Seven Poems

Armor or Amour

5/17/10

Funny how armor and amour

Are so close in spelling

The former can keep you from the latter

And the loss of the latter can create the former

(Note: I thought amour always meant love, and that’s how we commonly use it, but it also means affair. This works either way.)

Visualization

By Fred L. Taulbee Jr.

11/22/09

I think in the future

Visualization, possibly by another name

Will be of great concern

Especially in traffic law

The idea is that when we’re on the phone

Some of us visualize that person

While speaking to them

Which causes car wrecks and other accidents

I’ve always thought this but recently received some back up

In an article about an experiment

Using a clown on a unicycle

They queried pedestrians

And about 33% of people listening to music saw the clown on a unicycle

60% talking with a [live] friend noticed it

But only 8% of people talking on phones noticed it

They called it “inattentional blindness”

But I like visualization better

And all this is just a hard science way to tell you

That if a clown on a unicycle passed by while I was on the phone with you

I wouldn’t know it,

Because I can see you when I’m on the phone with you

Your smile

Your eyes

Absolut and Kahlua

By Fred L. Taulbee Jr.

2009-10

I’m sorry I drank all your Absolute and Kahlua

You left it at my house after we broke up

And asked me to save it for you

But that was all years ago

And a White Russian sounds so good right now

I might also try a Black Russian. I have before.

With more ingredients I could also make

An espresso martini

A Mudslide

An Iguana cocktail

There are probably more

But I’m too drunk to Google anymore

I have to tell you though

That I’m lying

I mean, I AM drunk

But off of beer

Good beer

Dead Guy Ale

Yeah, I can’t believe I found it

Here in Louisiana

No, you see

I lied about drinking your

Absolut and Kahlua

You know why?

Because I’m still hoping

You drop by and pick it up

Can you believe that?

I mean, I have hope

Hope that can last for years

We humans can be perseverant

When it comes to something like

Really longing for someone

And really loving someone.

Bridge and Heart

Fred L. Taulbee Jr.

11/22/09

Like a man standing at a chasm

And a bridge just suddenly appears

Like a heart patient waiting patiently

And gets the heart of a healthy teenage boy

I am simultaneously frightened and happy

Too wary to accept it

Too overwhelmed not to

I will walk the bridge

I will take the heart

And if that bridge collapses

Or if you break my heart again

At least I will be satisfied in knowing

that I have done what’s best and right

Even if it’s for myself

For Now

By Fred L. Taulbee Jr.

Summer 2009

My entire being is screaming out

That this is all wrong

And to hold you kiss you make love to you

Is completely right

And I don’t know how to get back to that

But for patience

And I have patience to spare

But patience for years I’m not sure I have

And the possibility

That it may not work out then anyway

Because right now

Everything, you and I, are in tune

It’s the rest of the world

That is out of whack, out of synch

Right now the planets are aligned

But it’s almost as if it’s over and we have lost our chance

For now.

Bar

By Fred L. Taulbee Jr.

2010

I hate a bar without a bar

What I mean

And what you may not know

Is that the bar

In a bar

Is the bar

On the floor

Where you hitch

A foot

and take a load off

I hate a bar without a bar

S. W.

by Fred L. Taulbee Jr.

You know how

When it rains

In the afternoon

And afterwards

You go outside

And the air is cleaner

And you can see further and clearer

And the sun is more radiant

Bright

Clear

Radiant.

That’s how I feel

When you walk into a room

When I talk to you

When I just think of you.