almost okay

POETRY SLAM CORNER
With One of the Prof's Star Pupils
Sitting in for Our Olde Buddy Blowharde
Let's give a warm Almost Okay welcome to tony stanza!

The Unhappy Traveler, Pt. I

What day is this? Yesterday?
Isn’t that tomorrow?
Hmm... & what city did you say it was?
Atlanta? Are you sure?
Thought I was in K.C.
No shit.

-Prof. Dirk Beat

The Unhappy Traveler, Pt. II

No matter how many
Beautiful women parade by
Showing bare legs & pretty toes
Bouncing fat asses bundled
In tight designer jeans...

This airport experience still
Dulls the senses while at the same time
Twisting EVERY last goddamn nerve
Every last bundle of them inflamed
ALL synapses firing and backfiring

Worse...
No matter where in the world
This evil silver bird touches down...
Tulsa...Tangier...Tel Aviv...Tokyo...
No matter how exotic the locale
Hideous Humanity will be there on display

Waiting

Dragging their bags behind them
Shouldering their screaming babies
Talking LOUDLY on cell phones
Typing meaningless wordshit
Into flat electronic boxes
Balanced on their boney knees or
Draped over thick, fleshy thighs

GOD GIVE ME BACK...
Steam engines
Horses
Pencil & paper
& PLEASE, OH GOD
If you don’t mind
Shove this 21st Century
Right up your HOLY ASS!

-Prof. Dirk Beat

uNhAPPY trAVEler, Pt. III

GATE B-25
FLIGHT 2376
DESTINATION: KANSAS CITY
VIA CHARLOTTE, N.C.
10-D AISLE
Beverage Service In Flight...

Whenever I see a jet
Speeding through the air
Trailing feathers of exhaust
Across the sky or
Striking a dirty line through
A beautiful sunset
Whether I’m sitting in my own back yard
Walking down the fractured sidewalk
Or caroming down the freeway...

I concentrate, think HARD
Try to bring the beast down
In a spectacular ball of flame
With just the power of my mind

Sadly, it never works

As I sit here in 10-D
On FLIGHT 2376
Sipping my Beverage
Nature’s quilt of brown & green
Slipping by below
I pray SOMEBODY on the ground
Sees us, has that same destructive impulse
To BRING US DOWN & I PRAY that
His mind is more powerful than mine
Ever was

-Prof. Dirk Beat

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LIFE
STRIVING TO LIVE, BE ALIVE
WITHOUT THE KNIFE
OF DOOM IN THIS ROOM OF GLOOM

QUICK LIKE A GUNSHOT, HOT LIKE A FIRE
LIKE A LIFE WITH NO DESIRE
TO LIVE, TO STRIVE TO BE ALIVE
ON THIS PLANET, THIS BALL OF JUNK
PUNK

HOW MANY TIMES MUST I REMIND YOU
OF THE CRIMES YOU MUST DENY?
THE RHYMES YOU MUST OBEY IN YOUR MIND
OR WITHOUT FAIL DO YOUR TIME IN JAIL?
NO BAIL

NO HOPE, SON
NONE

-tony stanza


the SMOG the SKY like MUD the DIN
the GRIME of the STREETS the EMPTY SIN
it sticks to my SOUL it does me in

this CITY of dirty air and cracked concrete
honking horns STABBINGS pigeon meat
(cuz food’s too high for poor folks to eat)

even so LIFE goes on, bro’...it flows
rolls on FASTER and FASTER...NEVER slow
you hang on even tho’ you have NO CONTROL
cuz there’s nowhere else TO go
ain’t NOWHERE else to go, ya know?

KNOW WHERE ELSE TO GO

-tony stanza