In 1974 a wave of poetic genius crashed over me.
I decided poetry could open doors to my inner creative flow.
And might help to pick up chicks.
So I wrote these poems about living in southern California.
Hum Dummy
When honey dew colored rock n' roll boys
Scream at me in my nine-fifty seat,
I crave for a Mr. Goodbar-colored blues song
With a hamhocks masturbative float-yer-feet beat.
Bulbous Panasonic pump-pump handballing off my brain,
Rusts and corrodes filtered through D.J. commodes;
ABC American Band Stand never ever gets potty trained.
Bob, Joe, Pete, and Sam come and drum and sing and jam,
And me and Jude, Hey Jude is all they know, you know?
Lennoning it over over over rover don't even give a damn,
And we all shine on and shine it on jump in the Jeep and go.
And so, you know, with morning-breath alum-dry lips,
Look in the toothpaste dripping silent gripping mirror,
And I'll be rock shod not lockjawed if I don't hum a lot.
Courtesy of Zuma
Someone put sand on the oil slick
So someone would not slip.
Grains of Lilliputian rock
Throbbing beneath KHJ.
Squiggling up through my toes;
Stroking the nails, my teeth chatter.
Stan got a tan; so did the other man.
He put his ass in trash cans so
he wouldn't get it burned.
Some poor milquetoast whimper from
Omaha
Was kicking a dead seal, and picking pitiful shreds
From his back.
High School dropouts, out dropping; heads of Coke;
Runny noses sniff,
And snuff,
Batting bye-bye to a Valley Volleyball Troup in baggy
green short shorts and nipples.
All in all it was a ball--a really great Zuma-zoom day.
But my ass got burned anyway,
If you know what I mean?
6th Night Habit
Elegance randomly roamed room to dancing room.
Searching for the glistening-gold tequila jug.
Smoking Cannabis,
Biting flesh like a cannibal from a boiling can of beauty
By Candy-stained candlelight;
Someone, anyone,
Danced for love of the hearty party,
Making space
for more and more
dancers, prancers, hung-flung cancers of the
Saturday Night-Plight.
But when the music ducked into the amp
and acoustics silenced,
No one remembered why they danced at all.
And habit brought the rabbit-footed funsters home
and vexed,
To grow for lifted lids and Wrath of Grapes,
And writhing like idiots,
'Till Saturday next!
Writer, theatrical director, actor and 35-year veteran private eye, Tom lives in The Ojai Valley, CA, with his wife and the youngest of his three daughters. Deeply involved in the Ventura County
theater community for the last 14 years, he serves as the Artistic Director for The Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, CA. He is the co-author of How To Protect Your Life & Property: An Everyday
Survival Guide. He wrote and directed the feature film Open Spaces. Tom has directed, produced and/or acted in over 65 productions. He is the recipient of two REP Awards for acting and directing and
the 4-Star Theater Awards in Ventura County has awarded him four awards for Outstanding Direction.
xlnt! I can hear the bongos... baby.. snap snap
Reply to this