Contents
01 > The
Re-Enactment of
02 > Bones of the
Biscuit Makers
03 > Borne on the
Wings of Death
04 > Growing Pain
05 > Creation
06 > Spouses of the
Zodiac
07 > Cultural
Appropriation
08 > Mental Health
09 > Gone Poem
10 > The Los
Angeles River
11 > Collection
12 > Life Line
13 > It’s Funny
When We Go to Costco
14 > Two Love
15 > Triumph and
Tragedy
16 > Horror
17 > Landing
18 > Early in the
Marvin Morning
19 > Naughty Night
20 > Sarcophagus
21 > Afraid of
flying
These poems were
composed between July and October 2024
Copyright 2024 by Don
Kingfisher Campbell
(http://dkc1031.blogspot.com)
Published by Four
Feathers Press
(http://fourfeatherspress.blogspot.com)
01 > The
Re-Enactment of
The Revolutionary War
has begun
Pistol shots repeat
into the air
M-80 booms nearby
scare
Skyrockets sizzle then
fizzle
Below the din on city
streets
Safe and sane
fireworks add
To the low-level smoky
haze
Tonight spool out the
water hose
Douse those spent
charges
Go to bed and get
under cover
The next morning
gather
All the cardboard and
plastic
Toss everything into
the rolled
Waste bins because in
our
Neighborhood it
happens
Coincidentally this
248th year
To be trash day, is
that a blessing
Upon this stretch of a
United
State of America with
a Spanish
Name for a region and
a Turtle
Island on which we now
reside
02 > Bones of
the Biscuit Makers
They labored
with life
They labored
with lungs
They labored
with legs
They labored
with lust
They labored
with longing
They labored
with locality
They labored
with latitude
They labored
with loquaciousness
They labored
with levers
They labored
with literature
They labored
with lines
They labored
with lenses
They labored
with light
They labored
with lint
They labored
with loss
They labored
with lethargy
They labored
with lateralness
They labored
with less
They labored
with loneliness
They labored
with l...
03 > Borne on
the Wings of Death
the baby cries
for nourishment
the toddler whines
for nourishment
the school child
pleads
for nourishment
the young lover longs
for nourishment
the hard worker toils
for nourishment
the retiree waits
for nourishment
the ailing body lies
for nourishment
the freed spirit
changes
for nourishment
the effluvial matter
moves
for nourishment
the form becomes
fodder
for nourishment
(back to start)
04 > Growing
Pain
I was pushing
my Tonka jeep
around the
living
room, crashed
it
into the
sliding
door, elbow
blood
I was riding
my green
bicycle
no hands,
looking
back at my
friends
turned and saw
the white
pickup
I was flipping
over
the front of my
ten
speed right in
the
path of the
freeway
onramp, quickly
escaped, felt
my head
I was body
surfing
when a six-foot
wave
knocked me to
the
sandy shore, I
looked
down at my
dislocated
left kneecap,
yelled
I was
photographing
my beautiful
co-worker
as we strolled
around
the music
center, then
she introduced
me to
her boyfriend,
oh my gut
05 > Creation
I drew
some pictures
of Fireball
XL5 when
I was three
As a preteen
I typed two
years of my
own personal
top 40 lists
17 I started
composing
lyrics then
poems and I
haven't stopped
In my 19th
summer I
convinced my
girlfriend to keep
our baby, marry me
Again at 32
I implored
my future third
wife to let our
daughter be born
Now I still make
poesy, burn CDs,
and do push-ups
over my sixth spouse
as often as possible
06 > Spouses of the Zodiac
Cancer – She had no
intention
to marry, diary
considered me
a “harmless lover”. I
talked
her into having the
baby
and getting ringed
together.
She quickly found
freedom.
Capricorn – She really
was
a homebody, yet
indulged
my desire for
exhibitionism
in public places. She
left
because she envisioned
a future house without
me.
Libra – She was a sexy
moon
in Scorpio, so she did
end up
fulfilling my wish for
her to
give me a daughter,
but I knew
the gift was actually
her mini-she.
I departed out of
loneliness.
Gemini - She warned me
I might get a phone
call
from the police.
Otherwise
she lied about
weekends
and changed her mind
two
weeks before escrow
closed.
Virgo – She never
meant to
keep her promise of a
regular
sex life. She was too
damaged
by her past to be able
to even
try to cohabitate with
anyone,
let alone her teenage
son.
Sagittarius – She’s
capricious,
learned to appreciate
the
stability of married
wife in
America when it came
to
maintaining a
relationship
with her single
offspring.
07 > Cultural
Appropriation
Oh oh, CaLoki, you
suggested
making the November
theme for
Four Feathers Press
online edition
Dia De Los Muertos,
isn't that...?
