“I find myself quite average, but I appreciate your words” (For Sara)

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-11-01T17_42_21-08_00

There is nothing average about her in the least little bit
Don’t get me wrong average is great, but Sara’s exceptionalism sneaks up on you like a mountain cat that is relentless in its growling intensity
From the moment I viewed her passion for Heavy Metal I knew her fire was buried deep in the darkest depths of Mordor

When she admitted that she was shy telling both of her last names because one of them was unique, my heart started to work overtime to capture all of the daisy petals flying throughout the holy air
We package and process ourselves as pieces and parts when nothing could be further from the truth
Average is as average does and nothing Sara does is commonplace or circumspect

I think what I’m drawn to, along with her insatiable fire, is how outside the pack she is because the pack mentality means nothing when social distancing has become all the rage
While listening to Sara play I find myself transported to another plane where everyone’s vantage point is considered and music and love matter most
I look forward to watching her up on stage sharing her soul because that’s clearly her destiny.

Charles Cicirella
11/1/20

Metal Goddess III (For Sara)

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-10-28T14_50_38-07_00

I want to write one more poem for Sara because I find her so attractive and sweet.
Watching her play piano just sealed the deal as she pressed down on the keys and warmed the cockles of my heart.
All the pictures of her wearing different heavy metal tee-shirts never fails to bring a smile to my face because she is doing what she loves and that brings me so much happiness during these dark, deplorable days.

I ‘d prefer to not stop what I’m doing and look at the state of the world because the world is broken and until we respect this virus nothing is going to change for the better.
I had Covid-19 back in March and for three months the symptoms kept me company like the Grim Reaper on Tinder.
I met Sara on Twitter and when I did it was like a breath of fresh air came through the open window and reminded me not everything is bad and we must change our outlooks before it’s too late.

This is the last poem for Sara for now because I really don’t feel like driving another person away.
Strangers in the night, exchanging glances as they stay six feet apart and masks help keep the mystery alive and the virus at bay.
I want to write one more poem for Sara before turning off the light and returning to my bed for a much needed siesta.

Charles Cicirella
10/28/20

Metal Goddess II (For Sara)

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-10-27T21_39_21-07_00 

Need to listen to Metallica soon
Find out what Sara’s raging on about
Banging her head, taking no prisoners

Lost in the fog of death metal
Found her soul when she gave up control
Coruscating as black as Sara’s booming bottom

Her enthusiasm infectious
Creativity what gets her through
An artist who never looks back

The Sandman enters and nothing else matters
“Would you pull me up
Would you drop the mental bullet

Would you…”
Alleviate some of this pressure
Our scruples will be the death of us

Lost out at sea
“Babylon the scarlet whore has come”
I can no longer sleep through this colossal nightmare

Charles Cicirella
10/27/20

You Make Me Happy (For Jax)

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-10-27T14_39_50-07_00

“Ring around the Rosie”
It’s time to take back the night
I desire to make love to you

My words are a magic carpet ride
The needle hidden in a haystack
Broken hearts our Sopwith Camel

You are defined in sharp brushstrokes
A lasting impression chiseled in ether
Please allow me to kiss your dictionary lips

My apologies stain the bag with grease
Let’s close our eyes and shelter in place
The apocalypse will forever alter our outlooks

Seeing you on video
Your body cast in light and sleight of hand
I’m watching you with my third eye wide open

“Ring around the Rosie”
It’s time to bring the day back into focus
I desire you naked and full of aching promise

Charles Cicirella
10/27/20

Metal Goddess (For Sara)

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-10-27T14_15_15-07_00

Terror reigning, heavy metal goddess
Sexy femme fatale, lion tamer
A throwback to more malevolent times

Eyes wide open
Twenty three skidoo
Breaks open Twitter with her fat chords

Let’s stop mincing words
Remember the Alamo and apple pie a la mode
Forget how challenging the truth is for some people

Sara is happiness
As sweet as a Van Halen song in July with the top down
Watching and listening to her band makes me happy and lightens my load

I love pictures of her in her tee shirts
Leaves nothing to the mystery except the mystery of getting to know her better
I cannot wait to play her on my radio show and to introduce her as my friend.

Charles Cicirella
10/27/20

The square root of Jax is Jax squared.

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-10-25T12_48_22-07_00

I desire to make love to you with the words in my mouth and the hands at the ends of my arms.
We can close our Nutella (New-tell-uh) eyes and pretend it’s a holiday or the day we were born.
Our birthdays mustn’t suffocate us otherwise what’s the point of coming out of the womb.

The first video you made for me I couldn’t help but stare at your breasts because they proved to me you were human and not just a daydream I dreamed up to stop the incessant screaming inside my head.
Your mystical countenance champions a whole other you that I’m not even sure you’re aware exists beneath a flurry of cotton candy web episodes.
You vanish back into the bottle like a genie or Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend.

