glue-on principalities.

on earth,

we spend one quarter of our hours just shutting doors.

Another quarter, I think, putting a thro rug beneath it

to stop the draft. That leaves a whole one half to balance

all probable pleasures and pains.

See, it's simple. No need going around thinking

the Jehovah's Witnesses strange for those hats and

those locked briefcases. May as well give in to

the AWAKE of gnarled woods. You mean to tell me

that a guy was taking a picture of a black bear that later

mauled him to death? Now how's that for contributing

to  suicide stats? I never seen a prostitute I didn't like.

Get in the car girl! You dating?

How much?

Ok, and how much for an around the world?

Sorry, I don't do anal.

Your not a cop, are you?

Slow down woman! Just like that!

No gluten for me. No bio engineered corn.

No e-85 gas.

No trans fat.

No no-cholesterol butter.

No fried foods in peanut oil.

No toys that a toddler can swallow.

No narrow passages to hell.

No COMCAST.

No UVERSE.

I can't explain the noise.

No free range eggs.

No slopped hog meat.

No mad cow.

No incontinence.

No bladder drip.

No pms.

No Tylenol.

No ruined liver.

No puppy mills.

No midterm elections.

No Detroit Lion collapse.

No heavy rains.

No frog legs.

No pigs feet.

No  Bing "White Christmas".

No glue on eyebrows.

No blood in my urine.

No Floyd Mayweather.

No Ferguson.

No bodies in the street.

No officer weapons discharge.

No demon likenesses.

No hundred cases of Mountain Dew.

No looting.

No lace front wigs.

No slip under the see thru dress.

No gnomes guarding treasure.

No life on earth.

No, nothing the f**k else.

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

those are a lot of slamming doors...life is so full of "no"

it's always more about what we won't do, rather than what we might do if we open our minds and hearts to it...we miss so much of life by slamming the doors and dead bolting them...
leaves "nothing the f**k else" as you say. it would be great though if there were no ruined livers, and no more situations like in Ferguson...it is tragic, events cause other events that cause other events...and then we stop and asked what started it all in the first place...a discharge of words here that reminds me of Ginsberg and "Howl"

we need more poems like this to open our eyes...
others think it, poets say it.

[Terpsichore]

Say no to everything, that way you stay on the side of the angels; not that it would be much fun sleepwalking through a fully sanitized three score year and ten. T

[W.k.kortas]

If you were cranky enough (and I usually am, thank you very much) you could argue that the whole "no" thing goes overboard, but I would argue... well, no. The list goes from today to the back when, from the small to the large, from the intimate to the global, illustrating just how much life can be one damn thing after another( I find myself wondering, incidentally, if you are totally in sympathy with the narration), and I would agree with the wise jacob that there is the smack of "Howl" here, and (as the wise Mr. Hart notes) you are a dymamo here, a poetic whirlwind which threatens to engulf all in its path.

[K. Louis]

It's interesting how this starts all story like and then shifts into this list that starts out kinda pretty
and useful and then as it ages it sort of melts into this depressing isolated loneliness state that gets ugly and when it's real and its getting good poof disappears and no life no nothing..peace circles..like how a baby throws a tantrum half his/her life and then gets I guess a little less uptight and knowing in the next. Nice list.

[Ed Hart]

you are a poetic dynamo, a door opener, a million in-your-face no's, a straight-to-the-heart oracle of the human condition, and ultimately a very 'yes' person

[Pete Langley]

Most of what we do...how we live....involves a closed door sooner or later.....something, I suspect, coming from being social animals. The more we are hermits, the less the need to close those doors...but then, where`s the fun?
Your piece is provocative and memorable, Ma`am.
Just for the laugh, here`s my own take on closed doors (published 1987)
Congenitor




Just stop to think...
but for a moment - more...
of wond`rous chance
that found this foetal spore,
and how, despite
the all-predestined law
which sends all genes
upon their journey, sure
of where their way
may yet lead without flaw
-and who may be
a saint....and who a bore,
my precious child,
with all conjenitor,
knows not the way
to shut a BLOODY DOOR!!!


Pete Langley