John Parsons

They pump and pump
The agony into me
With their insults and mockery, I slump
Down, tired of picking too many a blood-sucking flea.
...

In the Alpine forests
Of Burgundy, I build a log cabin next to a stream.
Everything I do there protests
This world's vanity, along the seam
...

We drive on and on,
Past Mineral Wells, urbanization, to Strawn.
A living relic, ancient
Almost, and eventually, archaic.
...

I arise out of my bed
Like zombie out of his grave
In a stupor. A blind stupor.
...

I thought it would never end.
All that I am

Hurted slowly like
...

Wavy and invisible; undetectable
Like the white-out on
Life’s display board,
Boredom, the muse of Anxiety.
...

Plath was correct.
Social perfection is martyrdom. You have no
Children, just a bunch of medals
...

Eyes stare down the hall
Without movement or signs of a soul
Within them. They just stop
Living; they're like The Scream
...

Treasure this, my love
It is for you. A fine gift
Of my devotion.
...

I am a palm tree
On a delicate Florida beach.
I observe everything. I see
People litter and drive Hummers. They have no idea what a leech
...

'Why the hell are we conditioned into the smooth strawberry-and-cream Mother-Goose-world, Alice-in-Wonderland fable, only to be broken on the wheel as we grow older and become aware of ourselves as individuals with a dull responsibility in life? '
-Sylvia Plath
...

Welcome to Mars
Dry and Mountainous
Like the Himalayas-
...

I see them, two
I dare not approach
Their response would be that of a Nazi to a Jew
But, their terrority I shall encroach
...

The Imperial Flag of Blood
Waves and dances high
Above Manchuria. In the mud,
The natives slave for Japan. They all sigh
...

I was left for
Dead by you people
Why should I help you in your
Ambitious pursuit of
...

Will the Sun
Ever rise again
O'er this cemetery
Where the Romantic
...

The books on the
Shelves gather dust
But are other-worldly.
...

So, so much For that
Utopia you promised me.
You said this wasn't the City, but
the Prairie of our Lord Himself
...

Ancient opulence
Is what I find here:

Beijing silk
...

You sit around my neck
Not as a demon or angel,
but wearing Abercrombie and American Eagle.
...