Herbert Nehrlich Poems

It was a simple barricade,
Arabic letters, exclamation marks,
a hot, oppressive wind, pregnant
with stinging sand and camel dung.
...

They got the job that summer,
house-sitting in the Siskiyous.
Among the Ponderosa Pines
and squirrels, bushy-tailed,
...

Well, I do admit
I did imbibe
perhaps a fluid ounce too much
the night before last night.
...

He pushed and he strained and he struggled
and she wiggled and giggled and juggled
but they did not succeed
to take care of their need
...

So today is Australia Day!
Lucky country it is, you don't say.
Though of stunning good looks
it is governed by crooks,
...

A prickly and wise Huckleberry
likes his Scotch so much better than Sherry.
He is still full of tricks
at a young seventy-six
...

Talking is copper
silence is gold.
Tell me a whopper,
do as you're told.
...

Was it the devil resting on
my rubber booted foot?
He drank for an eternity,
his mane reminding me
...

He slipped in when I opened
the outer screen door, to let
a bit of that balmy Spring air,
laden with pollen and bits
...

....and falling toward the unknown, down, down.
Scaring last remnants of dignity out of me,
is this the end of the beginning, as
the Cantadora has whispered into my hair,
...