Touché
She had put great effort
Into a self-commissioned
Portrait of yours truly
Covered in red flags
Wearing a tiara
Atop a unicorn
So I took it upon myself
To write a historical poem
About her being
A clueless victim
With a penchant for bad boys
And a bad case of the hiccups
Who dies on the operating table
Everything is art
David Burdett
6/24/2023
Fistfight at The Recycling Center
And in the first corner stood,
“The Crypt Keeper”
And in the second corner,
“Santa Claus on Crutches”
And in the third corner
Standing 6' 5"
And weighing in at 260 lb.
Rapidly losing his sanity
And holding onto the kitchen sink,
Dave
“The Wildman of Bellflower!”
Burdett
As the stench of stale beer
And frustration
Wafted from the floor of the arena
Two men battled for the prize!
A plastic grocery sack
Full of aluminum cans
And as Santa fell victim to the tune of,
“A One Two Watcha Gonna Do?”
Punch to the head
I held onto the kitchen sink
Thirsty and bewildered
Wishing I was drunk
David Burdett
4/28/21
In the Ghetto
Remember
When Elvis
Was a Cholo?
And he told us
Crazy-ass stories
About robbing
Liquor stores
And making love
To beautiful
Chola women
Then he segued into
Telling us the meaning
Behind his murderous
Blue-ink prison tattoos
And how only punks
Got raped in jail
As the angel dust
Wrangled our
Teenage brains
Elvis Viramontes
Had himself one
Hell of a good time
Watching us
Shit our pants
A long time ago
Worlds away
From Graceland
David Burdett
12/20/2021
Say It Ain’t So Joe
Pennsylvania avenue
Has failed to deliver
So, we drink malt liquor
Roll our own and stick ourselves
In impossible situations
Where the other guy
Goes first and we
Get sentimental
Over the mercy
Of a stranger
Who screwed us
With a kiss
As we choke
We dare to dream
Of an America
Where extra zeroes
On a payheck
Are as easy to come by
As attitude from a stranger
And still we remain as hopeful
As an opiate addicted
Pregnant teenage girl
Who dreams
Of becoming a stripper
Dear Mr. President,
Things just keeps getting worse-
The people are violent and wasted-
What are your thoughts-
On the French Revolution?
Have you ever slept in the park?
What did you have for breakfast?
I know you sleep at night
But how do you dream?
Cordially,
Your worst nightmare,
America
David Burdett
5/28/2023
Betwixt
What would you do if you discovered that your entire life is merely the space between someone else's heart beats?
Their brain the universe of your
darkened sky.
Their respiration the warm summer's breeze upon your face.
The sparks of their ideas fireflies in your night.
Would you reach out to catch
them?
Wrinkling up your nose and closing one eye to peer at the ones cautiously captured in your hands.
Holding your breath and wishing with all of your might, that you could pause this moment, between heartbeats.
Dedication
This is for all
Who have walked out
On their own lives
And told God
To go fuck himself
This one's for the nobodies
Who were born
Into nothing and know it
This is a love letter
To the ugly girls
With glasses and terminal acne
This is a prayer
For the soul of the fat man
Who will never get laid for love
A dedication
To the trailer park shit for brains
Who are the butt of chickenshit jokes
To the pillheads:
Long live the numbskull!
This is in recognition
To the man
Who cannot stop crying
Yet refuses
To pull the trigger
A dedication
To the unnoticed
The simpleminded
Kind and generous
A call to contemplation-
Recall the years
Before you were destroyed
How you smiled
And for what?
David Burdett
3/24/21