Ponderable polemics, poetic

WordPress site of poet Mark Lucker

introspection

  • Winter solace

    These north woods are lovely, bright, and deep glistening with snow and promises to keep Serenity resides in the fresh wonder of the new wintry familiarity, renewal in fresh snowfall I have not trod, of late, these winter woods two years have passed since my last sojourn my longest such time away from this place, Read more

  • Lamenting angst

    If one can grieve what never was if unfulfilled wistfulness is worthy of sorrow If could’ve should’ve maybe regretfulness can be mourned I will go to the wake pay my respects sing praises lifting an anthem of toasts to the dearly departed Then I’ll tip my hat leave my money on the bar and the Read more

  • Recycle

    “Love is like tartar sauce; it looks like hell, you have no idea what’ in it, but you always seem to find it tasty”. – Me, circa 1990 Witticisms, coined phrases of my younger years linger around me trailing like stray dogs following me home from the butcher shop ‘scat! go away! don’t follow me’! Read more

  • Here on scholarship

    “There is no honor amongst thieves even less with trailer-park debutantes” Early life lesson from a bartender who worked his bottle opener like a scrapyard crane operator dumping rusty Chevys spun a corkscrew as a master drill press operator teaching an apprentice But that was years ago, when the price of a drink was considered Read more

  • Resolute residues

    Sometimes I ponder my legacy picturesque footprints in beach sand casually, photogenically left behind, impulsively signed with flotsam stick left to the whim of waves, rising tides? Existence as an Etch-A-Sketch frozen in time via cataclysmic event fossilization rendering me ancient to a distant archeological future? I cannot say Hearts, initials clandestinely written whimsically defacing Read more

  • Playing on

    Faded are July’s warmth, summer’s cheers. Supplanted now by the encroaching hints of cooler days, forgotten expectations, procrastinated chores shelved, he can only now muse without dwelling on what won’t be. Could-have-beens and maybes aren’t statistically meaningful; they never really were, except to others in relation to their expectations and dreams for him. Regret is Read more

  • Misdiagnosis

    Admiringly told I ‘didn’t have an insecure bone’ in my body I gracefully thanked the impromptu diagnostician while silently questioning his medical conclusion having double checked every x-ray and CAT scan the evidence on film seems supportively in favor of my more cautious second opinion while acknowledging simply for comparison that no radiologist had ever Read more

  • Distance

    The expanse is self-inflicted a self-exiled expatriate; I am here, not there answered a calling, have since done my best at least pretty well considering restraints with which I had to work sometimes I feel my work here done my time here over needed elsewhere, so I try to believe but the work here is Read more

  • Freshness

    cardboard Tupperware crowds my attic keeping my soul preserved if not fresh rows, stacks of oddly square bowls repositories of then; lost loves, past successes other leftovers sometimes leftovers trump a fresh lunch filling rejuvenation found amidst the smell musty brown wood pulp – Mark Lucker Read more

  • 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