told my old man to stick it up his ass
drank a case of beer
popped a couple of hymens
blackened 14 eyes
drove my chevy off a cliff
set fire to my homework
when i finally got in at 4 a.m.
what a weekend it was!
—Previously published in Kumquat Meringue (early 1990s);
republished here by author’s permission
If one was sent to the guillotine it meant that one’s brain,
which controls the body, would no longer be influenced
by biological needs and reach a higher consciousness
explored in depth by a contemporary psychologist
named Abraham Maslow, who identified this state
as Self-Actualization.
If everyone had been guillotined, the world today
would be a more humane and civilized place
in which to live, but as history bears witness,
opportunities of this magnitude were reserved
for the privileged, which leads to the conclusion:
It’s not what you know...but who!
is a poet, teacher, and conga drummer who plays Afro-Cuban folkloric music for dance
classes and Rumbas around the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s published five
chapbooks including Zable’s Fables with an introduction by the late, great
Beat poet Harold Norse. His work appears, or is forthcoming, in Coe Review, Kentucky
Review, Tule Review, Pound of Flash, Rasputin, Clackamas Literary Review, Indigo
Rising, Chaos Poetry Review (featured poet), After the Pause, Snow Monkey,
Ishaan Literary Review, Lullwater Review, the 2015 Rhysling Award Anthology, and
many others.