you delight me invite me ignite me excite me incite this despite fight or flight me you fright i don’t care it’s not fair me i stare can’t believe nor conceive that you’re here me so queer never leave crawl a mile for your smile over glass drag my ass up a hill in the … Continue reading
Here’s to the brilliant Those beautiful minds The hidden The downtrodden And most of all the wallflowers Those who are awkward The shy Yes the modest The savants And learned idiots too Those blending in And eager to do so The quiet Unnoticed Unflashy Unassuming Those secretly gifted But overlooked Those dismissed Here’s to you … Continue reading
somebody’s gonna love you just for you not because you’re so damn fine looking (which you are) and not because of the sound of your voice and not because you wear the nicest clothes or because you’re so cool and so hip they’re gonna see you and know you and love you for you they’ll … Continue reading
Town to town the road is clear No traffic lights for miles There is no need for gasoline Forget all of your trials Six o’clock the sun’s gone down The sky’s an amber glow I’m thinkin we could get some grub I’m starvin don’t ya know? Mr Christie said today That traffic was too bad … Continue reading
Wrap me around your little finger I’ve no objections Or scruples It seems Make me henpecked and pussy-whipped I won’t argue Or fuss too much No doubt Quite the contrary That’s all I want To belong to you, can’t you see? More with each waking hour And each passing day That’s all I want That’s … Continue reading
i do undercurrent i do wake yours and theirs mine for certain ours i do atmosphere sometimes flavor i try like cheese i do suggestion nuance a flourish no doubt take liberties give hints insinuations accusations all the time why not? it’s better than other outlets like a scolding i do a sense innuendo a … Continue reading
I’ve no poetry only malaise Life intrudes and I’m unable to believe in diatribes and excess and flourishes and pronouncements I just can’t I’ve no poetry only strife Real obstacles that make me cynical in what I see lacking hope for what could be I just won’t Say anything or express myself anymore It’s redundant and phony it’s … Continue reading
I’m having a fun stream-of-consciousness moment, so welcome. I’m in a free-hand kind of mood, so suspend belief. I have a music thing is where I’m at and sometimes I know it’s my own little secret, one of those things I’d say if asked “what’s the one thing we don’t know about you”. I spend … Continue reading
my house is haunted i know, i swear, i feel it bats in the belfry the eighteen-nineties that was a long time ago an english basement where the workers lived well that’s the story and those weren’t white people they lived up the stairs ran the businesses in the center of the town a stone’s … Continue reading
the faucet drips and drips the sands land in the hourglass the alarm clock rings too loud the gas light goes on in the car five shot dead in seattle the sun’s coming up again the heat’s kicked on cause it’s cold outside such a streak of illogical weather a uruguayan bit the arm of … Continue reading
these are the old days the good times yeh that’s what they are the times you remember and never forget the ones you look back on with little regret these are your yesterdays the younger days that you’re pining for the past that you carry that keeps you awake at night up and pacing with … Continue reading
twilight before dawn dark night until light there’s pain before happy there’s death until risen there’s suffering to heal but the sunrise today no matter what they say there’s a will and a way.
Oh for the love of a poet. You should be so lucky. Or damned. Oh for the love of he who looks to die for his art. If only you were art. Oh for the love that relentlessly and unceasingly is love incarnate: breathing and alive and busting at the seams and joyously pining and … Continue reading
the day that death died and not only for Christians but they call it good friday the day when jesus died for your sins he did that they say but jesus came back and that’s really the message that’s how death died see? oh, gethsemane after receiving a kiss a smug betrayal put through the … Continue reading
meet me tonight down on second street northwest last night things got rowdy “not the first time” they say a gallery window was shattered last week a woman done did it threw another one in it let’s meet later on on the top of that block where italian’s the feast and the elks done get … Continue reading
We live in a world of our own in a box sealed up tightly in silence whilst away all the time yet we talk our big game such a whirl we are having like it needs to be told parsing out wishful thinking It is so often said that “you can’t take it with you” … Continue reading
sometimes the world it seems so tired in so much muck we get so mired to greater good we shrug our shoulders no longer strength to lug more boulders when life no longer holds that magic we once believed in oh so tragic tough and jaded made of stone we walk the desert all alone … Continue reading
I thrill in your absence Sit still here in silence Filled up with resplendence In your effervescence Not fleeting You’re sweet I can’t help what you do Not phony Or fake I can see that you’re true I cave in your presence Stand brave in your wake I wonder and hope That you know I’ve … Continue reading
