NOT YOU!

(for Philip Seymour Hoffman)

You were great in Doubt
And too much in Capote:
A needle? Not you!

Haiku © 2014 by Dylan Mitchell

IN THE HOTTEST STATE

(November 22, 1963)

Texas rebel state
JFK was shot today
1963

Texas hateful state
Hot and quick to offend
Janis said it best:

I liked black music
It seemed less plastic and fake
Texas loves a noose

James Byrd didn't get a noose:
he was dragged from a truck
while still alive

Janis screamed the blues
And Texas laughed when she died
At least she got out

JFK did not make it
He was a slap in the face
All they know is guns

Morons and cowards
More bullets than brains
So they wasted his

And we still wonder why
Janis sang the blues? She
was busy saving her soul.

Unlike the rest of Texas.
Guns are the answer -
Not saving your soul

Not Little Girl Blue
Bullets are better:
It's so easy to kill what you hate.

In the hottest state.

Poem © 2014 by Dylan Mitchell

THE ONLY GIRL I EVER LOVED...

Hell yeah. THE BREAKFAST CLUB - Ally Sheedy. Saw the movie 5 times (in a theater). All by my lonesome. And Ally put popular Molly Ringwald to shame. Big time. She was pretty and smart. A deliberate original. Molly was all surface. Not enough to make a gay man's heart skip a beat or two. And what would you talk about?

Jesus, you look so pretty in pink? I can't stand pink. But I do love beauty and brains. Ally effortlessly rocked, while Molly merely posed. Give me an original girl, and I promise to stop being such a naughty queer boy. Seriously. Plus Ally really knew how to dance: Molly looked like Twiggy on acid. Sad, sad, sad.

P.S. Ally, a girl like you should never have to dance alone...

Humor © 2013 by Dylan Mitchell

YOU HAD A HEART...

So they bullied you
You did not leap, Rebecca
They made you fall down

Haiku © 2013 by Dylan Mitchell

DOUBT

(for Roy)

I knew the shoes were old at
the start. But I was still
happy to find them

on the "Free Table" in the
basement of my expensive
high rise

apartment building. I loved
the classic black and white
colors

of the fabric. But failed
to pay much attention to
the much abused soles.

And proudly wore them in
public (after two baptisms
in the costly washer).

But God was not impressed. One
day (while carrying a heavy
load of food and water)

my left sole came completely
undone - and I still had
one more mile to go.

I began to walk with a
conspicuous limp. People
stopped and stared

as if I'd finally revealed
my true damaged soul. But
I held my head high

until I'd made it back home.
Then you arrived with a
pair of much

better shoes: And saved my
feet and soul
quicker than

any prayers I'd prayed to
Jesus and his
diminishing saints.

And I found God in my doubt.

Poem © 2013 by Dylan Mitchell