Twenty-Three Knives

Prompt: Freeze the President!

This is violence:

where everyone holds a knife

but no one knows which hit killed

where everything is for the greater good

where those closest to us are the last we see

and you, too, were children until

suddenly

there was nothing left of who was once there

and it took twenty-three knives to kill Caesar

but there’s not enough time for all of us

to do the same

March 29

Eager Easter

Prompt: Eager Easter

What if his buds were all in on the joke:

they snickered in secret and knew that their bloke

was coming back soon to talk to the folks.

On Easter they took off their taciturn yokes

and waited with weighted breaths…

March 28

Portrait of Columbia

Prompt: Columbia

Liberal Lady, lick up/lap down

the taste of freedom.

The trouble with gravy is how

it’s reapplied to the meat it was freed from.

Ride the boat, tried the train,

now the automobiles wheel below planes.

She can’t stop her mouth, and anyway

it all sounds the same

as “I  tall!” her too portentous claim

she cries while she climbs to our porch

raising up her bug-catching torch

while the barbecue cooks the meat

(yes, the same) that was delivered,

ground and hamburgled, to our feet

as if we were born here free only to receive,

never give.

March 27

Why Bother

Prompt: Assassinated Love

“It’s said when Shakespeare coined the terms

“assassinate” or “elbow”, “bump” or “gust”

he took those words from colloquial forms

and wrote them down first, without a fuss.”

and Harold Bloom claims the bard

created our modern man

gave us our minds

So what of love? Why bother

if Shakespeare thought up that concept too,

and years later we repeat his words

and cling to stories that run thicker in our veins than blood

it’s real in our world

even to those who haven’t found it yet

March 26

Pirates

Prompt: Pirated Inspiration

I imagine that this is how some people feel

about stealing the ideas of others:

Avast! Arr matey, etcetera era era. A ship off

the starboard brow! Fire cannons, destroy the deck –

It’s not going anywhere, boards and plunders, pillage and filch,

take what’s left and sail away a patchwork victory.

When does an imitation take away from the original?

If anything, the ship sailing away will be stronger

But more often than not, the new pirate simply joins the crew

and assimilates into the operation.

March 25

Cost of Living

Prompt: cost of living

When someone drops change

you take the time

to get closer to the ground

and help them recollect

that is the cost of living

March 24