Some Poems
Poems that came easily to me.
FALL BACK
Have you seen your future in a scribble
And bent a color to your will?
Have you made your peace with purple
And found your Heaven in a quill?
Have you read your Latin in Japan
And spent two weeks learning Greek?
Have you sailed upon "Fat Chan,"
In pursuit of what you seek?
Have you studied science with the old boys
And suffered a repeated shock?
Where is it coming from, that noise,
That sudden turning of the lock?
CHUCK BAUER November 2021
THE DEVIL, THE HERO, AND GOD
“The Devil, the Hero, and God”
Will come to ravage every youth.
Spare the child and spoil the rod,
Around the corner lies the truth.
“Religion, Literature, and the Tragic Vision”
Meet the gods and see them sport.
Learn to write, it’s all revision,
Watch and dream and then report.
“The Public and the Private Realm”
Presents a place now called political:
A flood of question overwhelms,
While others love the life Levitical.
--CHUCK BAUER, November 2021
FIRST APARTMENTS
First apartments feel so large;
Is that why we're never there?
Cross the threshold to stay in charge
And find your rescue in your lair.
If Andy Warhol lived down the hall
Would you be too shy to knock?
Golden chances come to call,
But time runs down the clock.
Want to feel that you've been struck;
Wake to find an overthrow?
Now grieving comes when love get's stuck
And has no place to go.
--CHUCK BAUER, November 2021
THE GODS DO WALK THE EARTH
The gods do walk the earth,
How could you ever doubt it?
That they can not heal our hurt:
Can you leave to chance that gambit?
Bereavement's such a pretty word;
It sounds of music and the night.
Light and dark, have you not heard:
To forget and then no more to sight?
Betrayal sings a different song
Yet are they so far remote?
For betraying and forgetting perhaps belong
To a pair of gods that lead us to kaleidoscope.
CHUCK BAUER --November, 2021
THE SINGLE SOCK
Oh where oh where have you gone?
Hunting for dust bunnies out on the lawn?
So many places for you to get lost;
And danger soon coming: to be nipped by the frost.
Maybe still stuck down in the chute?
Or have you gone up exploring the roof?
Oh I know! You've eloped with a crow!
I'll tell you right now, you won't like the snow.
Maybe you're still inside of the house?
Or lying somewhere sweetly cuddling a mouse?
How 'bout checking back in the basket-
Not there either; I'm blowing a gasket!
So now are you trod and stuck under my foot?
Oh where oh where should I now go to look?
One of a pair now going out on strike!
(No one here knew you'd suffered such strife.)
Maybe just needed a get-a-way break?
(No, I'm sorry, we can't use a fake.)
All of sudden we're all out in force-
Everyone shaking, now fearing DIVORCE!
Perhaps settled and curled inside of a pocket
Or launched on the news and carried by rocket?
Or carted away by some rouge bit of static-
Now swept along and gone up to the attic?
Could you have found the case of a pillow
And been hopelessly held by its novelty billow?
Are you kidnapped for ransom?
Or are you stuck in a transom?
Worn down by inches?
The victim of itches?
Finally found joy
And just playing coy?
Stuck under a melon?
Or in the arms of a felon?
Witness to a killin'-
Mixed up with a villain?
Has a shoe turned your head?
Or are you just under the bed?
Are you out for a stroll?
Been abused by a mole?
Become a squirrel's sleeping sack?
Or just overlooked and still hung on the rack?
Are you maybe now singing a long Karaoke
From high off the ground at the top of an oak tree?
OH, No! We'll not know where you wandering singles do go
Leaving mates and dates and pals - the whole show -
All to a single and hopeless sad woe.
CHUCK BAUER, November 2021
Have you seen your future in a scribble
And bent a color to your will?
Have you made your peace with purple
And found your Heaven in a quill?
Have you read your Latin in Japan
And spent two weeks learning Greek?
Have you sailed upon "Fat Chan,"
In pursuit of what you seek?
Have you studied science with the old boys
And suffered a repeated shock?
Where is it coming from, that noise,
That sudden turning of the lock?
CHUCK BAUER November 2021
THE DEVIL, THE HERO, AND GOD
“The Devil, the Hero, and God”
Will come to ravage every youth.
Spare the child and spoil the rod,
Around the corner lies the truth.
“Religion, Literature, and the Tragic Vision”
Meet the gods and see them sport.
Learn to write, it’s all revision,
Watch and dream and then report.
“The Public and the Private Realm”
Presents a place now called political:
A flood of question overwhelms,
While others love the life Levitical.
--CHUCK BAUER, November 2021
FIRST APARTMENTS
First apartments feel so large;
Is that why we're never there?
Cross the threshold to stay in charge
And find your rescue in your lair.
If Andy Warhol lived down the hall
Would you be too shy to knock?
Golden chances come to call,
But time runs down the clock.
Want to feel that you've been struck;
Wake to find an overthrow?
Now grieving comes when love get's stuck
And has no place to go.
--CHUCK BAUER, November 2021
THE GODS DO WALK THE EARTH
The gods do walk the earth,
How could you ever doubt it?
That they can not heal our hurt:
Can you leave to chance that gambit?
Bereavement's such a pretty word;
It sounds of music and the night.
Light and dark, have you not heard:
To forget and then no more to sight?
Betrayal sings a different song
Yet are they so far remote?
For betraying and forgetting perhaps belong
To a pair of gods that lead us to kaleidoscope.
CHUCK BAUER --November, 2021
THE SINGLE SOCK
Oh where oh where have you gone?
Hunting for dust bunnies out on the lawn?
So many places for you to get lost;
And danger soon coming: to be nipped by the frost.
Maybe still stuck down in the chute?
Or have you gone up exploring the roof?
Oh I know! You've eloped with a crow!
I'll tell you right now, you won't like the snow.
Maybe you're still inside of the house?
Or lying somewhere sweetly cuddling a mouse?
How 'bout checking back in the basket-
Not there either; I'm blowing a gasket!
So now are you trod and stuck under my foot?
Oh where oh where should I now go to look?
One of a pair now going out on strike!
(No one here knew you'd suffered such strife.)
Maybe just needed a get-a-way break?
(No, I'm sorry, we can't use a fake.)
All of sudden we're all out in force-
Everyone shaking, now fearing DIVORCE!
Perhaps settled and curled inside of a pocket
Or launched on the news and carried by rocket?
Or carted away by some rouge bit of static-
Now swept along and gone up to the attic?
Could you have found the case of a pillow
And been hopelessly held by its novelty billow?
Are you kidnapped for ransom?
Or are you stuck in a transom?
Worn down by inches?
The victim of itches?
Finally found joy
And just playing coy?
Stuck under a melon?
Or in the arms of a felon?
Witness to a killin'-
Mixed up with a villain?
Has a shoe turned your head?
Or are you just under the bed?
Are you out for a stroll?
Been abused by a mole?
Become a squirrel's sleeping sack?
Or just overlooked and still hung on the rack?
Are you maybe now singing a long Karaoke
From high off the ground at the top of an oak tree?
OH, No! We'll not know where you wandering singles do go
Leaving mates and dates and pals - the whole show -
All to a single and hopeless sad woe.
CHUCK BAUER, November 2021