JAY DARDES - POEMS

Dardes is a retired psychotherapist who lives in the woods of northwestern Pennsylvania along with his wife, Elaine, and his miniature Schnauzer, Gretel. His work has been published in numerous literary journals.

​Young Man, I Think I Know You

​ 
1.
Beginnings
 
about fourteen,
she was child, woman, and angel, as she walked slowly down the street, glancing up from her
book
occasionally to see where she was going. the sun flickered through the rustling leaves of the big elms, a bird chirped, a car hummed loudly a few blocks away, and she read
aloud
but to herself, a corny poem about “Father” when, looking up, she saw an old man on a porch, watching, and she stopped but only for a moment
then her soft voice joined the leaves and the bird and the car once again with “Father”

 
2.
Piki Days
 
the three Indians staggered from the bar out into the arizona sun, reeling with arms about each others’ shoulders like drunken sailors on the desert
they were short and stocky and very dark with full flat faces and
burning
 black eyes and they spoke navajo and laughed their way around a corner but one returned alone and the others followed and he hit one of them and they all wore a lot of silver and turquoise

 
3.
What We Have Here
 
four years they had known each other and one they had been engaged and you know they loved each other very much they were going to be married soon
they knew all about each other she knew he didn’t like pickles and wanted to believe in god but couldn’t and he knew she liked monet and was afraid of escalators
they were just sitting there listening to music and looking at each other and loving without touching or speaking and all of a sudden he wanted to recite some
byron he liked byron and he associated some of the poems with her and he knew them by heart he wanted to but he couldn’t and she said want some coffee and he said
yes thanks

 
4.
The Robbed
 
joe’s father was a doctor and joe was in college and he had it made, he had money and clothes and girls but he never had a reason to
smile
until he robbed a gas station wednesday morning early

 
5.
There Was A Man In Our Town
 
he said
 
there was a man in our town who was very rich but kind of weird
i mean he was odd homer wilkie was his name
he owned the lumber industry that our town was based on and a lot of other factories some said even in france and guatemala but he looked like he never
brushed his teeth
and he traveled all over the world buying objects dart as our newspaper calls them paintings and statues and such
and would never let anyone see them ever and when he died and they went into that big house they couldnt find any of the objets but later they found a note saying that he burned them all but some folks think theyre still hid
and i always thought he mustuv been a nut that hated art but john freedman whos about the smartest guy in town said i was all wrong

 
6.
Greensleeve Mirage
 
everyone at college knew about gracie but no one had ever seen her
gracie, the fraternity cook and freelance whore; everyone had a friend who had been with her of course and
everyone at college knew about gracie but no one had ever seen her



 
7.
Death and Burial
 
there was a little boy a good little boy who went with mommy to grandmas and saw something shiny
there it was a big safety pin with a lot of little safety pins attached so gram could find them easily and he
put them into his pocket
although he had no use for safety pins or pressure cookers or recapped tires but they were shiny and jingled and he just did it and when mommy found out she said why thats
 
stealing
 
take them back and tell gram youre sorry and when they had steak that night he didnt eat much and steak never tasted too good for many years after

 
8.
Someday Soon Darkness
 
the bar was almost empty dark in the daytime
charley pride on the jukebox
and dannys head was low over his beer
from sorrow
from pain
he stared head low shoulders over in pain he stared
 
the three young people burst in long haired boys fresh and saucy girl for a six pack from the daylight
and when they saw danny they couldnt help it
together
they laughed
out of the daylight seeing danny they laughed
 

​words written through me

​cottonwood willows desperate stream in Utah dust
northern blonde woman with electric face
old cool dank stone farmers’ market of long ago

​Sensitivity

​A cigarette burning idly on an ashtray
Is my most important moment
(Gliding above, the smoke:
Now mobile lines of free flow art),
As is the squeak of my shoe
And the sound of a pencil sharpener:
Stills from a movie,
Drops from the river,
Each perfect and perpetual.

​L.A. Storm

​It is one-thirty in the morning
and the Alaskan summer sky is light.
Soon the sun will rise.
My calendar is two days late
and I’m not sure where I’m at.
My life is filled with little delights--
address labels, new music, and photographs to come,
with a hint of a woman in the background.
But, like the pale forty-ninth sky,
there is no intensity,
only a haze of contentment better sacrificed
even to the biting pain of a more real existence…
perhaps?
I’m thinking of one woman and another.
Soon the sun will rise.

                  ​ambulance driver

​                                                                     he handled the machine as if
 
                                                                            wielding
 
                                                                            a blunt instrument