My Life
By Michael Lee Johnson My life began with a skeleton with a smile and bubbling eyes in my garden of dandelions. Everything else fell off the edge, a jigsaw puzzle…
Keyboards
By Michael Lee Johnson Keyboard dancing, poet-writer, old bold, ribbons are worn out, type keys bent out of shape. 40 wpm, high school, Smith Corona 220 electric ultimately gave out,…
Coming to Terms & Goodbye
Michael Lee Johnson Wait until I have to say goodbye, don’t rush; I’m a philosophical professor facing my own death on my own time. It takes longer to rise to…
Deep in my Couch
By Michael Lee Johnson Deep in my couch of magnetic dust, I am a bearded old man. I pull out my last bundle of memories beneath my pillow for review.…
Poetry Man
By Michael Lee Johnson I’m the poetry man, understand? Dance, dance, dance to the crystals of night, healing crystals detox nightmares, night tremors. Death still comes in the shadow of…
Nightlife Jungle Beat, Bar Next Door (V.2)
By Michael Lee Johnson Like all thing’s life changes, its melodies fragment. It breaks pieces apart, then they drift, then shatter. The singers of songs love bars, naked bodies, consistencies,…
Poets Out of Service (V6)
By Michael Lee Johnson Like a full-service gas station or postal service workers displaced, racing to Staples retail for employment against the rules of labor, poets are out of business…
Another Poem by Michael Lee Johnson
Poets Die (V2) By Michael Lee Johnson Why do poets die; linger in youth addicted to death. They create culture but so crippled. They seldom harm except themselves— why not…
Sweet Nectar
By Michael Lee Johnson Daddy wants to see a hummingbird. Ruby-throated hummingbird devil in feathers, Illinois baby come to me, challenge my feeder sip up, drain nectar, no straw needed.…
Juice Box Girl
Juice Box Girl (After Midnight Moments) By Michael Lee Johnson I’m a juice box girl, squeeze me, play me like an accordion, box-shaped, but gagged edges. Breathe me inside out,…