Poetry by Paul Handley

Pieces

Toddler clothes with attitude

are adornments that make it

easier to gain friends.

A condom is not a condiment,

though a nice spermicidal lube is.

My thin hair had caused me

to be a connoisseur of hats.

The visor as a design

draws a circle, a spotlight

on the bare patches.

It looks so horrible

I may have to get one.

A day at the races

is a squalid affair

and the beauty of poetry is

the opportunity to say squalid(see connoisseur above).

What should happen to people that return

to their job after retirement

because they miss the action or

state I love my job or

believe colleges should be

vocational schools of higher learning

or rank schools by the jobs their

students get because of the

school they attended?

_

Small Town Idaho

Hoosiers confused it with Iowa.

Stories confused the cold plug-in engines

with Wyoming.  The school catalogue

picture confused with greens and blues.

The university and Union Pacific railroad

confused me with promises of

liberalism.

The LDS church,

not on any maps,

was a quarter of the power

of Puritans in Massachusetts.

The skinheads were relegated

to a tree fort up north.

I lived in semi-desert, bald hills

and mountains.  Two and half hours

To Sun Valley, Yellowstone and

Salt Lake City.  A foreign country.