Success? Oh-**!
You can’t just dabble in it, boy.

You need to bathe with it.
Wash your hair in it.
Spread it on your sandwiches.

Buy expensive jewelry for it.
Name your firstborn after it.
Don’t let psychoanalysts talk you out of it.
Tell everyone you know you have it.
Jump when it says jump.

And remember, at night!
When you and success are alone,
never close your eyes
to make sure it doesn’t sneak off
to embrace someone
more successful than you.

splendid Daisy and Lilith
taken troubled merchants afar
the serenity psychoanalysts

The bespectacled elite gathered in the glassy box
of modern architecture, prattling politely about the
poet’s new novel, analyzing psychoanalysts and
parsing the layers of rhetoric that shaped the modern age.

The high-speed spreading at high school debates
served as a high-minded metaphor of linguistic legerdemain,
contained a critique of the vacuity of the era’s political speech.
Outside, a panhandler begged for bites of a breakfast sandwich.

poets are the best- of the worst.
poets are the best psychoanalysts- but can't seem to be happy.
we are the most blessed because of our words-
but the saddest due to understanding them.
poets are a lot of things- but we aren't the best of things,
we only try our hardest.

The psychoanalysts and the intellectuals
Will have a field day with me

All my sickness visible
Conflicts they can see

I don't deny this mental try
But I write for free

I do my best, if I pass the test
To others I will be

Wounded inspiration
Enduring vulnerability

The River of Lies and Deceit keeps flowing.
It's obviously a matter of course.
Desperation and guile feed it,
And Donald Trump is the river's source.

Almost everything that comes
Out of that man's mouth is a lie.
Have the psychoanalysts tried
To figure out the reason why?

Poor ***** training perhaps
When he was a kid, wetting his pants?
Does that explain his nasty behavior?
Does that explain his childish rants?

Call someone a socialist
And that will spell the person's doom,
He thinks. Donald Prevaricator
Ought to be his nom de plume.

He lies about his opponent's record;
He lies when he talks about immigration;
He lies about election polls;
He lies about the state of the nation;

He lies when he speaks of border issues;
He lies about his foreign connections;
He lies about the economy;
He lies about fraud in our elections.

Would it be better to count the times
He tells the truth instead of lying?
Hmm. Let's see. It's going to take
A while to do it…. We're still trying.

How he gets away with it
Is really hard to understand.
Meanwhile, the River of Lies
And Deceit continues to flood the land.

-by Bob B (8-31-24)