Couple next door way older than sixtyish me compact camper in place when we arrived a man, a woman silver hair matching dog say hello when they return late evening Early risers, both come morning they let dog out back in we nod 'hello' As I enjoy my morning campfire coffee I am reminded how small, hard shell campers amplify, resonate conversation basic sound of even minimal activity quite clearly to surrounding environs I stop mid-sip caffeine not nearly as invigorating, entertaining as the grunts, giggles - lots of giggles emanating from the little trailer next door as the sun rises neighborly activity their passion for the woods ebbs As my attention returns to my coffee I am impressed with my unknown neighbors morning prowess and raise a silent travel-mug toast realizing they recreate via very fitting 'Scamp' brand trailer A company for whom they should do endorsements for while I could plainly hear all the knockin' it was never once even slightly rockin' – Mark L. Lucker © 2022 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd #campfirepoems
Confirmation, 06/11/22
In the hierarchy of
experiences
life, death
love, loss
nothing to a poet
is as evocative of
godliness,
eternal truth
as northern rain
falling fiercely
on meager roof
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2022
Self portrait
The extremes of who, what I am whence I hail internally DNA, culturally, spiritually nature/nurture all fun to puzzle-piece together free form, no squared-off edges of big-picture guidance What my forebearers were who they were what they did what was done to them is historically recorded, reported yet remains very personally unresolved My now obsessive, reflexive detective skills honed with time, experience, dumb luck eureka moments dead ends smugly proved theories can be broken down quite simply as such: Having descended from rough, seafaring Vikings and equally tough, resilient, proud diaspora Ashkenazi my long-standing exploratory‘what's next?’ curiosity-fueled wanderlust is DNA encoded as is my state of perpetually wondering dichotomy: should I stop and pillage or simply keep wandering – Mark L. Lucker © 2022 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
Open
I long for the sound of an old wooden screen door slamming oak frame, wire mesh heavy, with a new spring so the initial slam triggers recoil – residual wood WHAP! Thump! clunk. Nothing to stop an old wooden screen door save gravity those doors were rapt percussion a backbeat to youthful adventure The one at grandma and grandpa’s cabin portal to the lakeshore down the hill or the heavier-framed version with Coke-sign bumper jingling bell – the front door of Larson’s corner store where you always got a double-dip slam when arriving to return an empty for deposit again upon leaving with excitement and cold, full bottle of Nesbitt’s Strawberry I long for the sound of an old wooden screen door slamming oak frame, wire mesh heavy, with a new spring like the ones I was told as a kid to never slam but that could never contain me then or my fond recollection now I’ll forever let that door slam but I’ll never let it close
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2021
Sitting at a brewery rural, northern Minnesota tasting a variety of beers, ales small flights of five A couple - mid-twenties sits across from us they too, are sampling each other - first timers comparing dating app peccadillos head-scratching mismatches awkward exchanges preferences for beer types, each other quickly give way to comfortable laughter Another pair - fiftyish same scenario plays out - stilted chatting on beer, backgrounds, dating uneasy silences punctuated with periodic 'I like this' 'This one is good' trivial talk of weather The younger couple finishing their beer excitedly agrees to head up the road for go karts, mini-golf The older sippers settle in find common ground exchanging phones with grandkids pictures conversation turns to banter body language softens, words lose nervous edge as the sun sets they have settled in Meanwhile we have worked our way through all ten of our brews vicarious curiosity in both neighboring sets of beer lovers trying new things discovering perhaps that romance is much like brewing - it's all about combining the right ingredients, patience For me the evening simply confirmed I like my beers hoppy my endings happy
– Mark L. Lucker © 2021 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
Witness 04/20/21
‘A bouquet of humanity.’
– Jerry Blackwell
The youngest among the crowd
that day was nine
On her way to that very store
to buy snacks
Walking with her cousin, who
was twelve that day
“Get off of him!” said the younger
girl, with plaintive scowl
She said it more than once.