Not as bad as
performing songs
from another culture
like Paul
Simon did on
Graceland, and,
now that I think about
it, Me And
Julio Down By The
Schoolyard.
Don't even mention
Genesis!
Yikes, am I not
allowed to order
my beloved bean and
cheese
burrito anymore? And I
just
bought dumplings at
the 168
Market on Valley
Boulevard
and nobody stopped me
except to say Shi
Sheh.
You know why I got
them,
my wife is from
Dalian, then
adulted in Sanya. Is
getting
married the ultimate
C.A.?
Wait a minute, I'm
writing
this poem in English.
Talk
about colloquial
acquisition....
08 > Mental
Health
My fellow poet and
friend
for fifteen years
Marvinlouis
has worried about his
mind
You see he has
characters
in his head, the inner
child,
the ego, and the Muse
with a capital M
Muse tells him words
that are actually
poetry
which Dorsey takes
down
with great
concentration
Lines like burned
his fingers on purpose
so he wouldn’t feel
the pain
Even if he’s
possessed,
tossing away society’s
priorities, he has a
large
one of his own, his
Muse
North Hollywood
Plastic Toys
Blurry Vision
Insurance Glasses
Half Brothers
School Chums
Stereo Components
Girl Friends
Music Center
Monterey Park
Record Albums
One Father
Used Cars
El Sereno
One Cousin
Audio Cassettes
Waist Line
Lost Teeth
Five Wives
Compact Discs
Land Lords
Class Rooms
One Mother
Washing Machine
Old Refrigerator
Passing Poets
Dozen Presidents
But Poetry
You Have
Never Left
Me, Your
Spirit Is
Always Here
10 > The Los
Angeles River
Our family being
driven
By my father on the 5
fwy
To Burbank in the
Buick
Skylark to his uncle’s
house
To watch Sunday
football
Drink white grape
juice
Poured into Styrofoam
cups
By my great aunt Edith
Who was hard of
hearing
My sister and I would
then
Go into the hallway
where
A bottom drawer was
filled
With coloring books,
crayons,
Brown and green
Lincoln logs
While the men in the
house
Would sit around the
dining table
With an ornate
tablecloth
That fit the
particular season
And they would play
cards
To 500 points the
winner
(When I was 11 I got
to join them)
We were given a dollar
to walk
Down the block to a
small
Corner market in which
we
Bought comic books and
candy
But the thing I
remember most
That stayed with the
artist in me
Was looking for Leo
Limon’s cat
Faces on the storm
drain covers
On the way there and
back
11 > Collection
My baby's got
her collections of
toy cars
dolls
make-up
clothes
I've got my
collections of
books
CDs
poetry
clothes
Some day they
will be utterly
useless
unneeded
unwanted
unliving
12 > Life Line
Driving home
on the 101 freeway
from the Hollywood
Hills where my late
great
aunt used to live
And the street
level abode of
the woman who has
just agreed to make me
a Poetry Editor of Zo
We pass to the left
my ninth story
birthplace
(and my mother's too)
the Queen of Angels
Hospital now Dream
Center
Almost immediately to
the right the hospital
whose
name always changes
where
my father died of
cancer
at 58 in a
semi-private room
Closer to downtown
The Music Center
location of my first
job
as an usher and my
soon to be first wife
Only a short exit away
the Hall of Justice
once
my dad's work in which
he incarcerated me for
an hour and a half
Changing into the 10
I delightfully see
General Hospital where
my daughter was born
after 39 hours labor
And the City Terrace
off ramp I would take
to allow my about to
become first ex to
visit
the house of her childhood
The coming north
view features a sweep
of buildings that are
my bachelor's degree
alma mater Cal State
L.A.
