Writings by Thomas Radwick. Mostly poetry and lyrics. t_radwick@yahoo.com

The Big Casino

Redfaced
sweating

frantic to figure
what’s next

(and
how to react
to the reaction

of what’s
expected to be
next)

concocting
through voodoo
historical calculus

intricate
instant
elixirs

that fixed
the sagging
floor before

but crap
out now
BLOOOOP!

on the bourse
where balloon
faces cave

and cry at a sky
that is suddenly
a ceiling



.

Family Gathering

And together
we continued
losing ourselves

in the glow
of a television



.

Puddle of Rain

He’s tired

Black holes fill his eyes

All that’s left

Is an awareness

Of emptiness

A hollowed-out head holds

A puddle of rain



.

How To Go About It

Standing on a corner
With diddly dang to do
Watching all the women
Who I would love to—
oo!

Each one is an actress
In the movies in my mind
And after they all pass me
I just watch them from behind

Then a dude strides by
With an angel by his side
And I know by his smile
And the grace and ease in his stride

He’s a winner! Hey!
There’s no way
That I could ever doubt it
Because the guy…knows how to go about it!


Struggle out of bed again
To get to work on time
Wait in the rain for a train that is late
And it comes and it crawls down the line

You look at all the faces
And the faces look away
Every one seems eager
To be finished with the day

But there’s a man up high
In an office in the sky
Who we all work for
Together down on the floor

He’s a winner! Hey!
There’s no way
That I could ever doubt it
Because the guy…knows how to go about it!


Worry work and wonder
Wish and work and worry more
Dreading what’s ahead
Regretting what’s been done before

Hollowed out and tired
In a tragic selfish mess
Living as if this just isn’t it yet
Life’s ahead or behind but it’s somewhere to get

But a man whose face
Holds a gentle open gaze
Is right here now
And glows in the ghostly crowd

He’s a winner! Hey!
There’s no way
That I could ever doubt it
Because the guy…knows how to go about it!




.

Stand Still

and feel
the hum
of Earth

flow through you

as waves
of wind
move seas



.

Spring

A woman
wielding her ripe
body

through a ripe world

of stares and sighs
and desperate
fantasies



.

Mirror Man

“Mirror Man : Mirror Me!”—Captain Beefheart

Streets wet with rain
—gleaming streets—

reflect streaks of light
from lamps overhead

I plap past puddles in sandals
and see myself—

One night
riding a bus

through an invisible world
I glanced at one of the windows

expecting to see myself
in the gleaming glass

and instead saw a still
grey woman gaze back

and accepted this
as me



.

Crack in the Ceiling

Poetry by Thomas Radwick

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