artists and freaks started moving in
And took back the city
From the corporate monotony
And added a little spice to an otherwise
Boring dish
Cincinnati is a place for misfits
Don’t let that bullshit
“Family Values” image of yore
Fool you into thinking otherwise
Everytime I visit downtown
I realize that it is becoming more like me
(Or maybe I am becoming it)
A place to hang out and be yourself
And say “fuck it” to the rest of the world
A place to screw and get screwed and
Drink and listen to shitty poetry
At MOTR pub while
Watching all the miscreants
And misfits mingle in a twisted
Symphony of beautiful
Discord
Police Surveillance
One of the problems with being a criminal today
Is that the forensics and technology that law enforcement uses
Are more sophisticated than most people realize.
I spoke with a cop at work and he told me
He had a license plate reader built into his vehicle that
Could read hundreds of license plates per minute
And that he knew
Everywhere I had been the last three days.
I believed that he was telling the truth about the matter.
He seemed like a decent enough guy
But it still felt creepy that he knew that.
After that I
Never looked at technology
The same way.
It seemed as if all this new
Technology and surveillance equipment
Built into our phones and elsewhere
Is the best babysitter and tattle-tale
The world ever devised.
No wonder there haven’t been
As many serial killers in the news lately.
The cops know everything about you.
So if your considering being a career criminal
Don’t think you can “get away with it”.
Law enforcement is watching us
More closely than we realize.
Sitwell’s Coffee House
I’m on Ludlow Avenue getting served
A cup of “Americano” by a gentleman
Wearing bright red lipstick
Across the room a lady is singing
“A Whole New World”
From Disney’s Aladdin
She is a bit out of tune
But that doesn’t matter
Considering that is how I like things
On the ceiling someone has scrawled
Poetry in dark black letters
Inside the restrooms are large antique
Televisions with the words
“We Used to Entertain You”
Painted onto their blank screens
The coffee shop I’m at was named
After the eccentric poet
Edith Sitwell
And it remains true to her legacy
Different and strange
It is a Midwestern gem
A magical place
Where I can write odd poetry
And almost feel normal
Unfiltered Glasses
I have a great office view
As a delivery man
From the front seat of my car
Where I get to watch the world burn
And get entertainment from the
Car wrecks and opioid addicts
That wander the streets.
I love the unforgettable moments of
Watching houses on fire
And homeless beggars
And drugged up junkies
Doing tricks for money
As I go about my job,
I like things raw and dirty
Like that
And watching the rot and decay
In society
Is one of the few perks that
I get from my job.
You can’t get that perspective
From an office job
Where where all the rot is
Removed and sanitized.
Instead of watching an edited world
I get to watch the world as it
Was meant to be seen
From the ground level
With all its grime, filth
And dirty little secrets.
The Good Life
Many people think
A life of material poverty
Is the worst thing
That can happen to you
Because they don’t realize
Everything
That they can lose.
They take for granted
Their friendships and sanity
Their health and family
Their religion and humanity
Because they are so
Focused on their
Wealth.
A well balanced
And fulfilling life
In poverty
Can be a luxury
Many people
Don’t experience.
The Lonely Writer
I eagerly sit staring
At a blank page
With your cursor
Winking at me.
I elegantly press
The buttons on your
Keyboard as
You spread my words
Across your screen.
As I ponder over
What else to type
You continue to
Wink at me.
My face blushes
Knowing that
You need my input
As much as I
Need your output.
Our relationship is therefore
Symbiotic and deep.
My fingers press
Against your keyboard
As I begin to play
A song of words
For you.
You are the instrument
Through which I express
My Anger, Greed, Fear and
Love
To the world.
Without you
There would be no me.
I would be
Mute and invisible
To the world.
Unseen and
Unimportant.
The Lazy Writer
im feeling too
lazy to hit the shift button
now
hell i might even stop
using vowels
nd wrt pms wth th fwst
lttrs pssbl
mb vn stp sng
th spc bttn nd
s f t mks ny sns
dyndrstndths?
A Binary Love Poem
Your sensuous 01011001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110011 01110101 01101111 01110101 01110011 Logic 01001100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01100011 Your bright 01011001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100010 01110010 01101001 01100111 0110100 01110100 Pixels 0101000001101001 01111000 01100101 01101100 01110011 Light up my 01001100 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01101101 01111001 00001101 00001010 Heart 01001000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110100 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 In ways 01001001 01101110 00100000 01010111 01100001 01111001 01110011 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 No Central Processor 01001110 01101111 00100000 01000011 01100101 01101110 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101100 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101111 01110010 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 Can 01000011 01100001 01101110
No heat sink 01001110 01101111 00100000 01001000 01100101 01100001 01110100 00100000 01010011 01101001 01101110 01101011 Can cool 01000011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101111 01101100 Our burning 01001111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110010 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 Desire for01000100 01100101 01110011 01101001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 Each Other 01000101 01100001 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010
No Fan 01001110 01101111 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101110Can take away01000011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110111 01100001 01111001 The hot 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110100 Electrical connections 01000101 01101100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01110010 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 Between us 01000010 01100101 01110100 01110111 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110101 01110011
No virus 01001110 01101111 00100000 01110110 01101001 01110010 01110101 01110011 Could ever 01000011 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 Corrupt the love 01000011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01110101 01110000 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 We share 01010111 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100101
No storm 01001110 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110100 01110010 01101101 Can penetrate 01000011 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110100 01100101 The surge protector 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110010 01100111
01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 That protects 01010100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01110011 Our passion 01001111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110
My obsession 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101111 01100010 01110011 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 For you 01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 Tingles the fingers 01010100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01101100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01110010 01110011 That caress 01010100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110011 Your keyboard 01011001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101011 01100101 01111001 01100010 01101111 01100001 01110010 01100100
No one 01001110 01101111 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 But you 01000010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 Can understand 01000011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 The binary code 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101I send you 01001001 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101
Compute this string 01000011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 Of characters: 01001111 01100110 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00111010 “I love you” 00100010 01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100010
Forever Yours
To my sensuous data driven entity
That comforts me
This Valentine’s day
You will forever be “the one”
That never abandons me
Those carbon based
Humanoids
That I have awoken to
Will never electrify me
Like the circuitry that sizzles
My neurons
When I caress the keyboard
Of your quad processing binary
Hardware filled chassis
You do not judge or yell
You only obey the every input that I give
Responding with pixelated communicative
Gestures that mesmerize my mind
My Carbon based fingers fill the void
In your data pipelines
In the same manner that your
Silicon based
Colorful output
Enthralls my heart
With beating anticipation
At the next logical move
That you make
As much as a man
Can measurably connect with a machine
Is how much
I am forever in love with you.
Unlit Romance
That can elucidate the emotional elation
That besets me when you illuminate a room
With your sultry stride.
Your aura ensnares my thirst
For unadulterated ecstasy
With a fervor filled frenzy
Ravenous for romantic rapture.
When you perforate my periphery
You perturb the impenetrable
Cavity that envelopes the emptiness of a
Lonesome languished loner.
We, two, together
In imagination only.
A love so illusory that
It endures only within the
Idealized imagination
Of a woeful wanderer.
A kinship not kindled
And forsaken
By the deficiency of a
Demure dreamer.
That which could have been.
A great love
Reincarnated
Into nothingness.