Five Poems

Five Poems
By Jack Brummet


Concrete Poem

No Exit, 3

Once you grab a tiger by the tail,

You can never let it go.

                  ***

Mission Statement

The army
Has two duties--

To break things, and kill people;

Everything else is just fluff and overhead.

                   ***

It's Better Than You Think

1

Every throbbing second of your time here,
You engage in a game of dodge ball,

Bobbing and weaving through a multitude
Of objective hazards, walls, and shoals

Over which you have no control―
And only a fraction of which you ever see.

2

We almost always feel less
Safe than we actually are.

                   ***

Takeback

1
You can withdraw it
Marginalize it
Forget it

Hide it
Lie about it
And deny it three times before the cock crows.

2
You can snigger about it
Weep about it
Shout about it

Hide it under a bush (oh no)
Sing the blues about it
And sweep it under the rug.

3
You can get an ulcer over it
Jump off the Aurora Bridge over it
Lose your family over it

Lose your shorts or mind over it
And pretend
It never happened.

4
You can dream about it
Run away from it
Rationalize it

Psychoanalyze it
And drink it away
But you can't take back love.
    ---o0o---