Drawing by Judith Wolfe

HARRY JOHNSON /

Two Poems



      Living on the Peninsular

      I'm out on a limb,
      drifting and literally
      washed by the sea.
      Almost an island,
      as almost no man is,
      I'm saved from insularity
      by just a lick and a spit.

      NewZ From the Marketplace

      And a man from Samaria
             not wishing to be responsible
                     for welfare dependency
      passed by on the other side too

      saying, Verily
             I will go to the market place
             & I will create wealth
             which will trickle down into the palms
                            of the wretched
                               of the earth

          & he went away
                & he spent large
                      & played most mightily
                            & the money flowed down from his prodigal fingers
                                 & brimmed the purses of others
                                           who were men like unto himself

      and a little later of course,
                                   for the man to be set upon by thieves
                                       for he was long dead.


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