Ted Sheridan Poems

the revenuer pays no taxes of his own
so I won’t bother with my tithes
leaving all of my organs to the state
just because one tenth of nothing
...

Her body may have retired
in its fifties and moved
south for the weather but
her mind is as sexual as ever
...

Being naked
shouldn’t always be quiet
Baring one’s soul sometimes requires
extreme measures; a hard on.
...

Man does not go to war accepting defeat.
Man goes to war knowing innocents will die
How many will be killed or spared is unimportant
Except as it pertains to the enemy and his ranks
...

Nature’s biological clock strikes
the final hours and the eventual end
to the advantages daytime holds over night.
There is little time left to prepare
...

Regardless of the direction in which I walk,
and because of this tumor that continues to grow
on the top back part of my shiny shaved head
people think I'm always staring at them...
...

Grains of sand form ripples in the beach
Flocks of birds in flight change directions
without incident..
We men say we know but yet we really don’t know;
...

It has been at least five years since you and me
have spent more than a few hours apart from one another.
I came home tonight to an empty house, a hungry dog and a confused bird.
The drapes and curtains were still open and the porch light was dark.
...

Who are these immigrants who mow all of this grass
in the medium strips and along the roadsides;
areas that pedestrians don’t use. Whose job is it to fertilize
and maintain this acreage; to kill the clover and dandelion
...

It was 1969 and they said everyone
would be present and accounted for; except
the bits and pieces blown apart and scattered
across the country’s war torn paddies and jungle floors.
...