The store clerk was a boy of
eighteen, and would’ve
sold the girls their snacks
had not fate intervened
He now bears guilt not
in any way his
just because he made
the call that brought the cops
The same cops told by
the little girl that they were hurting
the man on the pavement
“Get off of him!” said the younger
girl, with sterner scowl
She said it more than once.
Just like the woman who stopped
on her way to work in a
community garden, on her day off
from her paramedic job
she offered to help the man
while echoing the little girl’s plea.
She said it more than once.
Others gathered on that
neighborhood curb, showing
neighborhood concern for
the man on the pavement
saying he couldn’t breathe as
a different man, lacking any sense
of community, of humanity
kneeled on the gasping man’s neck
“He can’t breathe!”
“Get off of him!”
“You need to let him up!”
“He says he can’t breathe!”
They said it more than once.
But the man with his knee on the
neck of the man the community saw
in their community, on their street
standing on their curb, now yelling at
the indifferent man with his knee on
a neck, his hand in his pocket
like he was waiting for a bus at that
very bus stop – a bus he would
not be caught dead riding because
it didn’t go where he wanted to be
because people on those buses were
of a neighborhood not his
a neighborhood far from his
both in geography and in being
They said it more than once.
The little girl, her cousin, the paramedic
the retired man out for a stroll
the other guy who just happened by
And the teenaged girl who had presence
and a phone
and who filmed the whole thing
and the video found its way to every
nook and cranny of the globe
and millions of people in thousands
of other neighborhoods
took to their streets, their sidewalks
their own curbs, bus stops, corner stores
and they said the man with his knee
should’ve gotten up
should’ve let the other man breathe
should’ve helped the man when he
stopped breathing
They said it more than once.
We know this, because a young woman
recorded it all, shared it with the world
shared the truth of what happens
far too often on far too many city streets
They showed it more than once.
And now everybody knows that
the little girl was right, and knows
so much more than she did that day
when she said to the man with his
hand in his pocket: “Get off of him!”
And so does her cousin.
And do does the boy who worked in
the store and feels the pain
of that day as does the paramedic and
the retired man, and the others who
stopped that day, tried to stop what
they were seeing, tried to save a man
they did not know, from a man they
also did not know, but whose actions
changed all of their lives
changed all of our lives
They said it more than once.
Then they said it one more time.
In a courtroom, for all the world to hear
Lousy, clearly, directly.
They say they are not heroes
because they couldn’t stop it
but in stating for the record
what they saw, what they tried to do
reaffirming what the video showed
reinforcing what their community has
long known, what most of us ignored
In the end, one of the men who
prosecuted the man with the knee
on the neck of the neighborhood
praised the people on the curb –
‘A bouquet of humanity’
They are a bouquet
perpetually in bloom, never to wilt
forever vibrant with the hues of
justice, truth, and courage
They said it more than once.
They said it one more time and
the world, finally, listened.
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2021
The Zoom boom
Setting up a Zoom social for high school classmates - class of 1977, bay-bee! - one invitee, confused or simply stuck in wrong mode repeatedly refers to our impending ‘conference’ I teasingly remind him this is no business-tinged partitioned hotel ballroom gift-bags, sales-pitch fest imploring him to instead think ‘virtual cocktail party’ Bring a designated Zoomer. If you get too pixilated as host, I will cut you off quarantine you in breakout until you come into focus Welcome to our new age not some letter generation we are a new breed of Zoom Boomers – checking out waiting room easel signage for later evening breakout sessions each to taste -beer drinkers, wine aficionados, craft spirits martini drinkers sent elsewhere to Skype with…? We are Boomer Zoomers hip, with it, groovy having outlasted ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ we have mastered ‘log in, check in, get out’ Our entirely new levels of connotation, free love, consciousness whenever, wherever we are told ‘hey, get a room’ – Mark L. Lucker © 2020 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
More
A woman I know
mid-fifties
went protesting
first timer
missing out as
teenager
with strict parents
she wanted
‘self-fulfillment’
Seeing her a few
days later I
asked if she found
what she
had been seeking
“Yes and no”
she smiled
ruefully
“I fell in with a
group
of college kids
who poured milk
on my face”
quickly adding
“for the tear gas”
Her voice trailed.
