Barrys Christmas Card 2014

The Facebook List

Since numbers never lie, I see one number less
of friends on Facebook now, my friend page makes me stress.
You dropped me as your friend, so now it's not so fun.
We were on Facebook then, but now you've had to run.
I don't know why you left, or who in life you are,
You, a friend so distant, and now you're really far.
It seems unimportant on why you're missed  today,
I went to check and see which friend escaped my play.
And since I keep no list of who jumps ship on me,
I'll have to wonder why this memory persists.
I knew you once it seems and now you think me nuts
or maybe thought occurred to you that now I am a putz.
I'd friend you in a minute and ask you what I did
to piss you off so bad and why you now are hid.
Oh, I think, okay to leave, we knew each other long,
since you said I was friend, I chose another song.
I wish you well enough to say your flame goes on
inside this well-worn heart, your day again will dawn.
So bye for now, dear friend, you're gone from daily eyes,
I maybe saw your posts, or who you did despise.
So fair you well, old friend, I, too, must go away,
I won't be weird or mad, if you come back one day.

Barry G. Wick
(I write rhyming poetry that can easily be tossed away...on passing issues of the day...and don't care how far it spreads.  It's not my intimate, important work that is usually not rhyming.  So if you wish to share it, just please attach my name to the bottom so someday people might find my serious work.)

Cereal Murder

Good morning bowl, good morning spoon,
good morning milk, I sing your tune.

Upon the box of oaties sweet,
law in black words quite small, but neat.

From snakes of York law words with charm
protecting them if they do harm.

So now, I'll eat my breakfast, dear,
as I feel sure the poison's near.

Protect me, someone, from all that's bad
in my red bowl: this food I had.

Barry G. Wick

Writer and Editor Russell Jaffe runs the Strange Cage poetry reading bacchanal in Iowa City near-by where I now live in Coralville.   He edits an on-line poetry magazine he calls "USA"...and he's published one of my newest poems.  Here's the link:

http://www.russelljaffeusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/THE-BIG-TUNA1.pdf

The Big Tuna

I'm rolling in an ocean tank

called Coralville

When the wind comes shooting across the roof

and I hear the metal ripple

sounding like a large tuna can opening

Oh it's a damn big tuna can about 80 feet in length

I'm the big tuna sitting inside

cut to pieces that fit

by the death of my mother whose eyes dried up

like an old lemon in the fridge

no more sting

no more sour

then it ripples one more time

her best friend floats belly up in the tank 7 days later

and then the lid finally reveals the meat inside

my best friend

slips across the great barrier reef

I feel like the goddam tuna of death

because I went swimming with them all before I left

I fishtailed into their worlds to make my report

only to be gutted

As each one was hooked with no release

the hooks pulled chunks of my life

away into this odd shaped can

The wind ripples across the top of my house

one more time

and I'm the tuna again

trying to reattach my fins

to get the hell out of here

the thoughts of things undone

incomplete friendships and projects

pulled into a new tank

where my pieces just don't make sense

because I'm still a tuna cut up in the can

thinking about how to swim away

from what I feel

only to find I have been skinned

no longer raw

cooked in the can

and no ocean in sight

swimming in some unnamed oil

an oil that washes up on a dark shore

that cooks as it kills

Welcome to the can it says

you chose the oil instead of the water

I'm just the fish in this sandwich

Maybe being the bread on the outside

could more appealing

as the teeth of the world sink into them first

which means I've forgotten

that even the bread gets eaten

so nothing makes it out of the can

or the sack

or the mayo jar

nothing makes it out alive

All we're left with is empty cans

crumbs and dirty dishes

for someone else to clean up

Copyright © 2014 by Barry G. Wick All rights reserved.

 published by USA online, Russell Jaffe, Editor