Poems

Look, Everyone... Poems!

"Pogue Song"

Hoist a drink to livin', boys.
Hoist a drink to death.
Hoist a whiskey to your lips
And wear it on your breath.

We canna take a drink in church
Or milk it from a cow.
We canna take it when we're dead
So let's all drink it now.

Drain the guinness drum, now, boys,
Drain the drum this night.
There's more to gain from glasses raised
Than raising fists to fight.

We shouldn'a take a drink at work
Or praying on our knees.
So, let us work our wrists tonight
'Til we nae canna see.

Ne'er a man drank in this pub
That didn'a drink with I,
And that's as good and all it takes
To leave us friends for life.

"Batwoman"

"Man, she is hot. She is totally hot.
"Be she ever so clothed or she ever so not!"
And he slathered a little down into his beer
From the corner of lips that had fashioned a leer.

And just as he started to speak he looked up
And his hand flew up off of his half-emptied cup
And it grabbed on my shoulder to press slightly down
And he conspiratorily hissed, "Don't look now!

"But she's coming around from the end of the bar
"Like a slithering snake or a high-revving car,
"Or a rocketting rocket, a plummetting bomb...!"
Then a silence so strange after ranting so long.

So he sat and he drooled and he drank and he puffed
'Til in furied frustration he rose in a huff,
Saying, "Man, I ain't made for this barstooling scene."
And, "I'm off home to listen to Clapton and Cream."

And on turning to wave as he egressed the door
I caught sight of her bouncing and trouncing and touring
The peopled expanse of the dancing floor... there!
And I blinked, took a drink, put it down and I stared.

And the world was compressed to a binary flow.
It was 'yes, I can see her' or maybe a 'no'
As the nightgoers crossed and crisscrossed through my sight;
And she danced to the music and danced in the lights.

And as somebody laughed a bit much at a joke
I was dragged from my reverie, reached for a smoke
And I counseled myself with a beer and a "Hey!
"She's a looker, but that's quite enough for today."

So I buried myself in the game on the screen
And a shot of tequila and one of Jim Beam.
And I'd not even noticed her slip, slink and slide
Through the crowd to the bar and the stool at my side.

So the arm of the clock wound around to the four
And I shrugged on my jacket and turned for the door
As the flash of a bat made a pass at my eye
And she turned that way, too...

"Entre Nous"

Briefly, from the barest blue
Came romance, spare, here entre nous.
No purposes or prospects drawn,
But nights shared softly 'til the dawn.

Remember: cool, the skin you wore.
And warm, the firm embrace you bore.
And thin, the time to share like this.
So deep, the softness of your kiss.

Out of care I'm in your arms.
Your touch, your scent and all your charms
Have run me wholly through.
And with a last warm kiss, "Goodbye."
My hands, my heart, my lips, my eyes
Take final leave of you.

But, on my soul your scent remains.
I know no loss, I have but gained.
Your love and mine evolve the same
And when I breathe I breathe your name.

"Gleam"

Little child, when the light doth shine
So awkwardly upon one soft toy's eye,
Remember, that it is not chance
But simply one more place where I do lie.
And all of you who venture out and then
Come home at night,
'Tis I who makes you want to run
Those last dark steps to yon porch light.
And, in the house, those dim-lit stairs
Are every one a foothold of that hill
You want to climb so quickly
When the slightest noise behind injects a thrill.

You're hearing all the while
Of strange, dark creatures of the picture show.
And are they truth or folly?
For the time, only we know.
But ev'ry noise you didn't make,
And ev'ry change, both large and small
May just be one of us.
So keep your soft toys facing other walls.

"At Night"

Her tongue is cigarettes and rye,
The residue both wet and dry.
And while her waist sits in my grip
And while her hair falls in my eyes
The world is centered at our hips.

A night picked from the t.v. guide,
So right to take a pleasure ride
And seek the confines of a bar.
In smoke and drinks I've never tried
I find the names of what we are.

It leads me to the brink of her,
To talk of news I've never heard,
Convince her that I've things she needs.
And if her goal's the same I'm sure
She'll not find me a man of greed.

Here in the darkness of this cage
We run the range of teeming age
And settle for a clenched duet.
We stand while others dance upstage
And all of us are slicked by sweat.

Drunk half with need and half on drink
I can but act, I cannot think
Of consequences, now, although
I know within a second's blink
Of what's at stake. It's time to go.

Noone sees, there is no light,
With keys in hand we make our flight,
And take the car to 'mine or yours',
To seek the apex of the night
Behind a postered bedroom door.

The victory is weighed in sighs,
In cigarettes and sodden thighs
Until a new fatigue comes low.
And knowing not our lovers' eyes
We couldn't give a shit to know.

"Desert Storm"

She is waiting at the window
Of her flat. She's all alone.
She could wait there nigh forever
'Cause he's never coming home.
Never coming to the airport
'Less it's in a rubber sack.
Never coming home alive
Without the bullet in his back.

She is wearing mourning colours;
He was wearing desert brown.
She is lying to her children;
He is lying in the ground.
Tears are soaked into her tissue;
Blood soaked black on his attire.
She marks time with friendly neighbours;
He was marked by friendly fire.

Comments, Complaints, Suggestions: Steven McKinnon

Pages provided by Geocities