David Michael Jackson

To Like or Not to Like That is the Question

by

To like or not to like
that is the question.

I used to like things
better
before there was a button
and an unlike button
but no
button for
I’m sorry I pressed the
like button
or I’m sorry I didn’t
so
I became confused about
what I like
and what others saw
that I like
so that I was
careful to like
or not to like
Ike
or my bike,
Mike

Oh but wasn’t it pages like this that hurt the book? Yes so progress marches on. Websites like this are now dinosaurs in the Facebook and Twitter a paragraph is all we have time for world. Maybe we can get ourselves down to a single word on a page, a single stroke of the brush, and a single note. There are too many words on this page. No one will ever like it but me. Oh sarcasm thou art no angel!

david michael jackson

Cat Poem by David Michael Jackson

by

POEM TO MINDY
and there she is
my cat
she demands that my hands
touch her fur and
she demands my
total
attention
she knows she’s the only cat
that matters
that ever mattered.
She knows the cats of Egypt
I sometimes think she was there herself and added that
unknown quality to
the reliefs in the temple walls, for
she is the only cat that ever mattered as she wimpers that
demanding little
raorw

***

History Poem by David Michael Jackson

by

HISTORIES ARE NOT MY STORIES

You read me histories I say
histories that don’t exist for me.

I say

I am all there is

there are no histories but my

history

there is no story but my

story

and when I die

all

is gone

When I die there will be no more

sunday matinee’s smell of the theater

when I die the roses will not bloom

and you can tell each

other then

of your histories and how the

world went on without

me

but you will never

convince

me

***

Get Off Your Ass Poem

by

Get off your ass
and tell these people
something,
anything you fool,
say the dust has collected
in the corners and
the leaves are lining the gutters
and the birds don’t care for your poetry

Say that your brain has
holes in it and cannot,
could not hold the water.

Say it, fool!
I know you want to.

Squeeze it out
of the dirty rag
and wipe
your brow with your angst
until
the birds sing again.

david michael jackson August 5, 2012