Two Pieces by Michael Lee Johnson

Charlie Plays a Tune


Crippled with arthritis

and Alzheimer's,

in a dark rented room

Charley plays

melancholic melodies

on a dust filled

harmonica he

found abandoned

on a playground of sand

years ago by a handful of children

playing on monkey bars.

He now goes to the bathroom on occasion,

relieving himself takes forever; he feeds the cat when

he doesn't forget where the food is stashed at.

He hears bedlam when he buys fish at the local market

and the skeleton bones of the fish show through.

He lies on his back riddled with pain,

pine cones fill his pillows and mattress;

praying to Jesus and rubbing his rosary beads

Charley blows tunes out his

celestial instrument

notes float through the open window

touch the nose of summer clouds.

Charley overtakes himself with grief

and is ecstatically alone.

Charley plays a solo tune.


-2007
_________________________

Raindrop Baby


I'm a raindrop baby

silhouetted in the night,

single-ringed single person

minus the 24 carat gold.

A harvester of night life,

star crystal,

a gather of sluts in my imagination,

a wild driver of the

anal sinful products of sex.

I run the highways drunk

as a skunk with his anus high in the air

in search of what I wished

or dream wild factual fantasy about.

Offended I simply piss somewhere.

Where does the highway buckle up:

DUI, DUI?

Are these your initials lover

on my driver's license

or just a pained memory

the morning after my dream

turned to real piss?

-2008-

Michael Lee Johnson is a poet and freelance writer from Itasca, Illinois.

His brand new poetry chapbook with pictures, From Which Place the Morning Rises and his new photo version of The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom is now available at: lulu. He also has 2 previously published chapbooks available at: lulu. The original version of The Lost American: from Exile to Freedom, can be found at: iuniverse.



He has been published in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Turkey, Fiji, Nigeria, Algeria, Africa, India, United Kingdom, Republic of Sierra Leone, Israel, Nepal, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Finland, and Poland internet radio. Michael Lee Johnson has been published in more than 280 different publications worldwide. Audio MP3 of poems are available on request.



He is also publisher and editor of four poetry flash fiction sites--all presently open for submission:

http://birdsbywindow.blogspot.com/
http://www.poetriclegacy.mysite.com/
A Tender Touch
Wizards of the Wind

Author website: poetryman

Author email: promomanusa@mail.com