Charles Chaim Wax Poems

When I walked into the Teacher’s Center
Doyle sat on the couch
eyes closed.
When I plopped down next to him
...

that Kansas passed a law
endorsing intelligent design
and not long after reading the article
eighteen inches of snow hit Brooklyn
...

I walked into Navin’s room
my sister’s son from her first marriage
which ended after eleven years
because Herbert refused
...

At 52 Minnie Weiss needed love
to be loved
perhaps more than any woman
I’d ever known
...

“To make a long story short
we’re both losers, ” said Harry Jacobs
sitting on the couch
in the Teacher’s Center.
...

After Mona stated I would never be the man for her,
she got rid of me.
I wrote twelve love poems in her honor
did no good, some heroic and published poet from France
...

As I chatted with Frank Freeborn on the Pier
I heard, “Bernstein, you old flabbergastor.”
I’d know that voice anywhere, Melvin Losy
taught English at Spinoza HS for eight years
...

Cool metal of blue dawn
the sunny day yet again summoned
into the terror of
shrieking shadowy crows
...

I awoke for my ritualistic
journey through Coney Island
air humid, heavy, ponderous
first gliding along Mermaid Avenue
...

When I left Brooklyn
for the Rochester Institute of Technology
I’d thought
no more
...