JD DEHART - POEMS

JD DeHart is a writer and teacher.  He has two poetry projects available at Origami Poetry.

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                                         Vast and Mighty
 

check out scrawny
with his yawning life like
a leaf rattling
 
he’s fallen off the tree
hasn’t taken a bath in weeks
who knows who watches him
when he’s not in school?
 
check out how he thinks
he’s vast and mighty
puffing up his small chest
waving his bare body in the night
air like a frail flag
 
I’d snap him like a twig
but he’ll grow to be a branch.
 

 
                                      Misunderstandings
 

I don’t know
or care to understand how
the finger roves the place
it should not go
 
I don’t know
or care to understand how
the best and most special relationship
can sour like cottage cheese in the sun
 
Do you listen to your mind
tick away like I do, and realize when
a bad idea is really bad idea?
 
Some will say I’m being judgmental.
Probably.
I’m looking at the world around me
thinking about the mistakes people make,
I mean illegal ones here,
and just wonder how a species
can turn against its own desire to survive.
 

  
                              Found Poem from Nabokov
 

I was thinking the other
day of writing a found poem
from Nabokov when I realized
the book I had was in Russian.
 
I wish my tongue
were more prehensile when it
comes to other languages, picking
them up like a parrot’s.
 
Another thwarted idea, but I’m
learning to deal with thwarting.
 
 
 
                                             Shadow Dancing
 


I’d dance in her shadow
and save her a step,
but she doesn’t want saving
 
How many people really do?
 
Beauty can be quite deceptive
about what lies underneath,
so I’ve observed
 
It is a rare act to find reason,
competence, kindness, and beauty
all in the same place
 
For my part, I’ve found it at least
once and that’s made a difference.
 
 
 
                                                Observations
 

A man ambles
into the store.  He could
be a raven in disguise.
Probably not though.
A woman follows him.
Perhaps she is stalking
like a panther.  But no.
She just wants vegetables,
like we all do.
A child toddles by and has
brighter eyes than others
I’ve seen.  Is this the promised
one that will save us?
Oh, wait.  She just spat up.
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