Tuesday, March 25, 2014

LAST DAY OF CHILDHOOD and LOST CHANCES


 The Last Day of Childhood 


Friends would marvel
at two rope swings hung from the rafters

One thousand feet of newsprint slung on a spool
with a bucket of American Crayons (not Crayola)

Supplies to build great structures of the world
Legos, Tinker Toys, and Lincoln Logs
carried by caravans of Tonka Trucks

Superior to the Great Library of Alexandria:
picture books on geography, WWII, treasures of the art world
American history and Charles Addams cartoons
Archives of Donald Duck, Batman and Archie comics
        --selected by my sister
        --bought by my mother
        --read my me
        --and hauled away by my father

Off in the forbidden realms:
my grandfather's workbench
and its cast iron vice
that clenched and healed
dolls, bikes and chairs

In the opposing corner
whiteness and humming
of an ever industrious
washer and drier

Gurgling and rumbling
in dark rivers below
lies the crocodile of a sump pump

Tucked in a recess
like a scarab beetle
a dusty old bowling trophy

A royal chamber
enshrines artifacts as sacred as
treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb

And now
as distant as the buried bones of a lost caravan

When we left the house
my father inscribed his own hieroglyphs
on the center basement beam
abandoned to later civilizations.

032514
__________________________________________________


THAT COCKTAIL PARTY

That cocktail party you
never attended
for whatever reason
--you were too tired
--you had to work late
--you didn't like the host
--the last one was a zonk

Was where you were going to meet
the business connection
that would lead to the perfect job
the lifelong friend who would one day
help you out of a jam
the woman who would be
the romantic love of a lifetime.

You would have been the perfect guest
throwing off witty bon mots and
making clever repartee

Instead
you made your way home
to open a six dollar bottle of red wine and
flop on the couch to watch
a rerun of The Office
you'd seen twice before

But tomorrow
you may have another chance.


More poems at Verse-Virtual http://www.verse-virtual.com

Thursday, March 20, 2014

FAIR WEATHER FRIEND



Winter arrives as death
but when winter departs does it die?

That patch of snow
the last one
the scab
left over from winter’s fight

Arriving at night
as flurries and fanfare
It disappears in the day
silently shrunken by the sun

I was against it
but now I’m for it
because I realize it’s the underdog
that is destined to lose
at the end of the season


More poems at Verse-Virtual http://www.verse-virtual.com/john-kropf.html





Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Everywhere and More



Everywhere and More


A short bus
ride away
from world’s end
and around
the block
from the empty quarter
lies the last
strip mall
complete with
nail salon
mattress store
dry cleaner.


More poems at Verse-Virtual http://www.verse-virtual.com/john-kropf.html

Saturday, March 8, 2014

NEW SHAKESPEARE

  











There go
those computers
and that Internet
again.

Like Shakespeare
shaping the King’s English:
     --band-width
     --brain-dump
     --Google-it
     --networking while multi-tasking.

Oh yes,
resist:
but how can you
control language
when you can see
futility of French language police

We could
take it off-line
unplug
off the grid.

But even then
digital bard
is programing
our tongue.  


More poems at http://www.verse-virtual.com/john-kropf.html

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Refund



New and Short.  A poem entitled Refund


Refund

I pay
five dollars
to watch
everyone
turn poor
I want
my money
back.


http://www.verse-virtual.com/john-kropf.html