uncle grant

uncle grant -- can't can't chant

pay now pay - for what we say

uncle chuck - can't trust your luck

tell us true - what do you do?

what's the price? the thought is nice

lift the lid? that's what we did

sign right here - and here, and here

grant three wishes - charity cheer

freestyle lifestyle paid with tax

scoop the art until it cracks

uncle grant grant us one wish

serve it up nonprofit dish

we will write your favorite book

paint your piece a proper look

film the scene that lights you up

fill the ever empty cup

uncle grant let's find the spin

show us how to cash it in.

-- douglas brent smith

 

Your Face

 Your Face, sketch by douglas brent smith, 1983

one night on the beach

i said to you

our shoes in the sand

your hand in my hand

in a trance of truth

i said to you

my best inner secrets

as the sun set

and a light breeze

caught your brown hair

remarkable

i said to you

touching your cheek with care

like a leaf

whispering what

i should have said

years ago

there is love that

may be delayed

but not denied

true then, true on that beach.

true still.

-- douglas brent smith

poison water

white cloud blue sky sudden darkness

odor from a distant unknown source

bitter tasting, no permission

chemicals drifted in a virgin course

like a losing hand played to a devil's trick

for no reason half the town is sick

a stranger talking in a legal voice

bottled water is the only choice

dark days dry from a ruined well

twenty square miles of obnoxious smell

poison water makes a person think

tainted life line not a drop to drink. 

-- douglas brent smith

Say What You Feel

 

Say What You Feel -- mixed media by douglas brent smith

Man on TV

 

Man on TV -- sketch and poem by douglas brent smith

intermittant

there were chance meetings

distributed miles and months

touching us taunting us

locking us into a long

tight wire of vibrating nuance

you knew this, and kept on dancing

i knew this, and...what? what 

did it mean? how would it turn?

oh how we would yearn...oh

how we would learn.

 

paradise lane

quickly spent all my money

at a bar on paradise lane

slipping jacks and kings to Fack

drinking gin to ease the pain

a redhead at the jukebox

tossed a glance and smile at me

but my libido was incognito

and my head was out to sea

four sheets to the wind

dreaming other people's sins

and counting on my quarters

all the places that i'd been

my hat's my only date tonight

my buddy's got the bucks

i've got a sweetheart in Chicago

who i'm counting on for luck

but it's long past midnight and i'm officially flagged

drinking shots and eating slices of that cheese tomato pie.

-- douglas brent smith

Poem: either / or

we do not always (read: seldom) have

choices or

            opportunities to call

chances for how

            the outcome arrives

alive in expectations we 

    genuflect gyrations to

promises unkept and either swept or

    wept away

you swept me off my feed all

    enthusiastic and smiling (a smile that

    feels endless) ending

spending our hearts ration of 

    rational being

beating so out of tempo either

        two hundred beats per minute

or paused to a stop       

 

--- douglas brent smith

Poem: how?

how do you do it?
i'd like to know because
it would make it all so
much easier

it seems to come naturally
to you
like getting off a bike
or combing your hair
and
you never seem to
give it much thought while

i can't seem not to

how do you do it? because
after all this time and
so many hard, rough lessons
i still have not learned how

is it an affliction? is it a choice?
befuddled. ruffled. resolute. stuck. tightly
held yet no longer held

dropped like a rock into a still pond that
stays still

how do you do it?

how do you stop loving someone?


-- doug smith


15 July 2019

Poem: off again

did i ever tell you
that any of that
                mattered
or that
       holding out hope
is what i do best?

with your barely open gates
closing and
your once flirtatious musing
silenced you
look at me
          differently and
see another friend
                  ending
this dance
          again
ending this
          dance
again
          But,

didn't you tell me that

you don't dance?

-- doug smith

Poem: short timers

turn the pages
quickly; isn't that
the sign of a good
book?
go fast go heady go
for the finish
have fun be done
then run

ah, the sign of a
good book, a great
game and
a sad relationship

when do you give up?
only one right but
more rare than caring
allows ~ when do you
give up?
all i senselessly say
to that can be
never never never
never never never
never never never
never never



-- douglas brent smith




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

Poem: nonsense

it was her attempts
at perfection that
kept perfection away

locked up walled in
and
kept at bay

never quite good
enough to ever
satisfy

substantiated reservations
proof to deny

tell me again
why it all had to end
no, stop
nonsense never bears
repeating.


-- douglas brent smith




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

poem: that dream

it's a foolish wish
to say may all your dreams
come true
                what about
the bridges disappearing in
                 perspective?      what about
the endless chases? the public nakedness?
the lack of words? the demons hiding
insecurities in playful sacks of sorrow?

let me pick my dream to live
that sweet happy ending dream of us
together hand in hand and always smiling

let me pick that time you looked at me
from across the room with a knowing
smile that spoke more love than you could
say, or contain (or, sadly, sustain) but
leave that part out (the sadness in your smile
of unbeatable fate) and let me
live that dream of

                              you smiling
                              at me and
                              happy.




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

poem: i wonder about you

i wonder about you
wondering about me, how
you might imagine this
changed by a kiss
or feel the pull
of something more whole
our gravity keeps crashing
but that's no reason
to cash it in

i wonder about you
all. the. time.



(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

poem: patiently

i want to read every book
touch every flower,
breathe in every mint aired aroma,
laugh at all of your jokes
     over again

see all of your faces
trace the years between us and
smoothe the bumpy gaps

i want to bake a cake so big
it takes a lifetime to eat
and create a life so long
that all the cake is gone

i will have it, i will eat it.
     i will treat it as your appetizer
for better (much better) days to come

and what you can't see now
in you in me in us in eternity
eternally waits,
     patiently

for your discovery.




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

Poem: hole / under

she doesn't understand
my depression
              hell,
i don't understand my
              depression
do you understand
              my depression?
does anyone understand
any
depression?

you grip you hold you bear you
              breathe
and lurking with no trace of
              humor
ready to pull relentlessly yet
teasingly provocative invitingly
suspenseful (oh my what is 
this about maybe just LOOK at
it a little bit)
              a little
is too much to digest

at once at all

i don't understand why she
doesn't understand isn't this
her kiss?





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(c) douglas brent smith