New poems by Michael Lee Johnson

 

Dead Grey Wolf Skins (V2)

(Tribute: Aldo Leopold)

 

1935.

Dead grey wolf skins hang

on white clotheslines across Baraboo, Wisconsin

the dark surface, dirty old shack, side of the moon,

that only exists in memories hung high, long before.

Hunters in the past did their job well,

sold skins, collected a few bucks,

increased deer for hunting, saved cattle,

decreased fear, told tales, short stories, adventures.

 

The grey wolf face now emergent,

opens his mouth wide in the safety

open in blue sky.

Shows his white teeth against

background of black sky, shadow,

hears thunder again, releases

fireflies at night, monarch butterflies

during the day, guts down pine tree spikes.

He walks once again over landscapes of turquoises.

He consumes dirt road dust, tracks trails,

114.4 miles from Milwaukee to Baraboo.

His keen eyes are sharp for growth

of skyscraper, Pabst brewery building.

Traveling side roads over many years brings him to the present.

No more violators, hunters with guns, fake Jesus people

slender in His bathrobe Christ repeats two fishes, 5 loaves

and the wolf survives.

 

Aldo Leopold feeding inmate in small jail cells,

only kills a few wolves for research.

Aldo a Saint of conservation a consumer of cigarettes and butts,

heart wings of doves attached, broken, stroke fire, a neighbor field

heart stroke drops into history.

 

 

 

If You Find No Poem (V3)

 

If you find

no poem on

your doorstep

in the morning,

no paper, no knock on your door,

your life poorly edited

but no broken dashes

or injured meter-

 

if you do not wear white

satin dresses late in life

embroidered with violet

flowers on the collar;

nor do you have

burials daily

across main street-

 

if no one whispers

in your ear, Emily Dickinson-

you feel alone-

but not reclusive-

the sand child

still sleeping in your eyes-

wiping your tears away-

 

if you find

no poem on

your doorstep-

you know

you are not from New England.

 

 

 

Introduction: John Nash has suffered most of his life with severe paranoid schizophrenia and has gone on to be a celebrated American mathematician whose works in game theory, and differential geometry are appreciated around the world. The movie A Beautiful Mind portrays Nash's mathematical genius and his struggles with schizophrenia and how he went on to win a Nobel Prize.

 

Schizophrenia Night (V2)

(Devoted to John Nash, A Beautiful Mind Movie, 2001)

 

I am a chalkboard computer brain.

I have updated drawn raw

images even the classroom

students cannot see, hear, nor understand.

They sit quietly in Disneyland

wondering about my eccentricities

I capture their stillness, and then I speak.

I am the professor, special agent of government

dream tracer of crossroad puzzles.

Photographic memory in private rooms,

did I hear a critic, erase

destroy dissociate thoughts.

I walk out unsteady in disbelief.

Is there a shadow of storybooks following me?

 

I am a genius; I know who I am.

I spend nights in formula construction

drawing full color images of my brain,

percentages of gray matter lost.

 

I stick my ego to the bird eagle of the sky.

 

When on a high on an airplane, self-love,

full bloom, I keep my enemies at bay.

I shelter the skeletons of thought.

 

I trust Jesus because His image is stable,

every group I have ever known says "The Lord's Prayer."

Even then, new members leave, disappear, I hear what they said.

I had an MRI to trace all my youthful abuses.

There were no images there but voices I remember.

I cast their shadows, audio, visual for show, in the background.

In time, they quiet their voices. I walk beyond their images.

I pass on, they still screenplay.

 

You have to stretch lean, refer to sanity,

drink Asian tea, smooth out, limejuice, hallucinated sounds

before that stage, I took that Nobel prize,

even before, I forgave you.

 

 

 

Possum Slim (V2)

 

105 years old today

Possum Slim finally

gets his GED,

drinks gin,

talks with the dead.

“Strange kind of folks

come around here,

strange ghosts”

he says, “come

creeping pretty regular.

Just 2 ghosts,

the only women I ever loved,

the only women I ever shot dead.”

 

 

 

Poem of Sinners and Saints (V3)

 

Sinners hurt.

While moonlight cracks open

like a walnut, spreads soft light across open sky,

they dart to alleyways, bury themselves behind

their own trails shaking fists at the sky;

hiding their nasty nonsense in shame,

city buildings rattle their bricks, mortar loose at their rib cage.

 

All men think they are sword men daggers in darkness.

All women think they are entry points leaning against brick walls,

slender on sidewalks past midnight,

nothing but shadows, twitching of lips.

Women look for drawing cards in their makeup kits.

No one cares jackals, scavengers, men tempted by night.

Thunder dreams hammer at their ears,

rain urinate sins on street corners,

mice crawl away to small places shamed.

 

Early morning crows fly.

Footsteps scatter directions as sunlight sprouts.

Misdeeds carry no names with them

they trip blind, racing to morning jobs.

Sin hurts staples in women's lungs,

staples dagger in men's ribs.

 

 

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