One of my more recent poems.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NEVER ASKED
because you weren’t home when I called
because the front page news is depressing
because nine-year-olds are not supposed to carry guns
because you called and left a message
because I’m not getting enough sleep lately and my head hurts and I think we’re out of coffee
because my guitar has a broken string, the high E, and I’m not very good at playing it anyway
because it’s the first day of school and I’m waiting for a PIX message from my brother of his son walking into kindergarten
because the grass is wet and my knee is sore and the iPod died in the middle of Dylan’s “Tombstone Blues”
because I’m running everyday and still getting fat
because gas prices have hit three bucks a gallon and I can’t afford to fill up
because
because they want to build a warehouse on a farm near the Turnpike and the neighbors are fighting it
because I like neighbors who fight and I don’t like developers
because there’s a cardinal in the backyard
because summer is ending and I didn’t get to the beach enough
because you’re worried about your job
because I’m worried too
because rumors are like chemical waste, leeching into the water supply, spreading in a grand plume of foreboding
because the company is sending jobs to India
because India has the bomb and Pakistan has the bomb and Iran and North Korea want one
because we have the bomb and we say we’re ready to use it
because I said so
because they’ve got the counter in and the appliances and this damn renovation is nearly done
because the dog’s eyes are red from allergies and I forgot to give her eye drops
because she doesn’t care and just wants a rawhide or tennis ball or something
because the gutters are clogged and weeds are growing from them
because the gutters look like window boxes and that is utterly ridiculous
because Y is a crooked letter
because the president lied
because he keeps repeating it again and again though we know and he knows it’s a lie
because there is a line from a song running over and over again in my head
because I hate the song and its artificial drum beat
because I hate that they keep playing it, that it’s there every time I turn on the radio
because rock and roll is not poetry and poems are just words anyway and words are meaningless when you have to face a woman whose son was killed by a roadside bomb
because soldiers die in war and civilians do too and if you don’t believe me read the reports from Baghdad and Beirut and the bomb shelters outside Haifa
because the dog just ate half a tennis ball and threw it up on the carpet
because that seems so trivial with the news on in the background
because it is trivial, but it’ll leave a stain in the carpet if I don’t clean it up
because there are worse things than stains to worry about
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 