Ponderable polemics, poetic

WordPress poetry site of poet Mark Lucker

  • 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

  • Taking a concession stand

    I hate it when somebody states they are ‘making concessions’ to middle age I find mid-life to be a wonderful carnival the only concessions those to be purchased to quench a thirst sate a hunger I stroll the middle age midway impervious to the shill’s siren-call of con-men barkers offering relief enhancement and release me,… Read more

  • Making note

    A cheap flash drive containing one document; PDF file of a note – my message of hopeful wonder, Robinson Crusoe-like whim I seal the technological romanticism tightly in a Mason Jar, throw it into the ocean at night as the tide predictably recedes Sitting on the beach I ponder as only a man with youthful… 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

  • Art of Flying

    Flights of fancy via wings of balsa when an extra nickel added a propeller we took wing on wind-looping imagination gliding sometimes to gentle landings more often crashing with aplomb-tinged disappointment when repairs were beyond the pale Images silently soaring, frozen in in time and flight still life, real life in balsa and backyard –… 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

  • Crisis averted

    I watch my peers unsteadily trampling middle age sitting on various benchmarks when they need to or when they just want to watch older, we are, most certainly wiser is a tougher read for those denying the need for glasses or just out of myopic stubbornness when, what, why, how, where the cryptic mysteries of… 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