jonberger

Thank you.
I appreciate the offer
and believe
that it’s a good idea.
Of course I want
to go to the Spring Formal
with you.

Who wouldn’t want
a date with a boy
who stares across rooms
taking pictures
and snickering to himself
because he has no friends?

Who wouldn’t want
a date with a boy
who sits in the back of class
making snarkity comments
without contributing
much of anything?

Who wouldn’t want
a date with a boy
wearing flipflops
and tuxedo t-shirts
with untamed hair
and peachfuzz all over
who doesn’t speak to me
except when looking me up and down
like ome prize
that he acts like he doesn’t deserve?
Who isn’t looking for that prize?

Who doesn’t want someone
that acts like you
thinks like you
is like you?
I’m all over it!

So thank you.
I am delighted by your offer.
I am appreciative of your time.
I will definitely go with you
to the Formal.
Just pick me up at ight
over in the red light district.

No officer has come by to stop me
as I sit under lamplight
composing.
They have better things to do
in this unrepresented borough.

I too
have better things to do
than wait to be harassed
by cop or criminal
but
it is good
to have the time
and confidence
and entitlement
to rest my weary ass here
and to write.

That’ll be all.

Stephe,
we lost him today
like we lost each other decades before
though this one’s more permanent.
I knew of him
before you introduced us
but it was your enthusiasm
and adoration
that made me realize how great he was.

I saw him once
sometime in the nineties.
You and I’d already lost touch
because you were loyal and kind
and I was loyal and stupid.
I saw him at the Garden.
Maybe you were there
one of the other seventeen thousand
in attendance
praying at the alter of his funk.

I’d like to think
we shared that time
though we haven’t shared anything else
in forever.

Prince is gone,
Stephe.
I’m sorry
for both of us.

On the twenty first in oh, sixteen
a situation we’d never dreamed
in UK and US that came to pass
for a young man and an old lass
where leaders in music and in power
changed course in one April hour
A day has passed now filled with dread:
The Queen turned ninety and Prince turned dead.

No one expects a royal life
to live so many years through strife
alive through disco, punk and wars
still going strong over four scores.
Yet younger still by thirty three
a hero of the dance funky
in studio was found with evidence
of the Queen’s birthday and the death of Prince.

It’s sad when songsters die so young
while old live past their premium
but these two shared years ‘pon the plane
with lifestyles in no way the same.
Still tales will be told of their exploits
with politics both quite maladroit
and bards will sing of once upon
when a Queen celebrated while Prince is gone.

I never enjoy admitting
that my father was born
on Staten Island
because that makes me
a Staten Islander by association
but I have lived in shame and secrecy
for too long now
and it is time
at last
to admit my past.

In another century
on another island
my father was declared the New Dorp Baby.
I was not there.
I did not encourage it.
Though proud of it in his youth
my father left Staten Island
with his parents
in the forties
and started a new life in Brooklyn.

It is out.
I have said it.
I have no current relationship
with the borough of Richmond
but
my blood runs through that land.
I am not proud of it
nor do I support its people
over the borough of New York.

I am from Staten Island
indirectly
but not of it.
I do not endorse it.
My father is gone now
so all possible relationships
with that errant land
are currently and permanently severed.

I hope you will give me
and my family
the privacy we need
to sort out the information
discussed here, today.

Thank you for your time.

When my father left
it was because
he said
he no longer felt the same way
about my mother.

I could not understand
how he could betray us
in such a way.
If he loved us once
why wouldn’t he work
to maintain that love?
How could he just
decide
to be done?

I swore
that I would not so easily
turn off my feelings.
If I declared for someone
I would not abandon her
not for anything.

There are many oaths
I swore as a youth
and I have not kept them all.
I promised myself
I would own San Francisco
by now.
But I have tried to maintain all that I could,
I maintained many a truth
I’d exclaimed in an empty room
decades past.

My love is not a spigot
so easily turned on and off.
I will not claim devotion
if I cannot stick it out.
Because of this
I have rarely made the claim
and now
my love
which is not a spigot
seems to be somewhat rusted
and cannot be turned on
at all.

This is what happens
when you follow oaths
that were made
when you were barely an amoeba.
That is activity
I shall never partake in again.
So is it sworn.

Someone once said to me
“If I’m faster,
I’m taking it.
If I get there first,
it’s mine.”
I’ve lived with that knowledge since
which is why I gulp down all the cookies
before anyone else has a chance.
I cannot risk the possibility
of losing something
I might want.

I heard the phrase again recently
(or something like it)
and had to admit
if only to myself
in one instant
that I was not fast enough.
I didn’t act
in due haste
and lost
thusly.

I have learned the lesson
twice now
so I’m redoubling my efforts
to be the fastest
the most fit
the first in
to take the spoils
I deserve
simply by reaching them first.

I live the race to the moon
every day
with every idea I take in.
Don’t like my conqueror’s attitude?
Race me.

That
was a really good burger.
It might have been the best
I’ve sunk my teeth into
this whole year.

Juicy and savory
bun warm and soft…
I would not have thought
that this place
could provide me
with such an experience.

But there it is.
This burger
that I just finished
was extraordinary.
It was delicious.
It was
very well done.

Thank you
for letting me taste
this gastronomic delight.
Thank you
for taking me out
for this burger.

I’d like to apologize
for my earlier content.
I was delirious when writing it.
I hadn’t slept much
and I’d been drinking
pretty heavily
– for a while,
I should say
and, well,
it was not
in any way
my best work.

When I get some sleep
and some food
and some better inspiration
and a computer from this century
and a haircut
I’ll do a better job
and write something
really worthy of my name.

In the meantime
please accept my humblest sorry
for the quality of my writing
from 2003 through next week.

I just saw
that the Burger King
near my old school
is closed.
It had been thriving
the last I checked.

I can remember
visiting that place for breakfast
long after school days had past.
They were experts in economy
in price and portion alike.

How could it go
so suddenly?
It seems like yesterday
when I last enjoyed
a whopping good time there.
What happened?

It is strange
how the things you took for granted
could leave you
and then
without warning
you are bereft.