Call Me

Call me short,
broke, incapable of
holding down
a job or a relationship
you can call me
substandard, subhuman,
subterranean who slums
through his sad excuse
for a life story
and you can
spit on my next of kin
throw stones
at my un-original sins
and toss pebbles at
my troubles
you can snicker at me
from the bare soles
of my feet
to my lost soul
who has no spirit guide
you can call me
all these things
just call,
I want to see if
my new cell phone
ringtone works

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 04.21.12)

editor's note: A little white noise to check reception - content is superfluous. - mh

Sweeping generalities
(under the table)

Just because
everything
is falling together
doesn’t mean
it isn’t falling
and just because
everything
is coming together
doesn't mean
it can’t come apart
so I am going
to go through with
my obligatory
responsibilities
with white trash
panache
and allow myself
to be midwifed
into mid-life
and then
I will party
crash the pearly
gates
with my
never-said-I-was-a-saint
VIP pass
which I stole
from Paul
to give to
Peter

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 01.14.12)

editor's note: Falling and coming, it's all for the benefit of middle-aged passage from here to the next. Paul's got pockets full that will never be missed and Peter will be none the wiser. - mh

The Fabric of Life

I am a human parrot
repeating singsong
that was sung to me
in my birdcage crib
I am made of
made for mass
consumption
products
and therefore I am
part Mickey Mouse
part Dr. Pepper
with Abe Lincoln penny
thoughts which add up
to a pocket-full
of gently used ideals
and when it is all over
donate my
overalls
to Goodwill
and re-sell my
denim dreams
to those
willing to
slip into them
in the
changing rooms
of time

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 09.01.11)

Brain Tease

Hold a mental picture
of a physical body
in your mind’s eye
allow it to
come into focus
what do you see
do you see a floating
fetus on a space Odyssey
or do you see a naked
Miss Universe or
the face of Time Magazine's
Person of the Year
or do you just see
grandpa, still vibrant
without his cane
able to
dance a jig
at a hootenanny
whomever you have
just seen is now
dissolving fast
my, but you
have a short
attention span

- Ivan Jenson

(added 09.01.11)

Caveman's Complaint

Since I have to hunt
and gather
I would rather
know now
what you
bring to the bedrock
besides your
propensity
to perpetuate
the species
read my lips
or the symbols
I have drawn
on the granite
I really need
us to rub twigs
and create fire
just about
now
or I am
going to
invent the wheel
and roll on
out of here

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 07.16.11)

Extended Stay

You might
only be
passing
through but
I live this
twenty four seven
and built it all
from the ground up
you
have only
scratched my
surface
I am
so much more
than this embodiment
stranded
here on an
island of
myself
and while
you think getting to know
me
is just a brief vacation
I am hoping
it might become
our Bermuda triangle
and that you
will remain
lost
with me
forever

- Ivan Jenson

(added 07.16.11)

Evaluation

Take a look at
yourself
what is your
marital status
are you sufficiently
housed
what is your
net worth on the job
market
are your children
showing scholastic
aptitude
how healthy
is your cholesterol
would you say
you are optimistic
or pessimistic
most of the time
I ask this
because I am
your self-esteem
and this is
your daily pop quiz

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 05.31.11)

Best in Show

Everything
is coming up
noses
that have been
cosmetically
tweaked
and collagen
injected puckers
abound
and all this
expensive
perfume
cheapens
the aroma
until eventually
chicks
will be genetically
engineered
to lay
Faberge eggs
all because
we live in a time
when groomed
dogs strut down
the catwalk
while Pussy Galore
runs amok
with a million
randy James Bonds
chasing tail

- Ivan Jenson

(added 05.31.11)

Academia

Your true age
is betrayed
by the college ruled
lines on your forehead
and the legal pad color
of your teeth shows me
you have sipped
from the bitter, staining
black coffee of nights
spent alone
straining your eyes
on the classics
your spectacles
and that thickening mid-section
and thinning hairline
and those elbow patches
on your corduroy blazer
say more about you
than the evasive
answers you gave
at the
Q and A
following your lecture
on Lolita
which your
teacher's pet
attended in
her alluring
turtleneck
on that chilly Autumn
at Cambridge

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 04.22.11)

Survival instincts

I keep very busy
to avoid the void
and I talk a lot
because silence
is awkward
and I make
much love
to abstain
from abstinence
I find strangers
to be stranger
than friends
and though
I may be happy
to make your
acquaintance
I must face
the fact
that I am
better with faces
especially those
who accept
my need
for their
acceptance.

