Tom Foster

I’ve lost better poems than this
Boxes crammed
Notebooks full abandoned
Under rapid retreat
...

Like rain
Water her words
I drink them
Like poetry
...

I got monkeys' on my back
But I’m not gonna send ‘em packing
It’s comforting to have them there
It’s nice to know that someone cares
...

On a cold steel table
Deep in the
Antiseptic gray green brick basement of
Some government building
...

He handed me the
Chocolate doughnut
Smashed
Wet
...

Hey
Wadd'ya think the possibilities are
That you could see your way clear
To consider the chance and maybe
...

Are you mens sana he asked
I told him I wasn’t aware of the facts

Are you compos mentis he inquired again
...

It’s early January
Early morning
My feet are cold on the bathroom tile
And that’s not my face
...

The bell chimes
Soft tone calls
People into line
All good
...

This morning is a poetry morning
And I am on fire
Fire in my brain
Hand
...

Sitting on a crumbling couch
Spilling toward the middle where
Bear of a man
Wraps a tube around his arm
...

The heart does not have a plan
A time table
The heart acts on impulse desire
Passion
...

Outside my house
There are these flowers
That open with the sun like violet fire
And when I see them I think to myself
...

This is not America
Home of the free and the brave
My country tis’ of thee
Sweet land of liberty
...