And there it is
What is missing
From the expectations of others
The square peg
Not a straight edge
Completion is for suckers.
Author Archives: Mike Falconer
After a career in the entertainment lighting business encompassing, sales, technical support, marketing, photography, and writing, I now manage and market veterinary hospitals.
Working Dog: Poetry & Prose
Dogs, work, and place.
Poems and prose that touch on life, death, COVID 19, travel, home, the workplace, working, and, of course, dogs. Raw, sometimes angry, and often touching, “Working Dog” is about our place in the world, where we choose to spend most of our time, and those who we share our lives with.
My new poetry and prose collection is available in Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon.
Hotel Bar Exurbia
Soulless, clinical brightness
The character of a nightclub past time
Accents a parody of diversity
These are nobodies people
And nobody wants to be there if they had a choice
Strangers telling family bios
The conversation of passing time
Making a change from sports without passion
Too many white faces
Too many alone men who aren’t single
Sharing nonsense phone clips
With the volume loud
Much like the half-baked politics
And re-parroted ideas of the world
Forced courtesy beyond please, thank you, and how are you?
Matching the lackluster fuel being treated as food
A lone woman enters the frame of male gaze
Uncomfortable looks under masturbation fantasies
The rejection of this as a self-portrait
The walking away
Beating a retreat from counterfeit human connection
This facsimile of anywhere one would want to be
A preference for isolation.
Image by Lothar Dieterich
Solipsism
Signal
Cudgel
Q.I. vegans
The dancing and laughing to show tunes
Method
Madness
Tailors of the unseen
The sounds of children screaming have been silenced
Command
Control
Unreliable narration
Manufactured consent of socio-economic tides
Consequence
Recompense
Measured response
The text message idolatry of false prophets
Caring
Staring
Loss of faith
Measuring time with empathy and little action.
Image by Pete Linforth
Outed as a Poet
The social awkwardness of a dying art
Divergence into the purely creative
Refuge from grind, mind, and bind
Methodically out of time
A chance unearthing
Outed as a poet
Unable to move or capitalize
The strangeness of honesty
The balance of want and need.
Image by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay
2.14.23
It’s Valentine’s Day
And Ohio is burning
It’s water poisoned
Pets and livestock dead
Locals and first responders left wondering who will play them on HBO
It’s Valentine’s Day
And in Michigan kids are shot in school
Again
Maybe, finally, thoughts and prayers are not enough
But then again
It’s Valentine’s Day
And Tennessee is making trans people and drag queens illegal
Questions of genitalia and clothing
Unintended consequences for those who don’t follow politics
Or depressingly maybe they do
It’s Valentine’s Day
And California is bulldozing the homeless
A routine street clean up with the stench of heartlessness
It’s not a slum or shanty town if there is no shelter
Self imposed blindness to the dispossessed
It’s Valentine’s Day
And Florida does what Florida does
The onwards march towards fascism
Unnoticed by those who do not read and seek to ban books
It’s Valentine’s Day
And a family in New Jersey is mourning the Suicide of their 14 year old daughter
Bullying by classmates for content and betrayal by school indifference
A resignation does not exchange for a life
It’s Valentine’s Day
And I’m fucking angry at the state of the states
How can you be aware without causing hysteria?
We look into the abyss clutching red hearts and pink cards
Living the jackpot
Awareness in retrospection
It’s Valentine’s Day
And this poem is not about me
Or the gas shortage and weather in Las Vegas
Tears of the numb and the distracted
Words into the void
But of course, it’s Valentine’s Day
Image by Dianne Clifford
Wishes
When wishes are granted
Past and present weigh in on the future
Strings linger and drag
The resistance of those left behind
When wishes are granted
Demons become angels
And angels become envious
The rejection of belief in belief
When wishes are granted
One does not question their origins
To be thankful for mercies
And the elevation of attention
When wishes are granted
Purpose becomes focused and aligned
Clarity of thought from the wilderness
A self imposition and therefore solution
When wishes are granted
Dreams of heaven and earth wither
The pale light of day burns in irrelevance
And ashes and dust mark the passage of time.
Out of Time
Gutted like a fish by the future
Faces from the always past
Hard and between
Lives of labor and class
Classless and adrift
Made for horses and trams
Shoehorned in the buses and trains
Buckling under the weight of cars and multi-story parking
Skin in the game
Or showing skin instead of the game
Californian tans and luxury coffee
Pasty white faces and bad complexions
Poured into summer clothing in the dead of winter
Overcast and underserved
Moneyed yet reveling in the markers of poverty
Geographical loyalty repaid with the leavings of capitalism
Yet there is pride and belonging
Free from judgment of inherent contradiction
History and culture of independence
The art of finding one’s place in the world
A place immune to judgement
Adrift in time
But still home
You Left by Saying Goodbye
An expectation and obligation
What could be said?
Pressure and self-imposition
A crossing of lines by us both
No harm meant
The rules are believed in
Just slightly bent
Although penalties are real
And then you left by saying goodbye
Unexpected and yet convenient
Acquiescence to convention
Secrets to never become secretive
The care was genuine
The unspoken offer real
Trapped by unfortunate timing
Circumstance and hope
What could have been is done
Time multiplied by space
Timidity and judgment have won
Onwards towards the moving on.
Thoughts in a Busy iHop
Tourists up late on a rainy day
Cheap brunching
Yawns and social media at 11am
The family that texts together
Doesn’t talk
But is judged by poets sitting alone
Poor new guy in training
Scared out of his mind
And trying his best
Flummoxed by Eggs Florentine
And a Colorado Omelet
But sincere in apologies for the wait
Young and poor
Willing to try
Disenchantments birthing ground
Parents of privilege
Setting poor examples
But proving class division
Complaints and a lack of self-restraint
Frontline management and coaching
“Get better, faster, don’t make mistakes”
Hangry is as valid an excuse
As the cough poorly covered
And the opportunity to kick
The unhappy waitress
Whether it’s me, her tables, or the kitchen
There is little joy
The jarring of this most glaring
the lack of the American mantra
“have a nice day”
Being the asshole
For reinforcing her world view
But opiniated none the less
Apologies for the wait
But not the not Tabasco
Or for life’s journey
Surprising diversity in a tourist hotspot
But not of the parties
We are microwave dinner packaging
Flipped like burgers
Meritocracy in our lack of care
Separated by plenty of accessibility
But I’d like more coffee please.
Word Outlet 