Finally Fremont Avenue
whose looping
departure
points us to my sixth
marital cohabitation
spot
the rear of a duplex
13 > It’s Funny
When We Go to Costco
“When you’re in love with a beautiful woman…” – Even Stevens
We traverse the
parking lot
holding hands as she
attracts
brief glances from
gentlemen
who enjoy curves in
clothing
much like wolves near
lambs
Entering the raised
gate
I push the shopping
cart
let her walk in front
of me
so I can watch her
hips swing
like a pendulum in
jeans
If she gets too far
ahead
I notice male members
accidentally steer
their carts
into stock distracted
by biology
unhappy wives behind
them
Yes I can't leave her
alone
in the meat (meet)
section
because lonely gents
smile at her and want
to
discuss breasts and
loins
I'm just as guilty
except
I sneak my peeks even
more
sneakily until we
drive home
I look forward to
seeing her
try on purchases like
a kid
on Christmas who just
wishes
to unwrap his promised
present
for animal action in
the afternoon
like a genetically
ruled human
fulfilling the creator's imperative
14 > Two Love
from opposite sides of
the dining table
single hands finger
meander like cats
looking to nail nuzzle
each other
one slips on top of
one upturned
palm lying flat like a
survival raft
as fingertips slide
and meet wrists
there they go back and
forth to create
soft friction sensed
by skin, faster
and faster to generate
welcome heat
then thumbs stroke
sides, eight digits
latch in the middle
like a train coupling
clench cut nail edged
fists into palms
shimmy and release so
whole hand can
turn perpendicular and
embrace, lock
on to push up and down
a squeezy kiss
15 > Triumph and
Tragedy
Wheeled out the
portable
Air conditioner that
looks
Like an all-white
R2-D2
Sat it next to me in
my red
UCLA-lifted swivel
chair to
Provide a 78-degree
breeze
I pointed the white
plastic
Caterpillar-like
exhaust tube
To the parted front
door space
Below the bottom of
the black
Iron security screen
somehow an
Orange butterfly stilled by blast
16 > Horror
(a found poem*)
1 (Jupiter eats Earth)
imagine a grape
next to a basketball
like a drop of food
coloring into ocean
glowing white hot
liquid metallic
hydrogen
2 (Visit HD189733b)
blue earth-like planet
with soft oceanic
swirls
a Van Gogh marble
constant winds whip
rainstorms of molten
glass shards sideways
fiery cosmic tornado
chunks shred you apart
with near infinite
cuts
3 (the great nothing)
everything will
dissolve
voids are growing and
will
consume all things
forever
*Inspired by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVs7MwizT5
17 > Landing
Here on massive flat
land
Surrounded by many
mounds
That rarely move very
much
Millions of
inhabitants
All stand patiently
with
Arms stretched to wait
for
The sky to cry on them
A competition to see
Who can outlast whom
in
The meanwhile I can
step
Close to one brown
green
Cousin protection
spiked
Rooted to baking
freezing
Earth in company of
fellow
Denizens in daily
ritual
Of living on the hot
cold
Planet under mostly
blue
Days where there is
need
For vast numbers
because
Cells sense how to grow
Before planted seed
sprouts
In order to repeat
again
A part of eons
process
Infiltration with
purpose
To exist simply to
feel both
Warmth of each day's
wind
And chill of every
still night
And remind aging
population
Why to be alive for a
while
Is worth such mass
recycling
So beings may learn it
is true
For every thing on
this globe
Of rearrangement to
oblivion
18 > Early in the Marvin Morning
Sound of steps outside
Houses are still dark
Silhouettes of car
shapes
Parked at angles to
each other
Trees like giant
fingerprints
And power poles point
the way
While electrical lines
traverse
Just above the ruddy
horizon
But if you look up as
directed
At the low sky glowing
ball
Old sun is trying to
reach
A circular frame of
pure blue
Totally surrounded by
clouds
That look like dry
white pores
Only they carry a
little water
As they drift slowly
to cool
A solitary man who
raises
A small rectangle to
the air
To capture the dawn
majesty
In a peaceful sleepy
city
Not on the falling
bomb side
Of a globe infested
with humans
Some trying to speed
death
And others saying
words to
Attempt to restore
tranquility
To a planet that has a
few
Billion years until
final collision
Then the end of light
forever
19 > Naughty
Night
In the dark bedroom
we were playing
Cathy and Heathcliff
beside an open window
to let in cool night
air
Heard a boom in the
sky
interrupt our
commingling
so I stood up to look
out
to see if some
explosive
fire might be seen
distantly
All I could make out
was
a glimmer of a stone
owl
hanging from a large
branch
to scare away all birds
from green growing
oranges
I reached for my cell
phone
to try to capture the
scene
but illumination by
screen
caused me to turn
around
to my love’s
silhouette…
20 > Sarcophagus
Well, it finally
happened.
They blasted the
building
the leader was hiding
in.
The building looks
like a concrete
skeleton
crumbling away.
They will find
a new leader, the
building
will be rebuilt.
And we can continue
this war in a desert
surrounded by shells.
21 > Afraid of flying
How did I know
the bus that crashed
into a stray trailer
fell down a slope
killing 19 out of 25
Tropical Storm Trami
created massive flooding
and landslides in the
Philippines, a place a
girlfriend asked me
to retire in, 155 dead
But if I wanted more
sure odds of accidental
early death I'd have
become an astronaut
whose chances are
around five percent
Still, I woke up this
morning doing such
dangerous things like
drive roads, walk into
public places, and sit
at a computer for hours
