Half a dozen poems in 20 odd years

Poetry is a tough genre for me. I've only produced a handful of what I consider to be decent work over the last 20 or so years. Here's a few of them.

Here are links to some of my other poetry:
http://www.connotationpress.com/poetry/1257-oren-shafir-poetry
http://www.eclectica.org/v2n1/shafir_poems.html


Postmodern Proof
Let's not pretend we're going
Anywhere.
Every place looks the same.
Empty streets lead us
To empty boxes
Where we park cars
Next to neon-colored numbers
That remind us where we are:
On shiny floors amid electronic goods
Gone is the touch and smell of wood.


And every day is the same.
The cold wind that howls over and over us
The cold wind that howls at my door
Huffed and puffed and blew away a cloud,
And the moon glared in my window
Daring me
To come out.

And every day is a little bit colder.
We know exactly how much time we have
We have proof.
We have the scientific means,
It is written on the wall,
It's written on our video, television and computer screens.
We have some time to save time
To think about how much time
Is left
We have no time
To pursue things yet unattempted
In prose and rime.

And every day is one day less.

At night, I awake to pee
And I can't see
Any face
Of a clock
And I don't know in the half-light
Whether it's morning or whether it's night
And you stare back at me, unlovingly
Through the looking glass
Asking what's the matter
Have you murdered time like the Mad-hatter?
And I panic. And my stomach sinks
Like a nuclear submarine,
And  it's number two now, not number one,
Do you think I'm having fun?

Every day's a Cuban missile crisis.

I don't give a shit about Michelangelo,
If I had any desire left
To see naked thighs and arms and breasts
I'd run a search on the Internet.
I'm not misunderstood.
I have no questions.
I am not Hamlet or even a fool,
Unless the fool is Yorick.

Oh where are the mermaids
Who will tangle and entice me with Circean song
Then drag me down
Never again to feel bereft
How much time is left?

Here are links to some of my other poetry:
http://www.connotationpress.com/poetry/1257-oren-shafir-poetry

http://www.eclectica.org/v2n1/shafir_poems.html