Ted Sheridan Poems

Symbolism over substance is the rhetoric of our times.
Better to feel good than to be good; better to say nice things
than actually being kind to others; better to tell a white lie
when the truth would suffice. Better to behave
...

Once a killer, a soldier; a regular mercenary.
His talents were obviously not to be taken lightly. His eyes
let you know he wasn’t joking when he spoke of his enemies.
They were all dead now, but still very much alive in his head.
...

He deals with his cancer just like he dealt
with that stupid war back in the Nam; he curses himself
for all those unfiltered cigarettes he smoked in between
lighting up the jungle with tracers so he could see to shoot
...

With an I.Q. that is barely high enough
to reach the 800 numbers
of the Dewey Decimal System;
“Literature and Rhetoric”,
...

His words do not stir much in the way of any intellectualistic theories
or understanding of what a poems construction should look like
or read. He writes as he lives his life, he writes with the blood
that he bleeds; with words like knives he cuts away at the meat,
...

Blurred by too much rum and too little cola.
His eyes roll out the red carpet onto his cheeks
just beyond the reach of his dehydrated tongue; hours
of cunnilingus had left him thirstier than a dried
...

I’m going to design and patent a fishing lure
With the face of Jesus, Mohammad, Jacob
or Gautama Buddha on the body
These lures will catch only the keepers
...

The heavy rains had at finally passed
and it was the new Sun’s turn to shine
The little man looked up and out from under
his protective toadstool, his tiny eyes beaming
...

Sometimes out of bored curiosity I will time
our conversations; at least her side
of one. The other day we were discussing
the stricter disciplinary actions
...

The night air off the ocean is very cool as it cozies up
next to me tonight; me drinking an imported beer. It reminds me
of that warm sweater shirt, the one with the zippered neck
that my wife’s mother gave me as a gift last year; the one
...