EIGHT HUMAN FRAILTIES

SCENE 1

Cynthia, sitting on the sun porch in her favorite rattan chair
in the luxury of idle hours, staring at her prized Yucca plant
in a dazed haze of transitory images, contemplating death.

Perspiration on her forehead at the predicament
of the brutal act that she imagines will set her mind free,
and relinquish all her self-imposed guilt.

SCENE 2

Deanne, nervously biting the quick of her nails,
cigarette after cigarette, her whole being anxious.

Her mind in a state of unbearable anxiety, hands shakily
reach for the cup of strong dark coffee.

She ponders, how much can I get from granddame’s
silver tea set and her beautiful heirloom emerald broach?

I can’t sell them, but I have to get some money.
Her hands clammy and wet, brush over her ruffled
dark brown hair.

Tears begin to roll down her face. If only I didn’t have
this habit. This addiction to the opium and the cannabis
is doing very little to take off the edge.

Oh Fuck It!

SCENE 3

The millionaire Carlson, now on the bandwagon, his latest
philosophy; never a drop of wine shall caress these lips.

So as an abstraction from his addiction he cavorts
and is in cahoots with this foolhardy chap from Belgium.
Who is verbose about his powder puff indiscretions
with the same sex and his affinity for masochistic and
sadistic pleasures.

He feels his emotions and decisions have run amok,
and there’ll be a premium he’ll have to pay,
and not with his money.

SCENE 4

Anita and Donovan had a fearsome argument while staying
at the Astoria Hotel. Each biting piece of dialogue filled
with bitter contempt, stabbing at each other’s heart.

Anita to the point of tears, while Donovan brooded
over his beer with nothing more to say.

No fault lay upon his chest, only comments made in jest.

Anita will make him pay the price, for his eyes taking
in the sights of the beauteous, Aphroditic author
with a very lush bosom, in the lobby of the Astoria.

Dam, dam, dam, will she ever let this end?

SCENE 5

Wilhelmina, with her righteous probity, queries into the
psychoanalytic realms of her mind and heart.

Guilt lay behind every shadowed corner of her psyche
over the tryst with this married man from Vancouver.

Her liaisons with married men have been great and many
and had never bothered or troubled her before, but now
to defrock the tapestry of mental complexities has made
her soul unrest

No heroine with laudatory laurels, had she been to the
many men whose pleasures she had obliged,
that of course their wives had forsaken for the children,
the house and the headaches.

She chuckled to herself as tears releasable poured
from orbs of remorse.

She the dramatist, had she not portrayed the damsel in distress
that had lured the men into her web?

Why should her heart ponder over ethics and morality now?

SCENE 6

Fernando, from Argentina, seventeen years of age,
prostitution as his trade, exchanging favors for coins of gold,
he feels he’s cleaver but yet he knows, the very lovers have
exploited him in every way. They the ones who chose to pay.

His bedazzling smile of sunshine behind the façade of
insuppressible rage, with agony smoldering beneath the veneers
of that very smile.

Some day, just some day, this inhumane contamination of my soul
will cease its monotonous game of exchangeable merchandise.

SCENE 7

Penelope renders herself helpless every time she slashes at her
physical arm, mind disconnected from her psyche under the premise
of punishment. She feels her mother would approve.

She, at that very moment, becomes the spectator not the participant.
The impenetrable discomfort gives her the sensation of feeling alive.
No blatant tears of empathy for self will be allowed.

Right become wrong, and wrong becomes right.

SCENE 8

The office of Doctor Thomas Judson, M.D.
A preeminent theorist, on group psychotherapy and cognitive therapy.
A small cozy room with Aztec collectibles, and artifacts that hang
on the walls and overcrowd the bookshelves.

The drapes usually closed, alluding to a protected and intimate
environment.

The eight people with unique and individual personalities have
been carefully chosen by Doctor Judson, for this Psychotherapy
Group for they all share a commonality of similitude.

That they, amongst themselves, with the input of each other, and
Doctor Judson, will possibly unravel the complexity of their
complex minds.


