Category Archives: Poems
Summer’s Gone
A WINTER TALE : ONE CIGARETTE
ONE CIGARETTE
“It’s cold out here
I’m freezin’ ta death!”
An old man
Says teeth chattering
In his skull
I walk past
All the bars the
Hipsters the vagrants
Past the bright lights
Of clubs & stores
That offer no refuge
From the below zero
Glare of street lamps
And cars
But there
She stands freezing
Shaking uncontrollably
On the corner
In a short dress
& a thin puffy coat
Trying to look tough
When she can’t be more
Than 17
“Hey mister !”
“You got a cigarette?”
I turn to look
Across the street
“I’ll suck your cock for twenty dollars”
And in a moment
That seems like an eternity
I stare. It’s that feeling that
Comes over you when it
Seems like everything
Is unreal
But then
It hits me
Not disgust
But a nausea
A sadness that suddenly
Wells up into my gut
My soul and my heart
Broken into 100,000 pieces
In less than 30 seconds
I shake my head …
“No.”
I don’t have a cigarette for you
Go home.
Your Mom & Dad
Are probably dying
Right now without you
Go find a warm shelter and
Get off this street now or I’ll
Have to call the police
“Fuck You !”
She replies
And again
That nauseous feeling
Returns
And sadly
And calmly
I reply back
Not even one
Cigarette or a $20 dollar bill is going to
Save your sorry ass
And if you haven’t already
Noticed God isn’t saving you
Or watching over you
Either
So
You only have
2 choices
You can freeze
To Death or you can save
Yourself
And that’s
The only gift
There is
Living.
And I don’t care
“Merry Christmas”
And I
Walked off into
The cold & the snow
Knowing nothing
More for her
Could ever be done
~ R.M.2018
Coffee Ass Blues & Other Poems: The New Book ~ R.M. Engelhardt 2018
Now Available:
My new book of poems “Coffee Ass Blues & Other Poems” is now available on Amazon through Alien Buddha Press with illustrations by friend & fellow poet Red Focks. Get your copy today …
Talon-Poems Albany Poets
A Revelation of Smoke
The Sunday Morning
Church Bells
Change The World
From Dark To Light
They Are A Sign
That The World
Is Still Alive
Awake
With Beauty
Grace
And Hope
~ R.M.
#troyny
WORDS
Searching for words
In the morning sun
Of another new day
~R.M. Engelhardt
BELTANE
BELTANE
If a new world begins once again
As an ode to the light conceived, The cold
The dark turned away
Then I shall return
In the sunlight
Like memory
Like Spring
Again
~ R.M. Engelhardt
2017
A Winters’ Tale
A WINTERS TALE
In the evening
The early morning
This small world
Exists in silence
Just the wind
The snow envelops
All lights & this city
And the earth
Has momentarily
Ceased
Traveled back in
Time before man
Ran the show
The trees
Don’t seem
To care
I breathe in
The dark and
Breathe out
The daylight
And the earth
Returns again
Awakes to
The sounds of
Birds, machinery
And church bells
Perhaps
This is the
Closest we ever
Get to heaven
Perhaps
These are
The last moments
Of a sacred God
Who is no longer
Aware