Max Tell / Royal City Poets 2013

Photo Art: Janet Kvammen of Janet Planet

Max Tell

Three Poems

Royal City Poets

Anthology 2013

Penelope Page Put Poems in Pudding

Penelope Page put poems in pudding.

Poems in pudding, Penelope put.

Pretty and pleasant, all picturesque,       

Plush poems pensiled in spondaic foot.    
   

 

Poems of pandas, penguins, and pigs,

Polar bears, pollywogs, parakeets too,

Pugs, alpacas, pussycats, puffins,

Poems of 'possums from Palamazoo.

 

Parrots, peacocks, pelicans, pipers,

Piranhas, pythons, a purple perm,

Pugilistic pirates, repulsive vipers,

Most things 'p' that make mother squirm.

 

Poems by Pope, poems by Poe,

Piles of poems by poet Pound,

Poems by Pfeiffer, poems by Pratt,

Sound poems, found poems all to expound.

 

Love poems, dove poems, pie poems, spy poems,

Poems of praise, poems of praying,

Poems or peril, poems of peace, 

Penned poems of piston pings.

 

Penelope Page put poems in pudding.

Poems in pudding, Penelope put.

Also published in the Fall 2013 issue of Westward Quarterly Magazine.

 

Dedicated to Bonnie Nish 

Monster in My Desk

There's a Monster in my desk asleep.

I call him monster Ned.

I found him there last Halloween.

He's made my desk his bed.

He's strange you know, as monsters go.

He's made of bits of string,

Paper, books & elastic bands.

His real name is Ned The Thing.

He didn't mean to gobble up

Poor teacher who was yummy.

When she tried to clean my desk,

She just fell into his tummy. 

All the Things I Have to Do

All the things I have to do,

Make me feel I'm in a zoo.

They bore me stiff and twist my mind.

I look and look, but never find

 

Excitement, wonder, grade-five bliss.

Every day, it comes to this,

"Study hard." "Do your math."

"Clean your ears." "Take a bath."

 

It drives me crazy. Don't think I'm lazy.

It's just that all my thoughts go hazy,

When everything I have to do

Turns my head a bit askew.

 

"First do this, then do that.

Walk the dog, feed the cat.

Eat your supper, every bite.

Brush your teeth, every night."

 

Why, oh why make such a fuss?

It all seems so ridiculous,

When all I really want to do,

Is write a poem just for you.