so I’ll pretend to be Gibraltar

you pretend to be the Louvre

and we’ll sublimate desire

when it crawls into the room

exhumed at o’dark’thirty

just a shadow on the wall

sometimes I wonder if I’m here at all

I walk on mental beaches

with my svelte and stoic twin

but I don’t see his footprints

and I wonder where he’s been

the father hunter stumbles

in the dark he feels so small

sometimes I wonder if I’m here at all

© 2018 by Rob Siegel. All rights reserved.

10 – Here at All

the father hunter fumbles

in the neolithic dawn

searching for his stone knife

and his dog-eared Iron John

to slay the scary monsters

and appease his angry god

takes a venti skinny latte

spare the child spoil the rod

danger Will Robinson

my alarm clock blindly shrieks

as it jolts me from one nightmare

to the other in the street

the red meat on the table

from the dead beast in the hall

sometimes I wonder if I’m here at all

as the Tweedle Beetles battle

over butter over guns

the screeching clowns of virtue

stoke their vengeance seeking Huns

would you have the wherewithal

to flee the breaking wave

to seek the elevation

or just crawl back in your cave

I’ll slay the killer rabbit

with my laser pointer then

dispatch the dogs of darkness

dad you got another ten

a cash machine a beauty queen

a slipper at the ball

sometimes I wonder if I’m here at all

would you leave your lover

in the middle of her sighs

would you dare to look

a wild gift horse in the eyes

a postcard from a hurricane

a letter you won’t send

but you’d blow out every old flame

and then light the other end