SAMPLE POEMS
Copyright ©2015 by Kevin Hogan

A Lovelier World

Just before sunrise,
Watching a hound
Dream of hunting,
I feel myself
Drawn to pursue
The thoughts of
A dissatisfied mind.
Cards on table,
The dog has
Never caught more
Than tennis balls,
But that doesn’t
Stop him from
Envisaging furrier prey.
Comforted in camaraderie,
I bound onwards,
Straining to capture
A lovelier world
With every instinct.

The Shadow of Doubt

In the glare
Of absolute certainty,
There is right,
And, of course,
There is wrong.
And without exception,
There is no
Perception of even
One second thought.
All who persist
Become shining examples.
Must be why
I stick to
Shade in the
Shadow of doubt.

Privacy Matters

Your privacy will not matter
Once the crowd stirs from its slumber,
Salivating for newstainment,
And you’re served up—the taste du jour.

There are some who’ll strive to question,
But there are more with opinions
Sown in fallow fields of truisms,
Perched to pluck what issues forth.

If you live to fight, you’re in luck
Since most all truths split people up.
Just be warned: the more you reason,
The more you’ll plant seeds for gossip.

So when the mob stings like hornets,
Close your theatres. Go write sonnets.

Fitting Room

Lost halfway between
Feet and meters,
I stood holding
An Irish sweater
In the Eurozone.
A vision wearing
Stilettos and suspenders
Offered her help.
I solemnly confessed
Checking the label
Left me confused.

Setting her chin,
She proudly professed,
“Labels are shite!
It’s only the
Fit that matters.”

The fitting room
Gave me pause…
So many labels
Thrown like shuriken—
Stuttering punk faggot
Scribbling loner freak
Fucking fence sitter.

Making the purchase,
I heartily thanked
The sales associate,
Telling her surely,
“Go teach philosophy!”

The Gender Bend

I cannot wait
For the day—
Not to mention
The night—when
The right to
Be as much
Or as little
He or she
Or any mix
Of the three
As your self
Wants to be
Is treated just
Like the freedom
To travel freely
Wherever you want.
Meanwhile, I’ll be
On up ahead
With those who
Already see the
Beauty of humanity
As it curves
The gender bend.

Native America

Chief Joseph knew the earth
As a mother who played
No favorites amongst
All her equal children
Who were free to travel
Without reservations.
Later, his cause of death
Would be a broken heart.
And then when the bearded
Face of evil was found
At zero dark thirty,
Americans flew in
Apaches and Black Hawks—
Locked, loaded and ready
To be the one to yell,
For God and country,
        Geronimo,
             Geronimo,
                  Geronimo!

All Smiles Start

A skilled surgeon,
Who’d sliced and repaired all forty-three muscles
That work in unison to comprise the human face,
Couldn’t say precisely how many
Were needed to create just one smile.

An esteemed psychiatrist,
Capable of rooting out the deepest seeds
Sown into the most unfathomable psyche,
Was left groping for an empiric theory
To rightfully govern the interpretation of smiles.

A renowned primatologist,
More at home in the trees than any skyscraper
And openly accepted by gorillas and orangutans,
Still had to guess on several occasions
Whether a curled lip meant friend or foe.

Yet a humble denizen,
Who’s no duke with no painted duchess,
Felt commanded to draw the curtain and report:
Whether born of good or evil intent,
All smiles start from the center of the heart.