hockey on a late night TV

clenched fists, grinding teeth,
celebrations in the street,
big money tickets to bigger money dreams,
fat men in boardrooms,
chalk boarding line-ups,
snake skin boots with leather seams,
fat cheques,
fast flights,
back home to big city nights,
millionaire teams,
and revenue streams,
fine women,
finer steak,
finest rows of Bentleys gleam,

but no gold medal for most -
facing daily adversity,
who struggle quietly,
just a pause in the agony,
cancer patients watching eagerly,
hockey on a late night TV.

alligator souffle

beat rhymed stanzas belted forward,
a vocal punch to tepid air,
read quickly, staggered-like, from a dog eared notebook,
an uneasy shuffle of the feet,
a Bic pen behind the ear,
read to an audience,
a quiet crowd of traffic lights,
sewer grates, oily puddles,
and an old drunk's midnight chuckle,
the poet stops, bends,
edits with a leaky pen,
a whistle wetted by a tear off a flask of 5 dollar whiskey,
stands up, begins again,
this time,
with a brand new line.

Problematics

uncertain and hostile,
indomitable loneliness,
a hollow vessel,
reflecting on nothing,
numbers and grids,
graphs and projections,
how could this ever reach me?
how could it reach you?
what's left when you strip it down...
down to your custom floors and palatial living rooms,
gorgeous friends and beautiful enemies,
sterile conversation and air of dismissiveness,
packaged persona and pseudo-intellectualism,
Valium induced dreams and muddy reflections,
how long do you think you can fool people?
at best,
your just a overtipped hostess,
and he's an errand boy,
and your spouses are your hairless pets.

bone bag

purple turns blue,
locked in this bone bag,
it's all happening