THE BEASTLY ART

for CFK Jr

1988 october birthday brought

a packet of 20 chapbooks

8 POEMS, by yrs trly,

a present from my old editor

somewhat estranged then

but always my editor!

we had quarreled about the beastly art

but had come to terms more or less

i liked calling it

a pirated edition

made me feel grand, as when

i found my first collection

at the local used book store

in urbana

--i had arrived . . .

got my first national publication

from the piece that closed

8 POEMS, a story about 

divorce and dirty diapers

oh, in re 8 POEMS, 

i forgot to mention 

that some years ago 

i ordered a new edition 

of 100 copies--no longer 

'pirate edition'--but it 

makes for a good story 

at the coffee shop

been handing out copies 

for xmas, at coffee, 

at the Eye-talian 

restaurant i frequent

poems to retirees, to trump-liking 

small business owners, 

to the barmen, the lovely barmaids, servers, 

the busboys, the landlords

the ex-communists, especially the painters

ellen's 24 surviving cousins

poor patti dead in her sleep at 43

like danny boy the thief, 

woke up dead, gone too soon

nobody turns down free 

poems, 8 is just 

the right number

a belated thank you 

charlie, thank you

very much!

i owe you a bottle of dago red

copyright © 2016 by patrick o'hayer