Submitted by joshua mertz on November 28, 2015
Going through the photographs
Of our last good time together
The trip of a lifetime
You called it
A lifetime
We thought we would spend
Together
Growing wrinkled and loving
But your work consumed you
And you were no longer
Glad to see me
No longer wanting
The wanting
Dinner a quiet war
Your allegiance given over
To a drug addicted son
Whose violence and cruelty
You could not see
And now I am sorting the photographs
Of our last good time together
My heart heavy with splendor
I keep the pictures
Of your golden smile
Submitted by joshua mertz on November 3, 2015
I cannot remember why I left
I know that there was bad blood
And accusations
And betrayals
And a fear of deep water
And a cruel denial of
Any future between us
And I left
Furious with myself and her
But I cannot remember
Exactly why
I did not kill her
I was petty and small
And angry that I ran away
Instead of working it out
And yes, I troubled her
And her new man
I poured anger on them both
When I should have bathed in it
Anointed myself with that
Unholy anger
Pointless and shallow
I wished them ill
I wished them dead
But I did not kill her
It was the tree
And the cow crossing the road
And the speeding motorcycle
And the laws of momentum and inertia
And no helmet
Her new man held her as she died
Skull crushed in
She blessed him with her love
As I wish I had blessed her with mine
I am always there
Flying through the air with her
Toward her rendezvous with inertia
I did not kill her
It was the tree
And the motorcycle
And her new man
I only wished it so
And got my wish
Submitted by joshua mertz on October 30, 2015
ecdysiast: (noun) a striptease artist; from the Greek ekdysis: the shedding of an outer integument or layer of skin
There once was a lazy ecdysiast
Who thought that her job was the easiest
She'd take off her clothes
And thereby expose
Herself to the men who were sleaziest
There once was a happy ecdysiast
Whose job made her mom feel the queasiest
"But Mom," she'd explain
"It causes no pain
And the tips that I get are the easiest."
With a head cold, the sick young ecdysiast
Soon found that her act was the sneeziest
She made her achoos
Wearing only her shoes
But her tips from that night were the measliest
An ecdysiast sporting a cast
Could not shed her clothes all that fast
She'd rip and she'd tear
And try to get bare
And leave the poor patrons aghast
(from Mike Mayhew)
There once was a dirty ecdysiast
Whose armpits were known as the cheesiest
Said the boss of the club
"If she won't use the tub
She can dance by the door where it's breeziest."
(with Sam Marshall)
There once was a wrinkled old stripper
So old she was nicknamed "The Gipper"
She was long in the tooth
And far from her youth
And her bosom was called "The Big Dipper"
Submitted by joshua mertz on October 28, 2015
A grandiloquent rhetoritician
Discoursed on the slang use of bitchin'
"I may be pedantic
But the word drives me frantic
And sets my red pencil to itchin'"
I read this at Tuesday Night Poetry and an audience member, hearkening back to my infamous ecdysiast (a fancy name for a stripper) limericks, said I should write a limerick about an ecdysiast rhetoritician. So I sat down and did just that
An ecdysiast rhetoritician
Would take off her clothes and go fishin'
The men that she knew
Would come along too
And thought that her outfit was bitchin'
Submitted by joshua mertz on October 20, 2015
When we were green
Meadows and there were
Flowers and the sun
Shone in us because we
Were green and full of flowers
And loving arms rejoiced when
You came home
Then there was sunshine
A bouquet of names
Of all the things we loved about
You and me and the
Other things did not matter
Because we were green
And there were flowers
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