Author Archives: neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

DRIVING ON THE TRACKS

Audio Recordings / tagged , / / by

DRIVING ON THE TRACKS

I think you are supposed
to take some air out
of the tires

It wasn’t something
that we thought about
gliding across the prairie night
with no one needing to steer
and lots of cold beer
and the throttle
(they had throttles then)
set at forty miles per hour

It is something we would
probably have thought about
going across the old wooden trestle
that and the freights that run at all hours

Except that we were too busy
holding back our friend in the back
almost as strong as the three of us
in his full blown panic

Trying to leap
over the front seat
to grab the quivering wheel
to save himself, and kill us all

NORTH OF THE MEDICINE LINE

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NORTH OF THE MEDICINE LINE

Given the theory
with some evidence
that the natives of this land
had about the same tolerance
for alcohol as they had for smallpox
and because someone “knew better”
they were not allowed to buy it

If your husband, although a member
of a supposed superior European race
showed a weakness for the drink
and a strong tendency to spend
the grocery money on the demon rum

You’d just go to the proper authorities
have him knocked down one race
quickly added to the Indian list
and barred from every bar

And there we were
children of the tolerant Swiss
eating nigger toes at Christmas
(we think them Brazil nuts now)
all thinking it all perfectly natural

SONNET FOR THE ORDINARY

Audio Recordings / tagged , / / by

SONNET FOR THE ORDINARY

There is a loving way to make a bed
With pillows care set at the head
And a mother’s loving knead to give
Adds nourishment to help us live

We know that water crystals change
With words of love or hate about
From snowflake to a muddy mange
And we are water without doubt

A cheerful flipper at the greasy spoon
Feeds us better though the food be junk
Than Pierre at the Ritz with silver spoon
Serving Crèpes Suzette with Galic funk

And care enough within a poem
can provide another home

CLOUD PLOWED FIELDS

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged / / by

CLOUD PLOWED FIELDS

I hear that line at an Austin open mic.
and I want it – actually I want it back
this is my line, how did he find it first

In any case – I hear the line, and Bam!
I am back in a cloud scudding sun baking
Saskatchewan summerfallow summer

Black lands between the glowing gold
John Deere with its hard iron hooves
ripping up the roots and seeds
of the flowers no-one wanted
call them weeds

Sometimes cutting worms in half
I hear that they grow back

While the little poet sits
by the caragana hedge
choking on the flowers
no-one wanted

THE CAMEL AND THE MOOD MODIFYING MUNCHER

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THE CAMEL AND THE MOOD MODIFYING MUNCHER

After a while
the mounting evidence
of mirrors and old family photos

And why am I the one
always wearing the fat suit

Why is it
that there is still
nothing that tastes as good
as it feels not to feel

Why the little camel
sent to bed without supper

Still insures against lack
with a hump on his front
not his back

POETS IN SPRINGTIME

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , / / by

POETS IN SPRINGTIME

It is not the job of the poet
to speak of spring in the springtime

The task is to gather
the cool winds of April
to freshen your face in July

And all through the fallings of fall
and all through the dyings of winter

And all through the long days of lent
all through the pain of the Friday
reminding us always of Sunday

BURYING MOTHER

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged , / / by

BURYING MOTHER

All that time in the womb
mother and baby exchanging cells
mother to baby and baby to mother
from one to the other and back again

One becoming two becoming one
becoming two and the two always one

It is not the same with the father
invited pleasure or invading pain
there for a moment and gone again

When you bury your mother
the worms eat you too

EULOGY

Audio Recordings / / by

EULOGY

My mother passes
from the womb of this life
to the new life of the next

It has been a difficult journey

My father is waiting for her
with two saddled horses

She is happy to see him
while still nervously scanning for Jesus
who she thought would be there to greet her

My father laughs

Plenty of time for that
in a place with no time

Let me help you up
onto this gentle roan
there’s a sunset I’d like you to see

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