December 2016
Joan Colby
JoanMC@aol.com
JoanMC@aol.com
I have written poetry and short fiction all my life and published a lot of it. My day job is editor of a trade publication Illinois Racing News. I live on a small horse farm in northern Illinois with my husband and various animals. My latest book, "Ribcage," (from Glass Lyre Press) recently won the 2015 Kithara Book Prize. I also am an associate editor of FutureCycle Press and Kentucky Review.
"Stand up for the Stupid and Crazy"
-Walt Whitman
Give five bucks to the woman with the sign
And the four homeless children and the hungry dog
Even if it’s a scam as everyone insists, it’s still a hell of a way
To make a living.
And the guy wandering along the riverbank
Talking to himself. Let him be.
It’s a free country and if he wants to throw himself
Into the river tonight, that’s his choice.
If someone spends the grocery money
On a lottery ticket, let him. He just might win
And even if he doesn’t he had that hope
Which is as good as hot dogs or Mountain Dew.
And if a girl is screaming in the restroom
Because her boyfriend killed her cat
Scream right along with her, you’ll
Both feel better. Then help her kick his ass.
So go ahead and do something willfully stupid.
Buy that pot of flowers with your last ten dollars.
Forget the electric bill, who needs lights
When you can go crazy and samba in the streets.
Tar River Poetry Review
-Walt Whitman
Give five bucks to the woman with the sign
And the four homeless children and the hungry dog
Even if it’s a scam as everyone insists, it’s still a hell of a way
To make a living.
And the guy wandering along the riverbank
Talking to himself. Let him be.
It’s a free country and if he wants to throw himself
Into the river tonight, that’s his choice.
If someone spends the grocery money
On a lottery ticket, let him. He just might win
And even if he doesn’t he had that hope
Which is as good as hot dogs or Mountain Dew.
And if a girl is screaming in the restroom
Because her boyfriend killed her cat
Scream right along with her, you’ll
Both feel better. Then help her kick his ass.
So go ahead and do something willfully stupid.
Buy that pot of flowers with your last ten dollars.
Forget the electric bill, who needs lights
When you can go crazy and samba in the streets.
Tar River Poetry Review
©2016 Joan Colby
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