Plastic Leashes

Look up! See the skyscrapers and the stars,

Let your voices be heard in our quick song.

You have heard the drums and played with guns,

You have heard our voices chime in your head.

Get up!  You really need to get up now, 

Let’s get going, let’s get, let’s get going! 

Words were designed for manipulation, 

That landscape’s part of Our Father Nation. 

 

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a 

Man healthy, wealthy and wise.  Of course, 

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, 

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Copyright 2023 Jeffrey Merk

Olivia

Olivia is a young woman sweet, 

Who works at Evergreen Place on 15th. 

Patiently she walks up and down the hall, 

With the demented old and tragic smile. 

 

We the bed-ridden have discovered, 

The gifts she’s given to her grandmother. 

As for me, I had forsaken all hope, 

And rotted in bed, until I saw her. 

 

And though I lie there still strange birds have called, 

At my window their great migration-song, 

And the magic of snow has invaded my dreams, 

To carry me above the frozen streams! 

 

Her face is in the moon – Olivia. 

Her face is in the moon – Olivia. 

__________ 

Copyright 2022 Jeffrey Merk 

Lover’s Buy a CD at K-Mart

“I still like Alice Cooper, ‘In the Dark’ 

My last copy was lost when my roommate 

Got wasted and puked on the coffee-table. 

But I want something new for the New Year: 

It’s been ages since Marilyn Manson 

Got cancelled; it won’t be any of his. 

I know what, how about a symphony 

By Beethoven? Is there some on the shelf?” 

She ran her hand down slowly, “Over here! 

It looks from like 7th to 9th is all they have.” 

“8th or 9th will do well.” I snuck behind, 

And put my hand down low on her white blouse. 

She did a little jitter to escape, 

“The 9th is fireworks!” “Then the 9th it is.” 

We stood in line behind an old lady, 

With a few boxes, who was impatiently 

Snapping at the cashier to bag them each 

To its own bag. In a moment, I was 

The proud owner of my copy: Master 

Beethoven would have approved the design, 

A picture of an orchestra and choir, 

Ringed with silver beech leaves for a frame. 

As soon as we’d cleared Security, 

We were out the door, headed for the bus 

Connection to Lonsdale and 15th Street, 

Through the slush and pale sunlight of the mall.

__________

Copyright 2022 Jeffrey Merk

Whimsical

Yes, I can scathe my body in the flames, 

The bandages will shortly fall away; 

All their money is to buy my happiness, 

When I am driving on their fools’ errand. 

 

Yes, I am looking patiently for a law, 

To fastidiously heed, can you paint 

As well as Picasso, there’s a footbridge, 

Out there, a beautiful bridge on a stream. 

  

Yes, as a boy I was a fisherman, 

On the back of a ferry with dough lures. 

Fox News says that spores falling from the sky, 

Are landing on the leaves from a U.F.O. 

 

Was from a movie I watched long ago, 

And I’ll sleep now: four stanzas are enough, 

To devout to such a poem besides I 

Have to consider form if I want to 

 

Be a Poet.  Now then it’s 4:01 

In the morning, I will go sleep or else, 

I would miss my doctors’ appointment-- 

If I’m late he’ll plug me to a socket. 

__________

Copyright 2022 Jeffrey Merk