David McLansky Poems

He always seemed a bit naïve
This bony man, this towering reed;
But he sang wh such boyish élan
This old man who made his banjo twang;
...

What soft perfection
What heady bliss
Your face upturned
For our first kiss;
...

Queen Gertrude


Is it crass of me to say
...

'I don't want to die, ' she sighed,
An old woman with a look of fear,
Making friends at 84,
Afraid she'd disappear;
...

Words spoken without passion's breath
Mocks the receiver as in a jest;
Exchanging mere formality
As substance for sincerity.
...

The deer ate my tulip tops
Sheared them off, their petals cropped;
The blazing reds, the yellow creams,
Have disappeared as in a dream;
...

In the Stateless prison of Liao Yiwu,
Where class has been abolished,
There are always slaves to shine your shoes,
Fresh blood is used as polish.
...

This uncertain world that we inhabit
Has the staying power of a rabbit
Who poses perfect in the glade
With nervous sniffing in the shade.
...

The herons cry, the sea gulls screech,
In the graying light of dawn
I come upon a sandy form;

And reaching down I almost toddle,
...

Said Thoreau's nagging,
Screaming wife,
'What makes you think
Your boring life
...