“It wasn’t
at all
about me”
I nodded.
“Please tell me
that I really didn’t
go there for me”
“I think you did…”
she frowned
“now, here you are.”
We stood there
a summer breeze
kicking up dust
“Maybe you’re right”
she said, smiling
“I’m going to need
some more
goddamned milk.”
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2020
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
We never had one of
those TV sitcom
father-imparts-his-sage
wisdom, serious sit-downs
that I can recall
I have no fatherly counsel
fortune-cookie-inclusion
viral-meme-worthy
wisdom to share
rarely proclaiming,
“As my daddy used to say…”
Sans great punchline
parts of my father
I carry with me, mirth more
tangible than profundity
less open to interpretation
than mere platitudes
a life lived differently,
enjoyed fully
real examples used regularly:
treat people well
don’t sweat the small stuff
experience new things
appreciate old one
learn from whoever you can
because you
always can and you should
we never
discussed those things
what I learned most
from my dad was by osmosis
glacial, inexorable
noticeable only in retrospect
soaking up a life
generously poured, oftentimes
inadvertently spilled
hit me again, bartender.
conflicted by faith, he
simply lived faithfully
more-eighteen-than-
twenty-four-carat
Golden Rule doing-unto-others
sort of living
real gold doesn’t tarnish
I could say I never took a lesson
though that would be wrong
I unknowingly Jedi-mastered
mystical arts of wry observation
sardonic commentary, satirical jabs
serious points cloaked in
functional parables
uproariously serious,
seriously funny
Like my father
I can never resist or not
appreciate a
humorous turn of phrase,
slapstick comedy,
ribald satire, bad pun
I learned from my dad
have confirmed by living: life
is a fine definition of irony
cursed I am, by
the grins of the father
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2018
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd#FathersDay2020 #FathersDay #Fathersandsons
Delicacies
Notebooks
a lot of them
stacked in an open shelf
next to my desk
varietal chronicles
spiral-bound, stitched binding,
composition books,
cheap dollar store pocket,
leather-covered, gifted to me
verse, prose, musings
pontifications and declarations
the older ones
bottom-of-the stack
the better
brittle pages in varying
shades of sepia
all the edges
time has never deterred my
filling of pages
innately fueled desires to
create, release
rejuvenate and reflect
Covers
colorful and worn
marred shields for pages
within
reminding me of times
places, varied
people and moments
profoundly mundane
vintage wire-spirals
youthful anticipation, angst
inscribed
during cross-country
bus rides
pocket notebooks
reflecting the practicality of
a busier, adult life
need for compactable
remembrance, inspiration via
rear pocket
journaled testaments
These notebooks
smell of old cardboard, time
anticipation
in their paper mustiness
incense of creativity
raw and natural
frankincense of hope
most alive in
colorful composition books
taken on camping trips
filled while sitting alone
beside campfires
soaking up transcendental
ambiance
Seemingly benign
inanimate
notebooks absorbed all
words, my ideas and dreams
passions of thought in
vibrant ink, smoke
found only in the wild
where trees
their essences as
fuel for fire
imagination
even the paper come
full circle at my hand
savored now,
here
in this place not of
the woods
but remembered as such
they are flavorful, these
notebooks
times of times long ago, now
sentient in their shelf
smorgasbord of
aromas
tasty enticement
smoldering
senses in concert my
favorite repast has
always been
deliciousness in word
finely aged
smoked notebook
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2020
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
#writersandwriting #oldnotebooks #thoughtsonpaper #poetry #campfires #thewoods
Outside the lines
You opened me like a
flimsy book
thumbed through pages of
boldly outlined
caricatures
mercurially finding
me, you
chose your weapon from
boxed arsenal
Sharp,new-to-the-point
unused you
busted-pieces me
You are 64-box of Crayolas
using all the colors
to colorfully
flesh out the person
that is me
pictures that became us
showing all the restraint
of a four-year-old
for boundaries
flair of Matisse-nuance
you have boldly
blithely refused to
color inside the lines
no paint-by-numbers
sloppy
is sensual
borderlines are
for the faint-of-heart
art is in the
eye of the beholder
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2020
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd#romance #romanticpoetry #poetryforValentinesDay
Labels
Like the pine trees lining the winding road
I got a name. I got a name….
