“Washing Christmas Away”
January 29, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
The sun and the rain
Have come together again
With the warmth and the wind
To wash Christmas away
They have conspired
To turn what’s been bright – plain
Thus, it now causes me pain
To have to say
That what was once so festive –
Will have to wane
Only to become dull gray
On each February day
“Straight Out of Eden”
January 20, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
Straight out of the Garden of Eden
After you had lost all your freedom
Guess you thought it was your own fiefdom
Now your mind’s sick and your heart’s bleedin’
You climbed the tree and ate the fruit
Trading clothes for your birthday suit
That explains the life you’ve been leadin’
So cold-hearted and without feelin’
It’s all too much what you’ve been dealin’
It’s time to change and stop your reelin’
You climbed the tree and ate the fruit
Trading clothes for your birthday suit
Don’t just stare at the paint that’s peelin’
Drop to the floor and start your kneelin’
Ask God for mercy and for healin’
Give up your old life — quit your stealin’
Don’t climb the tree and eat the fruit
It’s like all other idol loot
“Another Realm”
January 20, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
Sometimes you see past a vision into another realm
There, you get a faded glimpse of a certain healing balm
And, when you see it, you receive a real sense of calm
Like the power to relieve of an Old Testament psalm
You feel your day’s burdens lifted, along with each qualm
You try to hold this power, but there’s nothing in your palm
“Genes and Mystery”
January 15, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
You were so young
But you held me
As a baby
And you rocked me
To Ray Charles
Such a memory
Of course, back then
I didn’t realize how young
Only twenty-one
When you had me
The first of three
In the last days of Kennedy
As a little boy
Smelling soap and cigarettes
Shaving cream and shower steam
I got to know
Years ago
Your work routine
Now, in the mirror
As I draw nearer
I see that I reflect
You, as well as me
In what remains
A mix of genes and mystery
“Purgatory”
January 15, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
I need a fiery furnace
That can burn away all my sin
Incinerate my trespasses
Yet keep intact my fleshly skin
Destroy remaining transgressions
While preserving the real me
It is neither Hell nor Heaven
But a place called Purgatory
“Childhood Memories”
January 15, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
Birds’ nests and yellow raincoats
Childhood memories I take with me
Why these and not the others?
It will always be a mystery
But I’ll take them just the same
I’ll take them to the grave
And somewhere beyond they’ll live on
With those of friends’ and loved ones’
“Invasion of the Parachuting Leaves”
January 7–8, 2018
Mark S. Latkovic
Dozens of November leaves came falling into Panhandler Park
Like rangers parachuting under cover of the dark
Making their stealth assault on an enemy army
Part of the first wave of their offensive tsunami
My thoughts as I walked past the scene unfolding right in front of me:
It’s like I’m on a World War II movie set watching leaves invading Normandy
