04-20-21

My friend asked
what is my Knight's Code
and it doesn't make a little sense 
to me
because a knight seems 
a militaristic sort of fellow
yet we hold knights in this regard
kind of like Jedi
but they got trickconscripted
into a galactic war.

But I believe in

Don’t skip in lines. 
When out in the world 
be mindful 
of how you affect others. 
It matters 
when people say they are affected 
by certain things 
but we should also strive 
to be strong 
and weather the hard things. 
Know that life’s not easy. 
Try to look for the beauty. 
Let bad people fail 
but try to be stronger than them
and help them sometimes 
but don’t enable 
them too much.

Try not to judge 
on the wrong silly things.
Try not to give up
especially on you. 
Get sad. 
Walk away. 
Beat yourself up a little. 
Always try to come back.

04-16-21

When I was in college
my dad would never
come home after 9pm or so.
One Saturday night
it's 9:30 and he's nowhere
and this is before cell phones
so I call the golf course
where he works and there's nothing.
Eventually one of his friends
rings me up to tell me my dad 
has been arrested
but everything is fine.
There's a buddy he sells golf balls to
and he's a lawyer
just show up at the jail tomorrow
to pick him up.
So I have this
bomb that goes off
in my head 
if I get a call from my dad 
too late in the evening.
And these days
he calls me late
just to tell me stories
he forgot to relay
about his day
at the cancer clinic.
Tonight, it was about
a lady that takes requests
and sings to patients
and he reenacted it
with his gravelly 
screechy voice
how she sang
"Besame Mucho"
but he was so happy
and
I wasn't scared
for a bit.

04-15-21

Do you remember
The Abbey?
Is that?
I'm pretty sure
it was one of those places
where I tried to kiss you.
I heard the benches are gone
and there's pool tables now
and the clacking of the balls
sing the song of selling out.
I remember the way
the light would come in
super harsh
through the big windows.
Squinting
buzzed on a Tucher
wanting
so much
something 
that wouldn't be
given.

04-13-21

Sometimes I wish
when this crazy bitch said
"Please stop talking to me
I just want to end this conversation"
she actually meant it
instead of me realizing
oh shit
here comes another
chemo fueled batshit crazy argument
where she takes everything driving her mad
and shits it all over me
via her pie hole.

04-09-21

I thought maybe
the vaccine would be
having its way with me today
but no
it's just my fault
I'm still writing
not so great poems.

But.
Today my kid said
he figured he was so comfortable
taking his writing exam
because all the time he spends
writing up dossiers
on horror game characters
(instead of paying attention to class)
transferred, skill-wise
to his writing exam efforts.

I told him I was so proud
and I fucking loved him
and he told me
he fucking loved me too.

And that's
all I can fucking ask for.