I yearn to kiss your loins as you edit some grieving manuscript that you started writing before time had learned to speak in complete sentences.
I know this is neither what you wanted nor expected, but I must come clean because this poet only knows one way forward and that’s by putting both feet in his mouth while learning not to choke on crow feathers.
Our birthday suits call out to us like Salinger’s frozen peas because we’ve discovered our best selves mustn’t get in the way of our highball expectations or tiresome accusations.

Charles Cicirella
10/25/2020

Amsterdam

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-10-05T00_05_39-07_00

The fix is in
The Whiskey Priest is all whiskied out
He made up his mind and it was a big deal

Listening to Lou, but it’s not the same without him here
Nothing is the same since he checked out like Mr. White
Rep and Tommy Jay tell me they don’t want to talk about him, but I won’t be told what to remember or what to forget

October 16th. looms in infamy
So does October 19th. because that’s when my mother passed away
My good friend Dan’s birthday is also in October so I’m forced to take the good with the bad as a “Halloween Parade" passes us by

We break open our hearts with memories that even our skull banks have a difficult time wrapping their metal or meat around
It’s like some fifties monster movie where even the a actors are treated with disdain because everyone’s a suspect when the bad news is delivered like a corpse
The world is broken and the world has turned to shit as narcissism becomes a national pastime and we shoot apple pie into our veins because Uncle Sam wants you to forget he ever existed

I’m not the keeper of his archives even though that’s what I’ve been told since his death bell began to toll
I am a friend and someone who continues paying tribute because he’s the best and worst thing that ever happened to me and I’ll never forget when we listened to Townes and got lit on our drugs of choice
The Remington up in his gallows calls out like broken teeth in a pugilists’ roundabout mouth as I put the needle down on Sean Lennon’s Into the Sun and go there with Jim

Charles Cicirella
10/5/20
 

My two or three cents.

 I am just going to say it. The people who are now saying and in fact pointing out rather vehemently that even though they do not like Trump they're not wishing him any ill and that we can make up on own minds about how we feel. Now I am not even sure why this needs to be said because okay yes there are those who are saying terrible things about Trump and his contracting Covid, but there are also those of us who don't wish him any ill will, but still have no sympathy for him or any of the others in his inner circle or administration who have also tested positive. I am starting to feel that those who go out of their way to tell us how they don't wish the President any ill will and even though this may not be what they're doing, it's like they're drawing a line in the sand and either you don't wish him any ill will or you're a total unfeeling bastard and could care less what happens to Trump (sound familiar?). For me I cannot have any sympathy for a man who continues to go out of his way to sow hatred, whose flagrant disregard to science has absolutely led to people contracting Covid and yes sadly also dying. And while Trump is in the hospital getting better care than any of us could ever get and with our tax dollars he and his henchmen are still pushing through Barrett so on Nov. 10 millions upon millions (including myself) will lose their healthcare. Ill will? Absolutely not, but he isn't getting one iota of sympathy from me because karma is a bitch and for those on their higher moral plane (like it or not that's exactly how it sounds) your speech now is just as dangerous as when people said when he was inaugurated how much damage can he really do and let's give him a chance. How much damage can he do? Look around you and also one last thing for anyone who says Pence would be far worse you are clearly not paying attention because we've had bad Presidents before, but never have we had someone who has such a blatant disregard for human life. The man is a perfect storm of shit and that shit is raining down upon each and everyone of us no matter what your party affiliation is.

Chris Wallace chuckles as Rome burns.

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-09-30T14_20_45-07_00

Time’s up
If you’re not part of the one percent you’re screwed
That’s what the powers that be want us to believe, but I’ll never accept that virus infected telegram

Talk over us, interrupt us and do everything you can to break our spirits and we’ll still come out on top because we have right on our side and your might will only get you so far
Take away our healthcare, a woman’s right to choose and still we’ll beat you in the end because we are the rising sun while your sun has set eons ago

I’ve never understood why minorities have anything to do with the GOP when they could care less about anyone who isn’t white and ready to carry a burning torch through the claustrophobic cornfields
Also don’t get why people who don’t have a lot of money are republicans when it’s been proven over and over again that nothing trickles down but rainwater and the tears of a misbegotten savior
My heart bleeds for you, but not because I’m a liberal. My heart bleeds for anyone who pretends they’re something they’re not and continues to come up short as an honorable parade passes you by

The clock’s face is all scrunched up
Watching this first debate was like pulling out my own toenails and feeding them to the invisible pigeons in my head
Our spirits mustn’t be broken by this clown because there’s still work to be done and a whole lot of grievances that must be sorted out before the dawn breaks and the darkness goes back from whence it came.

