Saturday, July 28, 2018

it may happen one day but not quite yet


one day, i will refuse to eat anything but ice-cream
i will forget my name and why i came 
even forget my granddaughter and my pets' names  
everything but your love will be lost, but not quite yet

simple peeves like losing keys are common
did i take my pills and where are my glasses
on the tip of a tongue like a tourniquet
everything will vanish from my mind yet…

do not bring me down with a condescending frown
for forgetting the world or what is new in town
i won’t make a sound when the agent comes around
or make knowing me something to regret

for all the ignoring and turning of the cheek
to let what is nuclear from the family seep
or fall into the sinister hands of a creep
from me recklessly? Not quite yet

it is oedipal to bite the hand that fed
be it clenched fascist or utterly red
loose lips that sink ships  to an untimely bed
will cease to babble as soon as i am dead

for the lost minutes turning joy into blame
or wrists that are sprained by mailing my name
get over on me now but do not regret
it may happen one day, but not quite yet

July 29, 2018
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Purchase "Unnatural Beauty; Poems from the Han Riverside" here.
 Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

on a clear Taichung night in the month of ghosts


「lovers drinking under the stars」的圖片搜尋結果
on a clear Taichung night in the month of ghosts
Perseid stars can be my lovers
high from a mountain looking up
or from the River Han above her

lights are few there and the sky has plenty
along the bike path of drunken dreams
heavenly perpetuity can cloud my mind
radiating Perseus constellation in streams

a crescent moon will have set
favorable for midnight fireballs
Han water flows under Swift-Tuttle
a most favorable forecast for all

on August twelfth i will grab my tequila
ride up and away from town
with bottle raised high multi-tasking
for what i seek shall be found

she is done with her lover in the night
though i could make her stars warm
why would she not share life’s mystery
remaining unconscious through the dawn

when i arrive upstream i will pour the bottle
into the dorsal spine
resistant to a night of crawlers
with spray so they will be kind 

when i ride home wobbling
looking for the front door key
she will not see me returning
from eternity

July 28, 2018
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Purchase "Unnatural Beauty; Poems from the Han Riverside" here.
 Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

the family gathers over the rainbow of Taiwan

the family gathers over the rainbow of Taiwan
high above the yellow horde proletariat of Hualien
black undertones of misogynist blame
privileged drifters' vengeful claim
permitting posting on their page for distaste
left on Taiwanese lips for the dismemberment waste
surely it was one of the sick Taiwanese men
and not one of the colorful among them...
democracy replaced by vague consensus
backpacking new-agers shouldering expenses
smoke screening cigarettes allowing pretenses
banned canine unleashing exclusions
for the primitive pleasure of field defecation
a tax and fee free squatting vacation
leaving jet fuel traces in the wake
leaving litter and bitterness in what they take
leaving the urban world for squalor
should visit a ghetto and leave a dollar
or better yet school young innocence
on how to survive without paying red cents
instead of banning this brother for suggesting
it is better to learn survival than to be guesting
off charity and a collective pot
that ties societies into a knot
my green lovers of natural flow
sans raw meat that the paleo know
shun me not with your rainbow pout
come back to reality and work it out

July 14, 2018
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Purchase "Unnatural Beauty; Poems from the Han Riverside" here.
 Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

wishing it would rain


certainly i would ride into a downpour
enduring pelting on my head
knowing a child waits to be inspired
and i am the agent of that inspiration.
drenched i would accept the outer shell of wetness
when warm and dry the love inside them blooms 
grooms them into lovely humans
for others to embrace
yet for ridicule i would stay home
knowing it might sound quite strange
wishing rain would change my mind 
whip the wind  and come what may
when all to gain would be the same
no benefit from dishonest business
engorged with greedy ulterior purpose
learning language to succeed 
not for moral foundation 
not for the golden rules 
but for the cloudburst of sudden storm 
on pilgrims' wandering salvation
the clouds that hinder obsession
remind them comfort for righteous exists 
around billowed clouds of heavy moisture
incipient destination for ambitious men's torture

July 3, 2018
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Purchase "Unnatural Beauty; Poems from the Han Riverside" here.
 Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved