Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Hurricanes of humanity, a poem

Hurricane Katrina, NOAA Satellite image

Hurricanes of humanity
By Mike Marcellino

Hurricanes of humanity -
Weathermen called the wind
Katrina,
her blow overwheling
waves
covered New Orleans,
leaving in her wake
a city never the same.

She left them cajuns
reeling,
mumbling 'bout
their old homes
dying for MEMA
cottages
out of reach
south of highway 90
sold ‘em
to contractors
building
casinos for the poor
working
families without homes.
Hurricanes of humanity -
Brass
of Army sergeants
homeless in uniform
swept from the streets,
no need for assessment.
Giv’em an offer they can’t afford -
habitat for five hundred dollars
a month
plus flood insurance
Churches turned some gold to straw,
Parish people say,
wonderin ‘bout their government
before, during an after
nation’s greatest disaster,
when a category 5
hit the Gulf Coast
on that August day.
2005.

Hurricanes of humanity -
Homes not jails
food not bombs
500 city kitchens
cross country and
twenty two to thirty two
percent of our kids -
going to school,
homeless
Arizona to Detroit
Hurricanes of humanity -
subjects of FEMA
from New Orleans
to Brooklyn,
armies on the street
to college.
What went wrong?
they ask.
Not the people?
they say.
Must of been the leaders,
some say.
Hurricanes of humanity -
Bayou grits,
southern accents
let’s see
before, during and after
Katrina.
Try disability,
Hope a leg’s missing,
never mind.
Speakers
in the woods,
tents of seven hundred,
survivers
of the bitter winter
2009.
Hurricanes of humanity -
Like Dorothy
upside down.
Hope for a soft landing,
bed of change,
deportees
from a 20 megaton daydream,
two gallons left
lost out by fifty fifty -
miles
dollars
away
from New Orleans
and Black Bay.
Copyright Hurricanes of humanity by Mike Marcellino 2009.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Dreamed this, a poem

Dreamed this
By Mike Marcellino

Was going to write
this.
Dreamed
i forgot
how
to read it,
add,
subtract
multipy,
only could remember
how to
divide.

Was going to write
this.
Dreamed
i forgot
how
to paint
play
sing
compose
it.

But when i woke
the economist
up
to a certain page,
i thought this
wrote this
Dreamed this.

Dreamed this copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Listen to the radio, a poem

Listen to the radio
By Mike Marcellino

Listen to the radio
in no man’s land.
Wait till the music dies.
Sing all together now
her majesty’s request
whirling vinyl
tracks from Singapore
on the magical mystery tour.

Listen to the radio
in no man’s land.
Wait till the music dies.
Captured in Cambodia,
blown away in the DMZ
going back to Iraq,
Afghanistan,
electric concertina silhouette memories.
Uniforms at a five in the morning wake up call
Denver’s airport high
above the Land of the Free -
Home of bridges falling down.
Home of the brave,
taking shelter
in ravines,
railroad boxcars,
in gas station latrines.

Listen to the radio
in no man’s land.
Wait till the music dies.
Remember
songs of the day -
Check some boxes,
pop some pills,
get patched up,
go on your way,
live to fight another day.”


Listen to the radio,copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009

Friday, February 6, 2009

Lookouts in the sky, a poem

 Lookouts in the sky
 By Mike Marcellino

Lookouts in the sky,

Clouds of stratus stratus
slicing up
from Mississippi,
gifts from Zeus,
the Greek
god of sky and weather
painting
a partly sunny Sunday
party on the beach
of Erie in Ohio,
home of American natives
at a meet up,
lookouts of pau waus.

Lookouts in the sky,

Clouds of cirros joins the treck
across
eastern skies,
making the sun
blink
on the heels of blizzards,
turned into dying snowflakes
after their fall
to an unearthly planet
day by day,
endless transformers
bleeding into slushy, muddy
melting piles,
curbside
pool craters.

Lookouts in the sky,

Clouds of stratus stratus,
whipping up from
seas far south,
painting
a party sunny Sunday
on the beach
of West Palm,
home of spinner sharks
at a meet up
feeding frenzy
outside
three-foot blue curls,
ridden by surfers close by,
lookouts in the sky,
gifts of Zeus,
the Greek,
god of sky and weather.

Lookouts in the sky,

sudden clouds of puffy nimbus
pockets of rain, maybe snow
ridges in the sky
shut down
the sun’s furnace,
gifts from Zeus,
the Greek
god of sky and weather.

Lookouts in the sky, copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009