Jim Keller Verse-Virtual 2016 September

September 2016

I'm a chemical engineer who recently retired and now have more time to read and write poetry. Over the last twenty or so years, I've been involved with a group of local poets that try to meet monthly; one of them suggested I join your site. I haven't really attempted to submit much work over the years. Some of my poems were last published about ten years ago in Mad Blood, an excellent little magazine, that like so many expired after a run of 7 or 8 years.

My Stomach, My Friend
(A guttural study)

Disgruntled, when I
its amicable advice ignored,
my stomach growled and grumbled, while I
gobbled chips and salsa
gulped Chimichanga
chugged dos Dos Equis

Kept up all night, even as
I slept soundly and tight
it ranted and rumbled
trying gastrin and pepsin
bile and trypsin to solve
the postdoc biochemistry
of that problematical repast

In the morning bleakness
of my awakeness
I could feel its rancor
and taste its sour disposition
To placate it,
I fed it
granola and yogurt
Which grudgingly it accepted
Such gestures
are obligatory, for I,
must get going, and,
like an army of Gauls,
travel on my stomach