Kurt Philip Behm Poems

The coach signaled timeout and called the team to the sidelines. There were eight minutes left in the biggest game of their lives, and they would be playing for three minutes with a severe disadvantage. They had committed a succession of penalties within a span of less than 60 seconds, and they would now be playing without three men on the field. In lacrosse this is referred to as ‘Man Down.'

Usually it's only ‘One Man Down, ' or at the most, ‘Two Men Down, ' but few watching that day had ever seen a team go ‘Three Men Down.' This meant that their star goalie T.J. Braxton was only going to have three defenders in front of him instead of the usual six.
...

The mind
its own place
be it heaven
or hell
...

The woman in the blue Chevy said: "Just five dollars please, " as I pumped two more dollars of Sunoco 260 into the aging four door sedan. As she paid me and then left, I looked at the Croton Chronograph Watch on my wrist that I had gone into hock for last fall. 5: 15, SHOOT! ! ! , I only had 45 minutes to jump on my bike and make it the fifteen miles back to West Philadelphia to class.

I was taking night courses at St Joseph's College (St Joseph's University now) , and my first class started at 6: 00 p.m. Why? I asked myself again did I always cut it so close? Deep inside I knew the answer, but I told myself it was because I was a good employee. I had been pumping gas and renting U-Haul Trucks at an Arco gas station in North Hills Pa. for the past two years. The station was open till 6 p.m. every day, and it seemed I never got out of there until after 5.
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There was a loud KNOCK on the rectory's back door.

Father Frank Kerin had been sitting at the rectory's kitchen table reading the newspaper. He was a young priest having just finished seminary only last June. It was a late August Sunday afternoon, and he had just come back from visiting the sick at the local hospital. He was totally engrossed in the sports section of the paper when he heard it again.
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Stalking every dream
calling me from sleep
A Yeti of the frozen night
I drove the pitons deep
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Chapter 13: An Uncertain Trail

Cutty was once again headed down a trail with an uncertain end. He didn't feel good about the riders ahead or what their true intentions were. Jimmy had said: "They are probably cowboys from the Bar Circle T Ranch, " but he had only been guessing.
He charged up the rapidly darkening trail…
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The manhood
of a nation
marching in the breeze
Chasing what
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Remembering
what you want to say
Forgetting
what you don't
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That ulcer
in his
consciousness
bleeding
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Day #1: Las Vegas to Price Utah

Something had been calling out to me for months. Without words, it had been speaking to me from places where I had not yet been. Its calling was strongest during moments of greatest distraction with its pull becoming so unbearable that my only choice was to finally release myself and let go.
...