R.Benjamin Abate

Nothing is
Ever as
Good or as

Bad as it
...

Blood orange champagne
Too far gone
You look at your drink
Then back at me
...

She told you that her sister was killed by a drunk driver & you still have
The nerve to drive
Drunk-
...

Waiting for you
To walk by
So they can let go
Of their lifeline
...

I've seen many faces
Fed many birds
Talked to dogs
I've danced with cats
...

Innovators at our best
We give ourselves & forget
Get good feelings
Then we impress
...

I am your Dreamcatcher
the net which captures
Your deepest thoughts
Your deepest wishes
...

Late at night a bearded man in a black trench coat - Black sunglasses - A kilt - Black boots & a Black beret waddled into a restaurant like a penguin with a bottle of Jameson wrapped in a brown paper bag in his hand & he began chanting & pointing at the normal people:

'I Love You who sit there eating your steak! '
...

I met an Egyptian Gypsy by the Dead Sea
She read my palm
Jumped in the sea
Then floated away from me
...

What happened
To the Innocent-
Dazzling-young girl
Who would search
...

When I was just
A boy
I would wake my
Father from
...

Skipping scallops
so she still swallows
her dessert-
she sits staring
...

Today, I Left
Carrots

On my
...

I made friends with a squirrel
Because I lost hope in humanity-
I made sense of the tales
That I once heard from my family-
...

While we talked on
The phone that night
I pictured you in pajamas
...

I had a
Dream that
I was watching
...

I'm like
A mimic
Octopus

I can change
...

Flicking
Red paint
On your face

Freckled fury
...

I was talking to
An old neighbor
At the supermarket-
...

In NYC on the corner
of the Avenue of the Americas
& 47th st. Stands a man
Known as 'Don'
...