My sweet old honey She stole my money It isn’t funny Yes she did My sweet old baby She left me maybe And drove me crazy Yes she did It’s been so long ago And it’s done even so Well I just didn’t know That she would Would I do it again? If I did … Continue reading
i don’t want to listen to your face it’s embarrassing it’s not for you? you look embarrassed you sound embarrassed but mostly i’m embarrassed having to listen and mostly to try and figure out what in the hell you’re talking about the walls are closing in on me philoneous cerulean rivers and moons of yesterday … Continue reading
what’s this about peace? i’ve heard it mentioned not as much around here lately but mentioned the same some do roll their eyes if you utter the word to them it’s passe they cough clear their throats even they say it’s a pipe dream a fool’s scheme that does seem impossible sure for our ills … Continue reading
for some the world is black and white where everything is logical across the land they trust a way philosophy that’s practical it’s step-by-step, connect the dots a full proof method tried and true follow the rules and soon you’ll see and master oh most anything linear linear start one two three sequentially an evidence-based … Continue reading
My beautiful darling I love you more Than the crocuses That peek their heads out In January Albeit prematurely How can they help themselves? Like I can’t with you My sweet honey I love you more Than the warm smiles from strangers On a cold winters night On the street Unexpectantly When I need it … Continue reading
You speak in euphemisms and delicacies and fabrications. With such bombastries and pomposities and grandiloquences. What’s with this false front and the put-on high-handedness? And the whispering down the alley and talking in innuendos and riddles and smoke and mirrors and this gosh-darned twisting up in tangles? I wouldn’t know. Smug yes I am I’ve no … Continue reading
First published in Gadfly Magazine in March 2012, and in New Future in October 2012. Come see me where the river bends Miles before giving way to the sea From high in the mountains Crystal clear and inviting Making way On its own I’m not far away, so why don’t you come? To where the … Continue reading
Pieshoveler was written in Dec 2011 and put to music by Sid Scott in Feb 2012, gravy-assed wastepuke lump-loined cumhugger rank-eyed furmagnet greasy-flavored horsechauffeur who do you think you are? tell me, who do you think you are?! tiny-breasted cooterbomb sissy-stained goatgobblin brillo-fisted turdguzzler lily-speckled pieshoveler who do you think you are? tell me, who do you … Continue reading
Of you I am curious With restrained fascination I am utterly enchanted You’re unorthodox and peculiar And idiosyncratic Neither logic or reason Could explain how you tick Or account for your ways You’re off-color, atypical And a breath of fresh air In a world where it stinks And it’s stale, hard to breathe My fire is … Continue reading
so mindlessly and helplessly and recklessly and merrily we carry on self-consciously and heartlessly and pointlessly and clumsily we miss the mark indubitably a gap so stark so restlessly and tactlessly and tirelessly and tellingly not on a lark we lost the spark out of the park ridiculously.
Hey, I thought about you and it was quiet and measured and a nice harkening back. I thought about you and feel in my heart I can forgive you. I wish I could’ve sooner. I just need you to know. Back then, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t. I know it took … Continue reading
Everything I said fell flat Everything I did you were unawares All the things I tried I tried alone Everything I said fell flat That strange look in your eyes The last time that we spoke You were off someplace else Was I over your head? What I said you looked blank Do you like … Continue reading
put out there in spades sitting naked and vulnerable for all the world to see or nobody at all slapped together for fun it’s a trip and it works it’s stone cold and stoic and sober besides you think this means something? i tell you, you’re wrong fully lacking in substance there’s not anything more are you looking for … Continue reading
Have you finally reached the tipping point? Have things come to a head? I can only commend you I would never have lasted so long Under the circumstances I mean Has it all run its course? How long can it go on? With all your fighting and fussing And pushing this hard? There has to … Continue reading
there’s no such thing as the common man there’s no such thing as the average joe or boilerplate there’s no such thing as ordinary no such thing conventional me thinks a myth there’s no such thing as Jones or Smith or John Q Public everyman there’s really no such thing they said that you are … Continue reading
Caffeine or codeine Depends on your mood Need pep in your step? No coffee you’re screwed Hanging up off the ceiling? The narcotic should work You’ll sleep like a baby And drool like a jerk In a stupor or hyper How you feeling right now? Choose an upper or downer You’ll get through it somehow.
It’s a ghost town here Where are the faces I used to look into? They’re gone. It’s deserted here Memories still linger Of days now long passed But they’re gone. All of the places And seeds that I’ve sown The laughter and teardrops And people I’ve known They’re all ghosts.
Pete Armetta 