By: Dan Holt

Listening to Leonard Cohen

Listening to
Songs Of Love And Hate
Trying to write
Poetry
That serves the moment

I’ll never
Write like that
I’ll never
Sing like that

Every word
Measured
For it’s worth
Sang in that
Deliberate voice
With all
And none
Of the emotion
At the same time

Finger picked guitar
The lightest touch
Just barely
Brushing the strings

Children’s voices
Rise from beneath
Harmonizing
Underscoring
The sadness of a song
Of dead soldiers

I want to cry
I want to write
I want to sing
Just to sit
Where he sits
Just to try
Just for the moment
To wear his suite
And feel the pen
In his hand

Those among us
Who conceit
To write a song
Remove your strings
You have nothing
To play

Those among us
Who call ourselves poets
Put down your pens
You have nothing
To say

Dodging Bullets

They sat there giggling
at the end of the bar
Probably
too young to be there
Definitely
looking for trouble
in a deserted dive bar
at midnight
on a Thursday night

One said
I look like Stanley Tucci
Which in a weird
also a bald guy with glasses way
I guess I do
It was more invitation
than observation

They wore
the kinds of clothes
I imagine
strippers wear
on their nights off
A lot of visible skin
A lot of cleavage
Nothing and everything
left to the imagination

For just a moment
I thought
“I want to be the trouble
I want to be the one
they giggle about later”

Instead I said
goodnight and left
As I was heading for the door
I heard one say
“let’s go to another bar
I need to fuck something tonight”
And I thought
“there’s a bullet dodged”

Choices

Excuse me sir
is that a bible
or a gun
in your hand?
I ask
because I
want to be prepared
for what’s next

A bullet
to the chest?
Eternal damnation?
Do I get to choose?

On one hand
is the judgement
of a non benevolent
God
followed by
an eternity
of suffering

On the other
is searing pain
and certain death
followed by
darkness
or possibly
something worse

Now that I
think about it
I’ll take my chances
with the bullet

###

Dan Holt is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, poet and author from near Cleveland, Ohio. His work has been published widely in the online and print small press and he is the author of “Blank Canvas On Bloody Pavement” and “Motel” (both from Alien Buddha press and available on Amazon). He was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2021.