By Daniel Gallik
I see things more clearly in my dreams
than my imagination see them when I
am awake, my friend George said this
in 1963 before Kennedy got shot. He
died recently from a bout of cancer.
I asked him about that at Akron City
Hospital days before he succumbed. He
said, I don�t remember that I ever said
that. I said, George, you did. It did
affect my life from that day forward.
George said, why does it matter? I had
to leave the hospital at that moment.
And I never came back to watch his end.
Why does it matter. I say that over
and over to myself. Even after his
funeral. I say the phrase to myself
like it is a prayer. So far, Father
does not answer. As the earth turns.
As the dark clouds come and go away.
As another President waits to be shot.
As another man quietly dies. As not
one thing ever becomes clear to me.
Still, I pray. Before George said that
in 63, his dad died of leukemia at
City. I remember that both did not cry.
***
"At Times, Bright Things Seem Dark"
By Daniel Gallik
In unison the girls at their tea
said, the eye does not see bright
and dark things at the same time.
The neighbors were talking about
the girl next door and how she
had taken in a love with an Afro
who lived two streets down. One
woman got sidetracked, I think
this happened because Libby lost
her hubby just last year. Another
winked in, I believe love with men
of another race just is not good
for a woman�s psyche or her off-
spring. Libby was not present.
She had obtained a job with K-mart.
Crystalline humor dwelled within
a fat woman when she said, heck,
I�d take a man, whatever the size
of his gewgaw. Giggling continued
for at least another cup of mocha.
One hot young redhead muttered,
Shining, dark things become quite
rarefied as the years progress.
Wonder how he would look nude as
you applied some Vaseline on his
behind. All the gals re-squatted
their backsides oh so deftly, but
simultaneously as the topic turned
to all men and their meandering
eyes and lack of well-paying jobs.
***
"Today's Man Gets Hurt Only Once"
By Daniel Gallik
I checked my sweetie last night
and detected some negatives, Bud
was again talking over the phone
to his bud, Bill...and it scared
me. In her eyes the rays within
her luminous pupils had become
larger in proportion as they were
farther removed from her memory.
I started to cry. And she asked
me what the problem was. And I
couldn�t tell her. Bill did not
say a word. Only sobbed with his
friend. Bud wiped his own eyes
and turned his head so away from
the receiver that he looked like
The Thinker in its nudity. Bill
kept crying. Bud was turning
himself away from love. And Bill
knew this. He was so close to
his friend. In that instant Bill
also turned his fate away love.
Little did sweet Anna know what
she had done. She never answered
her phone anymore. Two more times
she fell in love. The last one she
wed, had 2 girls who raised hell.
To Think Deeply Is The Work Of The Master,
To Labor Hourly Is The Work Of The Servant
Lem was in Judy�s Backyard
eating his usual potato pancakes
with a side of sausage
when Mikee walked in and openly
announced what he�d been thinking
about on the drive over, verbiage
adduces authority into
not using intelligence but
rather debilitating our hard memory.
Lem was in no mood for intelligence.
His wife that day packed up, and
left him with their 4 kids. In
a forty foot trailer. With
no groceries. Lem grabbed some
sanity from nowhere
in the above eatery and said,
your natural inclination to
probity defies the un-love
within this moment. My wife
didn�t fuck me last night
in the usual way.
Inception isn�t as important
as result, Lem continued. By
this time
Mikee was having his mocha
and started to cry. He barely
got out, I guess I would
rather be devoid of probity
at this pause
in your life, damn, Lemanual,
what the hell got into her?
Lem bursted out, for
the whole audience of blue
collar largoes, I think
she got tired of literature
and wanted a man that was
a househusband. So she could be-
come the purveyor of extreme
commerce, become a CEO,
and make oodles of bread.
And play around with other
lumps and their buckoes.