Can Do Better Poem by MOSHE BENARROCH

by

Can Do Better
~~~~~~~~~~~

Always torturing myself for things I didn’t do
why didn’t I write a long novel
my novels are too short
why not the long poem,
why so many languages
am I really good at any of them
why my books don’t sell maybe
I am such a bad writer and poet
why when I am not writing
I feel like the village idiot
or maybe I am I should
leave all this and make some money
for my family I should divorce
and face my fate and write all day long
I should and I could and I should
and I know it’s my mother behind all this
and all these teachers always saying
I could do better, all my friends
always saying I could do better
that’s my image the man that could do better
but if I could do better or write better
I would have done it,
wouldn’t you, you lazy bastard!
***

Nickel poem by Janet Kuypers

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Nickel

Janet Kuypers

from the “ Periodic Table of Poetry” series

“Nickel for your thoughts,”
he said to me.
So I had to ask,
“a Nickel?
Why?
Because the penny’s undervalued?”
And he said,
“Maybe it’s because
your thoughts
are worth
so much more
than a penny…”
And I thought,
‘great, five times more,
but it’s still
only a nickel…’

Besides, a nickel
is only about
twenty-five percent
nickel
in the first place.
But then again,
even though
it’s three fourths
copper,
the cost of the metals
is worth more
than the coin itself.

So maybe
I should take him up
on his nickel offer.
Then I could say
my thoughts
are worth something.

Phosphorus poem by Janet Kuypers

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Phosphorus

Janet Kuypers

from the “ Periodic Table of Poetry” series

I didn’t know how much I needed you.
I didn’t know how essential you were to me.
I didn’t know how my creation depended on you.

Even though I barely see you,
even though you seemed barely there for me,
even though I got rid of you whenever I could…

I didn’t know that even though
you were barely there,
you were there… just enough.

Like Venus, I only saw you from afar.
Like what is in DNA, RNA, ATP, you are
like me, all the way down to my cell membranes.

When I think of you,
when I breathe in the oxygen around me,
when your phosphorescence illuminates me…

Then I realize your true power.
Then I realize you’re the light bearer.
Then I realize you’re my morning star.

Though you seem toxic,
though you seem explosive,
that’s apparently the spark that gets me going.

So, remember that you give the Earth life.
So remember, you can always light my fire.
So, remember that since you have that charge

you can also help us destroy ourselves.