BEAT POEM by Jeff Callaway

BEAT POEM
by jeff callaway

I was cold

I was broke

I was blue

I was afraid

to tell you

the truth.

I was beat

I was bled

I was dead

I was lost

in a sadness

of flesh.

I was not in my head

and not in my bed

and not in a state of mind

so blind instead

to only see red

and not to be led but to lead

or to find this too much a deed

and I never saw the sea

nor saw a see saw

nor sawed a block of wood

I got a wood

I come from the woods

I wooded would

if only me you'd fancy

if only you'd give me a chance, see

no, don't ask me

just eat me

my dirty poem

my greasy goosy root

my lump of words

oh word lump

oh shit of my head

you brain shit

my poetic excrement

iambic pentameter crap

in my lap

paper, pen

this here now

the end…

but oh not to be ended

this letter yet unsent

this everything I meant

this all of me

this whole of my intent

this advertisement

oh the sentiment

I'm an existential transient

a microscopic giant

my angelic element

these felonious hands

these larcenous lands

this utter less greed

that we all must feed

to be able to breathe

and keep your feet

up above all of it

independently buoyant

sophisticatedly exotic

my neurotic doll

my holocaustic tootsie roll

my endless gab and flub and flaw

my flipside

my dip back to the real

my kick back and chill

only feel

don't think

just feel…

on the edge of a teardrop

dripping off the mouth

of my fear…



copyright jeff callaway 2000