Ponderable polemics, poetic

WordPress site of poet Mark Lucker

Relationships

  • Estrange

    Regret and I have a tenuous relationship flirtations ebb, wane pop up again precariously at odd moments, clumsily the standoffish one in this tepid relationship is me running hot-and-cold I can be a frustrating companion lackluster lover there is no love lost between me and regret never love at first sight never a commitment convenient Read more

  • Advancement

    I eschew sex. Firmly entrenched now in middle age I have found the act wanting, boring the physicality dull, unimaginative old hat Sex has lost its interest in me shunning sex, I have discovered making love It is the side effect of experience the residue of having love, lost, found I am the artist who Read more

  • In (and out) of the loop

    local coffee place sipping my solitary cup checking email next table over a group of men older than I, age gap not of grandfather-grandson severity the six zealously swap tales of doctor visits with enthusiasm once reserved for one-night stands summer romances familiar names swirl through their regaling conversation; Alzheimer’s, Chron’s, Cirrhosis taking the places Read more

  • Pictures

    We were a long time ago years? decades? lifetimes? carbon dating? time is filled in a long forgotten coloring book half the pictures never finished bold, black-line outlines dated, quaint stumbled across by accident you flip through remembering all the scenes beach, park, ball, puppy love ? first few pages carefully colored giving way to Read more

  • From Here to Less Certainty

    A day at the beach we have been here before; I am trying to be Burt Lancaster as you hesitate to play Deborah Kerr with self-conscious protestations I have heard many times But today the kids are not with us, the friends who we accompany sit engrossed in their sun-worshipping, paperbacks, inflatable-floating oblivious to us Read more

  • Literalists

    “I would slay a dragon for you!” said he from out of the blue his lilting voice a hopeful spontaneous, off-hand musing had him hoping for more as she looked up from her paperback mystery romance “There are no dragons” she stated flatly, perplexed as he quietly sighed, continued reading yesterday’s newspaper Read more

  • Oath of June

    “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” “I do.” “You may now kiss the bride. Liar.” Read more

  • 33 (For Johnny)*

    Twenty-one years was not nearly enough; we had just embarked when you left. Thirty-three years is not nearly enough to erase what is indelibly sketched not a pencil caricature, a dimly recollected photographic snapshot or grainy home movie just you, at nineteen, before illness rudely smudged and dog-eared the picture you are smiling, damn it Read more

  • Muse bemuse

    She has been a muse nothing more and everything less since we met as teens inspiration still flows from a fleeting reminder; hearing her name (commonly used by others out of parental laziness) the searing stubbed-toe pain of an emotional owie only she could’ve kissed and made better longing springs from trying to remember just Read more

  • Snapshot

    The picture was taken from too far away the two of us sit on the apartment steps the manicured shrubs on either side dominate we are framed, she and I, by wrought-iron railings Still, it is the only picture of us that I have she wears sunglasses and her acorn-hued hair cascades over her right Read more