David McLansky Poems

(11) Impatience in the Booth

We shyly banter back and forth
She wipes my lip of beer stein froth
...

After you've gone
I masturbate,
Did you have to take so long
Why did we have so wake up late?
...

Riff on The Umbrella Lady's Thorny Valentine

Just because I'm old
(My skin is rough)
...

Three weeks, three months, three years,
The flyer's on the pier,
The posted schedule to awaken
In the shipping lanes of God's forsaken.
...

(13) The White Ship

Into the White Mist she sails
On the White Ship by the white rails
...

I shook a seed from out your book,
A dried and wrinkled pit;
I placed it in my breakfast nook
And sunned and watered it;
...

Come lift your hand
And cross the air
And join to mine
We are a pair;
...

Oh for a glass of sauterne wine,
Cool and clear in bright sunshine
Pressed from grapes from Laurentian hills
That I might sip at rest and still;
...

Old Man in Grozny

The old man crouches by the fire
Composed of bits of wood,
...

Vacantly we stood at the wire,
Skeletons in prison strips,
To watch the guards at shift retire,
Their healthy flesh, their clothing ripe.
...