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Words Used: Cynthia Deanne Anita Donovan Wilhelmina Fernando
Penelope Carlson Judson luxury yucca dazed perspiration predicament
brutal relinquish nervously anxious anxiety silver emerald opium
cannabis millionaire bandwagon cahoots foolhardy verbose powder puff
affinity fearsome argument astoria dialogue contempt fault beauteous
aphrodite author righteous probity defrock tapestry heroine laudatory
laurel releasable dramatist argentina bedazzling sunshine insupressible
rage agony inhumane contamination monotonous renders arm premise
punishment spectator impenetrable discomfort blatant empathy
preeminent theorist aztec collectible alluding being room chuckle

PROFESSOR DOOLITTLE

Caution to the students
Who attend Professor Doolittle’s class.
For his eccentric contrarieties
Will exasperate any chap.

His lectures will inspire you
Or bring you to your knees.

He’ll demand impassioned dialogue
And answers that are astute
When he queries as an afterthought;
"Eyes looking over be speckled rims,
Leering down at you"
Expecting your discernment
Over the topic that is taught.

Quipped or brandish answers
Will only get you shot.

He will scrutinize and criticize
Every detail of your work
As you sit with apprehension
As he mildly clears his throat
Signaling his approval
You give a sigh of great relief.

He is harsh, He is stern
He will certainly discern
Your attempt at mere forgery
On any of his exams
He’ll imply that you’re a cheater
And a ribald kind of man.

He’s in his twentieth year of tenure
No apprentice in his field.
Nonsensical and serious
Pontificates on the real.

Attend his every lecture
Anticipate with zeal
And under his tutorial guidance
You’ll become an expert in your field.

WORDS USED: cheater ribald nonsensical
Impassion brandish demand doolittle caution
contrariety afterthought bespectacled apprehensive
apprentice

Poem Inspired from Harvey Cline
Subject: compacter unruly
Date: April 11, 2004

SEANCE ON AN IMAGINARY NIGHT

I can still remember the accident in 1972.

On a wet and rainy afternoon
The streets were wet and slick
As my nephew, Rutger's luxury automobile
Dovetailed into a Toyota
on Balboa and Marina Drive,
At the pinnacle of his life.

His dear wife, Czarina
Held a seance that very night.

The lights in the chandelier were dimmed
The room was dark as could be.

A single candle with flames ablaze
Alit in front of us three.

She queried to her contact,
Just a message to my dear husband, Rue.

When all of a sudden the china teapot
Flew across the room
Creating a ghastly, ghostly sound
Pandemonium was everywhere
As the dishes began to spin and twirl
Right above our heads.

An eerie light shone on the wall
Revealing a relic tapestry
Bereft of several threads
Our eyes glued to that very spot
With bedazzlement and dread.

For now a ghostlike shadow
Played upon the woven cloth
Exuding and iridescent mucus
The desecrater of the cross.

The room was as cold the winters ice
exhalations of our breath could be seen.
And a terrible aromatic stench
with an essence of decay
expelled into the darkened room.

When all of a sudden, Czarina collapsed
And the devil was by my side.

My face became white and pasty
And I shivered from my head to my toes.
I summoned all of my courage
And commanded the phantom to go.

Just at that very moment,
My heart beating very fast
Czarina elevated upward
In mid-air she hung,
quite aghast.

As discordant musical chanting
And the triumphal strings of a harp
Permeated at our senses
and piercing at our hearts.

And all of a sudden she vanished
With a wild and mournful cry.

And there in her chair lay a crucifix
And the archangel was by our sides.

I could hear Rutgers voice from a distance
Echoing through a cloudy haze,
Czarina, you are now by my side.

And drifting down from the ceiling
A postcard from the Nile
beaming with rays of sunshine,
Czarina saying goodbye.


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WORDS USED: Streets nephew Rutgers luxury
Automobile dovetailed Toyota Balboa Marina
Pinnacle Czarina seance ablaze queried husband
China teapot room ghastly ghostly pandemonium
Dishes eerie shone relic tapestry bedazzled
Ghostlike exuding iridescent mucus desecrater
Terrible aromatic decay expelled collapsed devil
White pasty phantom elevated upward discordant
triumphal harp crucifix archangel essence
Echoing postcard sunshine rays