The Poetry Of.
Al Ferber................................................................
Rodents
Rodents grow tall
in these parts
walk on hind legs
dress in business
suits
get hair cuts
apply for driver's licenses
register to vote
by and large
become successful
in business
enterprises
are not afraid
to skewer
their customers
fleece them clean
put into practice
the old American
commerce axiom
let the buyer beware
they go to church
join small business
associations
contribute
to political campaigns
that might serve
their interests
but they are
rodents
and still
eat their young
Crazy
Anybody says
I'm not crazy
is
crazier than
a bed bug
in a shit can
saw this girl
in junior
make that
community
college
with killer
legs
high boots
fish net stockings
exotic face
and hair
of platinum blond
to top it off
put my tongue
back in my head
in a moment
of complete
lunacy
and asked her out
drove through
a goddamned blizzard
to pick her up
to take her to
a party
that got called off
then talked
small talk
getting stuck
in the snow
only 6 or 7 times
driving her home
denying
every compliment
she tried
to throw my way
didn't even try
to make out
much less
kiss her good night
out of total
embarrassment
turned down
her mom
when offered
to stay the night
too ashamed
to ask her out
a second timev
and all cause
I couldn't wait
to reschedule
for another night
now if that
ain't the scramblings
of a crazy man
I don't know
what am
Magnus Maximus
Oh herald
dumb Harold
local manic
imbecile
licker of
frozen lamp posts
during
public urination
no rules
of convention
ever occur
to him
would be deemed
eccentric
oddball
in some societies
if his half assed
behaviors were
somewhat less
than idiotic
oh herald
our Harold
imbecilic
dreamless
dust collector
of humanity
thou art saintly
in the purity
of his clueless
non-malevolence
Middling
Somewhere
between
medium
and large
is a strange
hunting ground
called
middling
not quite
the elephant graveyard
not the happy
hunting ground
of North American
Indian spirits
not hell
not paradise
but somewhere
middling
just
this side
of coma
where dreams
almost sleep
and secretly
make love
to moonlight
The Perfect Storm
Silent as snow
with the stealth of the moon
it has run through a life
taking lives one by one
poof
a drunken pilot
flies a charter plane
into the side of a mountain
Steve 26 who survived
Viet Nam gone
in a pile of ashes
poof
Hodgkins disease
Bobby at 35
night sweats
that drown
his wife and six children
in husbandless
fatherless loneliness
poof
Bob at 17
slips on the damp
of a rock
jokes "look out below"
on his way to demise
poof
Jody 18 got high
drove into a wall
silenced
her talent for writing
wiped off her smile
poof
poof
poof
poof
John 40 Dave 36 Willy 75 Big Mike 59
an Irish stew
of unfortunate
circumstance
just some
of the victims
of my perfect storm
who made
the unfortunate
error
of being close friends to me