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 03.08.11)

Miss superficiality

I don’t get you
and your quips
zip over my head
like a barber’s trim
you talk even faster
than you walk
really we are separated
by at least two decades
of good times
and bad times
and in between times
and your songs
and my songs
will never be
our songs
what we
shared was
as empty
as my bed
and as
fulfilling
as a Coca-Cola
Zero

- Ivan Jenson

(added 03.08.11)

Citizen Pain

don’t let them fool you
it's not about the process
and it's not about the journey
trust me, it's
about getting there
grabbing what you can
be it a trophy or the cash
the lover or the applause
and then hoarding the spoils
of your riches and
surrounding it with a fortress
built by bricks of fear
and mortar of selfishness
and holding on
with all your might
until you must let go
and say, "Rosebud"

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 12.18.10)

Oldie but Goodie

your words
are the trombone
sounds
in a Charlie Brown
cartoon
and your
viewpoint is
as prehistoric
as Flintstone
re-runs
I live in
my own
Pixar 3-D
world
and am
looking to
go big
as an Imax
screen
you seriously
need to be
colorized
re-mastered
and shown
at midnight
like the
campy
cult classic
you
have become

- Ivan Jenson

(added 12.18.10)

Gushing thoughts

Everyone is Gaga for
telephones
and girls and guys
make simulated
love on the dance floor
and this freaking
is
freaking their
fathers and mothers
who are becoming
as frazzled as
the hair bands
of their youth
so they simply
cozy up by
fake fires
and read Nooks
and I am
neither fresh
nor stale
and my finger
is greasy on
the screen
of the iPad generation
the world is
cut and bleeding
crude greed
in the gulf
and Gore does
not have climate
control over his
life anymore
Obama is going
gray over Hurricane
Alex as Hurricane
Katy Perry washes
over California like
a sexy pink twister
yes, Gaga is
in total
dominatrix over
the land of
Pandora
and desire
blooms eternal
as I tame my
dragon nightly
and now I know
there is no longer
good or evil
just Jake or Edward
and yet I feel
renewed when
I hear a baby
say not Goo Goo
but Gaga as she
reaches for VH1
and
Eclipse falls
upon the
masses
I call out
Bella
and
convince myself
that Kristen Stewart
flicks her hair
for me
but alas
I am not
a wolf
with ripped abs
and so I am only
howling at Michael's moon
walk in outer space

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 08.30.10)

Self-Sabotage

mostly I
divide
my time
between
hope
and worry
with plenty
of ambiguity
to spare
but sometimes
it’s nice
to kick back
and
sip from
a cool can
of
I can’t
while the
sun sets
on another
setback
I shoot
the breeze
just to watch
it gasp
for air
and fall
like wasted
seconds
into a heap
of last
chances

- Ivan Jenson

(added 08.30.10)

Colorful advice

when
you walk
on a blue
brick road
because
you are in
that
moody
red zone
filled with
a sinking
pink feeling
then grab
green
energy
and
soak
up as much
yellow from
the sun
as you can
and
try not
to stand
under
raining gray
and then grab
white chalk
and draw
a simple smile
on midnight's
blackboard

- Ivan Jenson

(added 06.12.10)

Our last supper

when you take
hope off the table
and serve me
stone cold
reality
without
any side
wishes
while leaving
me thirsty
for more
and then
when you
go and
desert me
and tell me
to wake up
and smell
the coffee
you have
not sweetened
well then
you have
not fed
my body
nor my spirit
and you leave
me with
no choice
but to go
to Starbucks

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 06.12.10)

Your Way

It's not about
who you know
it’s about how you
walk into a room
and how you say,
"That's me!"
when your name
is called
it’s how you
step forward
like a future star
on a chorus line
on a broadway
stage
and then
when the spotlight
shoots down
and it’s your turn
to shine
it’s how you
don’t shy away
like Frank Sinatra
never did
when he sang
my way
because you
have learned
to love the
instrument
that is you
and even if
your life is
more karaoke
than
the great white way
you still
have to give
it all you've got
because though
we may be
just a few
drunk friends
or ten thousand
strangers
you really
need us
to love you
all the way

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 03.30.10)

Inner Child

you got a lousy rainbow
so what
sure as bad weather
there will be another
and your chariot
busted down
and never swung
low to carry you home
stop hanging on
to threads
leading to kites
in lightning clouds
you didn’t
discover eccentricity
nobody your age
should still be pulling
a red wagon
filled with flyaway weeds
dandelion dreams
stop trying to be
the Pied Piper
of the Peter Pan principal
as dragons
drag you down
through dungeons
of despair
when will
you grow
up and discover
that tree growing
in Brooklyn
and that
secret Garden
State highway
to adulthood
where like
Robin Hood
you can steal
from the richness
of your childhood
to give to
your poor
attempt at
maturity

- Ivan Jenson

(featured in the poetry forum 01.06.10)