Kurt Philip Behm

What We Willingly Accept (+2)

California loses its finest citizens

…acceptable losses

 

America loses its drug riddled youth

…acceptable losses

 

Texas loses its southern border

…acceptable losses

 

Our manufacturing base auctioned away

…acceptable losses

 

Native Peoples crying on reservations

…acceptable losses

 

The electorate abandoned and sold down the drain

…acceptable losses

 

Our finest and bravest fighting forever wars

…acceptable losses

 

Our schools now a swamp and our teachers inept

…acceptable losses

 

We talk to our smart phones and lose all connection

…acceptable losses

 

Our churches and synagogues bombed and attacked

…acceptable losses

 

Our freedom of speech now woke and maligned

…acceptable losses

 

The media profiting from rancor and division

…acceptable losses

 

Our allies mistrusting and looking askance

…acceptable losses

 

The dollar a symbol of greed and decay

…acceptable losses

 

The White House held captive by liars and fools

…acceptable losses

 

Our forefathers rage in eternities sleep

…acceptable losses

 

All shared common values rejected forever

…acceptable losses

 

A world without freedom leading the way

…our future in ashes

 

(The New Room: March, 2021)

 

 

A Borrowed Dream

 

I had you

once

before I lost you in a dream

A dream that I woke up

from

where you stayed beyond my grasp

 

Visiting me each

night

in the bartered hours of my sleep

Holding me beyond

hope

ever cradling my fear

 

Lending me back to

myself

inside this borrowed joy

Until the dawn reminds

again

—I had you once

 

(To Laura Nyro: March, 2021)

 

 

 

All, Or Nothing At All

 

I don’t limit who reads my verse,

only who I answer

 

Each word thick-skinned and armor-clad

all questions zero-sum

 

(To Nelson Riddle & Frank Sinatra: March, 2021)