poetry for people who don’t like poetry

Rick Stansberger

a portrait of the artist as an old dog

My Friend Carla

 

says she’s under surveillance.

It could be true.

 

She’s been poking around

in government records

 

for her book about

nuclear contamination.

 

Hell, I’d be

disappointed in any

 

government that didn’t

at least check her out.

Is she batshit crazy?”

my friends here ask.

 

We have a lot of

 experience Out West

 

with batshit crazy.

It’s a valid question

 

but doesn't matter:

even paranoids

 

have enemies.

She won’t talk

 

on the phone anymore.

Thinks anyone

 

who approaches her

after her public talks

 

is a “plant.”

I think she’s doing

 

their work for them

if they're doing

 

any work at all.

She hangs up the phone

 

now, won’t answer my letters.

So I’m stuck

 

putting it in a poem

as I did with my parents

 

my church, my country

ever since I could write.

 

other works by

this guy:

 

Out of My Ears

(a poetry blog)

 

The Eight Seasons of Silver City

celebrating the poets of SW Mew Mexico

 

Poems Worth Your Time

a link farm to good

poems around the Web