– Jim Croce
I see my name all the time
forms, documents – computer screen at log in
the world it seems, knows me
I too, know the world – though less familiarly
When I was eleven my birthday present from
mom and dad was (per my request) a
Dymo label maker
enabling me to feed a plastic gismo with long
strips of 3/8-inch-wide colorful, pliable vinyl
on which a trigger-pull would produce embossed
white capital letters with anything I deemed
pertinent; name, phone number, address
Most of my significant belongings suddenly
contained my info should said items somehow fall
into wrong hands – unlikely for possessions
not portable – hand-me-down stereo, bookcases, table
belonging to an only child in household of three
Defying logic, anything of note that was mine was
proclaimed as such in bold green, orange, yellow strips
tackle box, self-recorded cassette tapes, cardboard boxes
of rocks – items better suited to Magic Marker scrawls
Mine? ROCKS – in pristine, raised white-on-lime-green
–
The colorful, exclamatory technology of my
label maker was intriguing, very cutting edge
1970s me sensed greater potential for
long strips of plastic info
once personal belongings had been emblazoned
with I.D. I branched out smacking a
myriad of objects with witticisms, bromides,
general directives, secret-even-to-me codes
label tape ate up much of my allowance
not to mention a fair amount of creative juices
Discovering that setting the letter wheel slightly
off-kilter made letters crooked inspired me
to purposely cockeye certain phrases, ideas
lines became uneven, and once the backing was peeled
I could stick long stretches of text together into
more artistic clumps of text
sometimes aligned perfectly above one another
though often not so expressly neat
Sitting now in front of my computer screen I
can manipulate text, designs with simple combinations
of keyboard taps, mouse clicks
having long since worn out my label maker and
its later, self-purchased, replacement modes I can
conjure far more elaborate ideas, ways to display them
From time-to-time I see something in my classroom I
believe should have my name formally inscribed
lest it be prey to a student, or another teacher just
for a moment I think the item might lend itself
to semi-ancient hieroglyphics, white letters embossed
on a lime-green or sunflower yellow strip
just so I can once again dial-up letters, pull the trigger
feel and hear unrhythmic click-click-clickety-clickclickclick
click-clickety-clickety-click-clack in my hands
Therein as always lies the power of words
I got a name. I got a name.
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2020
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
cold, hot
spiritual
Rock’em
Sock’em Robots
equal footing
confined battle
to the end
“He knocked
his block off!”
proclaimed
black-and-white
TV commercial peers
of my youth
in victorious awe
such is the
nature of my id
whapwhapwhap
kaaa-chinng!
Block knocked off.
Stoic head
pushed back down
locking in
with sharp snap
ready for
another round
go on
hit me, sock me
again
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2020
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
Finials
whiskey sour, two cherries
living room recliner
not yet in full-on mode
discussions of recent past
upcoming future
plans, goals, objectives abstract
in low-resolution
wistful recollections
glad-its-over conversations
annual ‘old’ sounds-better rebuke –
same auld, same auld
old acquaintances unforgotten
checking in/on via social media
I’m fine/have a happy
memes on not sticking with…
They who are of certain vintage
forgotten until various reminders
to do just so crop up
incessantly, as they should
‘we need to get together’
‘been too long’
‘let’s do dinner/drinks/coffee’
all duly noted as cyber reminders
As clock and calendar creep on
chair footrest stays put, down
less relaxation overtake
clock-watching urges, older body
At midnight the song is sung
proclamation as fact
not reflective question, as written
should they be forgot, not
mental warehouses, inventoried
plans grandiose, mundane
decreed with boozy solemnity
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne!
We’ll shake the year gone like
metaphysical Etch-A-Sketch,
for auld lang syne, my dear
for auld lang mine
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2019
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd