Selling the sizzle
and not the steak
Milking a lie
universities take
In debt-ridden wastelands
they prey on our youth
With worthless diplomas
— that mortgage untruth
*****
Whims That Betray
He sobs false remission
to skirt admonition
as his Guardian Angel
smiles ...
“What’s with the tears
after so many years
and choices rejecting
denial
“You did what you pleased
without Heaven appeased
and lay prostrate
feigning regret
“This game isn’t played
at the whims of betrayal
And called you must pay
— for what tears can’t correct”
*****
Love Centered Circle
The things that I’ll miss
are the things I looked past
Those small hidden moments
in memory that last
Giving up little
to chase what had burned
Distracted I forayed
the magic unlearned
Now distant a loner
I look for those tracks
I made through greed’s sand
to find my way back
Because there in the center
holding all that we give
A love centered circle
— where joyousness lives
(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)
E.J. Hudak (Poems 23-26)
Steve
I have a friend
who has a head
we go places
because he is a magic giant
A magic giant
with a head
a heart
& a mind
which on occasion
climbs inside me
to work the controls
pointing me onward
the direction
of the up-elevator
robots stop and rust
without magic giants
with heads
hearts
& minds.
Mallory’s Bar & Grill
When I was young
I was truly young & spent my days
on a sandblown dune
Answering the gulls
victim of the sun, gathering castoff wood
by the foam till noon.
All my friends
from the other world, built their lives
on a split-level hill
Amid two cars & a dog
feeding the brain, seduced by its speed
forgetting the sky
Cursing the snow
cursing the rain, laughing & pursuing
their ten-carat dreams
Climbing
the crushed-stone serpent’s back & damning it
all at Mallory’s Bar & Grill.
Mallory’s Bar & Grill
cars lie rusting in stacks, rubber & oil stain
the serpent’s back
Houses tumble
as a natural whim as brains glow bright
& masters grow dim.
The dune shifts
before my eyes, hair graying, skin going leather
but still the sea
Offers wood to me
the gulls cry, ‘Old man, our living was good.’
our roof was the sky our house that sandy hill.
Laugh on my friends
of the other world, your house & stars
were Mallory’s Bar & Grill;
Lift your glasses to the sun
lift your glasses to the sea, & gather at my gravesite
as the wind & sand bury me.
New Years Eve
I arrived at nine
& already Ids lay
shattered and broken
in pieces on the floor;
They were dragging
the old man
kicking & screaming
out the door;
you would think he’d go willingly
A drink ...
a kiss ...
the blast of a horn;
no reason to suspect
this child to be any different
once it’s born
A Song For Judy
Judy always liked to dance
Most nights when I’d come over
I would surprise her pirouetting
Before the mirror
One yellow spring day
Judy fell in love with an accountant
Who only liked to dance
When he was drunk
I never saw Judy after that
But I would picture her longing
For the crystalline ballroom
And the hush of all those crinolines
Now when I walk alone through country fields
I imagine Judy spinning from my grasp
Dancing ever dancing waist-deep
In tall grass and yellow flowers
Then too I think of that accountant
In some gray convention town
Laughing and drinking with an overnight wife
While Judy comforts a crying child.
-
Author:
Kurt Philip Behm (
Offline) - Published: June 12th, 2026 13:03
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 5
- Users favorite of this poem: Tristan Robert Lange
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Comments3
Kurt, this hit me hard. The third piece especially landed for me. The older I get, the more I realize it is often the overlooked moments that end up carrying the most weight in memory. Powerful work, my friend. 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
Thanks. Glad it resonated.
Of the trio I due to my past exposure to school set on the first. I look at it this way I paid thousands of dollars to learn one thing that there is no truth for it constantly changes.
Im a product of the old University System, where all points of view were respected. Ive lived across the street from Villanova University my entire life and watched it morph into a politically correct blast of hot air. What's worse is, that with the exception of the engineering and nursing schools, what they teach and charge almost 100k a year for is worthless. Ive hired many MBA's over the years and they all had to be trained on the job starting at ground zero. I always preferred someone with no business 'education' so I could train them myself. A.I. is going to stick a dagger into the heart of so-called higher education. If you can get the #1 authority in every field, lets say, Stephen Hawking in theoretical physics to teach a class and have it available on-line where every willing student could access it for free — I think we're looking at the future. Id rather learn entrepreneurship from Elon Musk than from some wannabee hack that's never been outside the ivory covered walls. Ok, rant over ...
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