Charles Cicirella
9/30/2020

No Knock Warrant (For Breonna Taylor)

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-09-25T18_18_50-07_00

Don’t believe the news
They never report the truth
Black people aren’t even safe in their own residences

We’re supposed to feel sad when a cop dies at the hands of a black perpetrator and yet when a black person is shot down like a dog nothing is done to the cops while the victim’s reputation is smeared because cops take care of their own and racists never truly take off their white hoods
Whatever happened to common sense like for instance no knock warrants never should have existed and why is it cops always shoot to kill instead of shooting to wound?
Sandra Bland was supposedly "combative and uncooperative" during a traffic stop only to be found three days later dead in her cell. The Texas state trooper who pulled her over was only charged with perjury for conduct related to a contentious traffic stop of a black woman even though we can clearly hear him yelling on dashcam video "I will light you up!"

All lives matter and the racists who are hiding behind a badge and executing black people need to be charged with murder because enough is enough and all this senseless violence needs to be put to bed with a swift kick in its GI Joe extremities
Breonna Taylor was one of their own and still she got no justice while the officer who shot into the neighbor’s next door apartment was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment
It’s getting to the point where it seems the powers that be are bating black people to react because they know the cops will never be touched and that has to change because without consequences this powder keg only becomes more incendiary and the scales of justice only get more out of whack.

Charles Cicirella
9/25/20

Untitled

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-09-20T03_38_20-07_00

These are the words
Without malice
Without forethought

The poetry arrives or it doesn’t
Like a photo negative
Or a litmus test with no conscience

You gotta grease the wheels
In these Modern Times
Of refuse and reprimand

I was unprepared for her purgatory come-ons
They came at me like De Niro in Raging Bull
I love a good movie, but I’m no film auteur

These are the notes
Without complaint
Without hesitation

The poetry arrives on its own terms
Like a picture in your mind
Or a pop quiz you mustn’t prepare for

You gotta leave the driving to someone else
In these times of virus and vitriol
It’s all in the game when you’re infected on the Vegas strip

I wasn’t ready for the way he used the words so honorably
His voices came at me like an impassioned starling or La Charity on a tear
I love a good beatnik, but I’m no master thief.

Charles Cicirella
9/20/20

RBG

 https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-09-19T20_04_18-07_00

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new President is installed.”

Lioness
Fierce advocate
Opera devotee

This must be a beginning
Cannot allow the hypocrites to grind us down anymore
Learn from our lionized mistakes and move on

When they broke into Jeopardy! I knew something was wrong
My friend Klute said he felt completely numb and I can relate
She was stardust and it’s getting that much harder to get back to the garden

We must find the steel in our spines to fight for our very lives
She hung on as long as she possibly could and it’s now our turn to give something back to her
It won’t be easy, but we must stop these bastards before they take all of the oxygen from the room, leaving us blue and rotting

A gangster in the truest sense of the word
RBG held our country in her arms and nearly got us over the finish line
We must learn from her example and never give up the fight no matter how dark it gets before the dawn.

Charles Cicirella
9/19/20

Residue (For Juliet Cook)

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-09-18T14_21_38-07_00

She makes degradation sexy
That first line will annoy her
Though it’s intended as a compliment

Always keeps me on my toes
She’s as tightly wound as a serial yo-yo
Gets on your fingers like elbow grease

I watched her arrange her McNuggets
Always keeps you guessing with her sphinx ways
She’s second to none and one in a million

The residue from her brainstem drips onto the bare page
We’re all curious what will come out of her mouth next
The blood pudding flowing through her fishnet stockings keeps us all on high alert

This poem isn’t easy to write
Sometimes getting back up on the horse isn’t as simple as it sounds
Never forget tearing through the ghetto on that bicycle built for two

As artists we withstand the pressure of a society on life support
Put our poems in a drawer waiting for our big break or better drugs
I check on her from time to time and like it when I can make her laugh

She makes falling from grace not such a big ordeal
I’m sure she’s rolling her eyes, but she’ll never write me off because we’ve been friends for far too long
The trouble I stir up is all in good fun because I’ve always loved her and never wish any harm to come to her.

Charles Cicirella
9/17/20

 

Radical Individualism (For Jax)

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/charlespoet/episodes/2020-09-15T22_03_42-07_00

Haven’t been writing

Still the words haunt me

You’re my tolling bell

 

Swing low

Eat lots of vegetables

Sweet chariot

 

You’re a pistol

Carved out of the ether

No bullets necessary

 

We’re all radicals

Exhaling truth

Inhaling fever dreams

 

Haven’t been writing

God plays peek a boo

I roll over like a mutt

 

Charles Cicirella

9/16/20