Author: HK

Defenestration

~ HK

But soft, what form from yon window is d
                                                                              e
                                                                              s
                                                                              c
                                                                              e
                                                                              n
                                                                              d
                                                                              i
                                                                              n
                                                                              g
                                                                              ?
The neighbor’s dog barks three times. 

As I stand beneath your bedroom window
To cradle your sneakered feet with both my hands,
You steady yourself against the house
                                                 And jump d
                                                                     o
                                                                     w
                                                                     n

We silently walk to the waiting parked car.

In moonlit mid-October Fall,
Tremors form around my heart,
Cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt shaft.

An elephant steps on my chest as I wrest,
The question relentless and desperate.

You tell the truth,
      Then we both cry,
And I,
Have never been so confused
  Or ever so            deeply 
   In love with you. 

Pursuing Sue Purring

~ HK

So now a suit I sow. 
In sooth the suit may bring me woe. 
Unless I try I’ll never know.  

Pursuing Sue Purring

Perfection in a suit should be,
well-tailored for a woman. She
Should feel the fit, a second skin,
That she will want to wander in.

Perchance a purchase I’ll pursue,
So soon my suit may suit my Sue.

If indeed I sow a seed,
The seed I sow will need a plow. 
The plow I ply, to play I plead
To sow my seed not with a sow.

So now my suit I set in play,
My one fear is that she will say,
As doctors once said, “Suture self,”
And set my suit back on the shelf. 

Bar and Girll

~ HK

Closing time came sooner than expected,
When she said she wasn’t coming any more.
“I know this hand so well.” she said, reflecting,
With a tender wistful smile he still adored.
“Merlin’s” the bar where the break-up occurred,
The magic, making romance disappear,
With clear compelling reasons that were heard
How now is dour what once was found so dear.
Their six-year tryst was twisting in the wind,
Before expressing their love’s last farewell,
She made her best attempt at being kind,
Although no hope was present, he could tell.
Not blessed and pressed, caressing down the aisle,
but lost within the radiance of her smile.

(c) Ken Sullivan 2020

Alice in Dactylland

~ HK

Humpity Dumpity
Alice in Wonderland
Fell down a rabbit hole
Chasing a hare
Met with the Cheshire Cat
Who vanished just like that,
Unceremonious
Into thin air

Dumpity Humpity
Alice in Wonderland
Met Humpty Dumpty
Who sat on a wall
Master of words
And a mangler of meaning,
An antelapsarian
Before the fall 

Humpity Dumpity
Alice in Wonderland
Went to a tea party
With the March Hare,
Saw the Mad Hatter
Whose curious chatter she
Uncomprehendingly
Met with a stare 

Have a Great Day

~ HK

             of course it all depends
             on what you mean by great.

             great with child or great white whale,

 

            Great Expectations or The Great Gatsby,

             The Great War or the Great Wall,

             where Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
             all the king’s horses and all the king’s men
             said what a great sport the old egg had been
             when he went a-rumbling, a-stumbling, a-tumbling
             and landed on his

                 Great Reward

Death of a dentist

~ HK

I

gradually the numbness disappears
the illusion of normality returns 

II

the tongue runs under the newly smooth section
an inspection of potential defects
while yet
the pinch of pain remains

III

and now
forever
a frayed heart’s cavity
empty and aching

Ken Sullivan (2022)

The F-Bomb

~ HK

strategically situated
between the A-bomb and the H-bomb
the single sad distinction is
the shock value diminishes
with every blesséd detonation.

Who put the u   put the u   put the u
in the F-bomb?
       Was it
       u?

Who put f u   put f u   put f u
       in the F-bomb?
Was it more than
a few?

Who put u c   put u c   put u c
in the F-bomb?
       O, say, can you
FUCK?

Ken Sullivan (2022)