I started writing when I was 15, trying to “Crystal Blue Persuasion” the poetry world.  46 years have passed since then, taking all of a single second.  Just released from Urban Farmhouse Press is my book of poems called Booking Rooms in the Kuiper Belt.  Also available: Bend of Quiet from Blue Light Press.
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A Tommy James and the Shondells Childhood


Illinois, bologna
sandwiches eaten on the backyard picnic table,
underwear hanging on the clothesline,
a vesper iris opening at 4:00pm
by the garage. And

Tommy James and the Shondells— 
turning up the transistor radio 
with each new single under
the Chinese Elm, biking to
E.J. Korvettes to get a
WLS and WCFL music survey
every week without fail, in case
Tommy moved from 19 to 15.  Songs
postered my ears while I slept, left

footprints on my eyelids.  A teenager,
Illinois felt like a throwaway B side,
everything planned out like the lawn
I had to mow after the church benediction 
that came exactly at noon.  

Lawns had music.  Each grass blade 
joined a band.  Ant hippies gave 
peace a chance while we waited 
for the next hit that would change our lives
forever, the one that never came.