Ted Getzel Works

I Am a Bagman

I draw back my arm and cock my wrist

My blue handled hammer hits the hardened nail’s head

I watch sparks fly

My hands are getting calloused

And so is my soul.

I caress the shape of things

With a rough grip

I wonder

And move to match the moans

In the hot city night.

I am a dancer with answers

I didn’t demand.

I feel like the bagman for the collective unconscious.

A divine wind in my face

I go kamikaze on the keys

I try to be,

Neither, victor or victim

Whistling my way through crowded streets

With work songs, symphonies

And sensual sympathies

For so many faces in the crowd.

I have been lucky

For an odd man out on the edge

And though the faces I have faced

Have been replaced

The friends I know

Continue to grow.

The holy helix howls

As memories flow

And fluids flex

In accord with ageless laws.

In an unkempt room

Lit by stiletto streetlamps

Once more our flesh flashes together

Forming fugues

In carnal counterpoint

That remind us that

PLEASURE IS NO ACCIDENT

PLEASURE IS NO ACCIDENT

It is a lesson,

so ancient and obvious,

That we all misunderstand it.

PLEASURE IS NO ACCIDENT

It is a message

PLEASURE IS NO ACCIDENT

It contains knowledge

Unavailable in college

It is a lower education

Suitable for worms, insects, chimps

And humans.

It is a required course

If we are we are to survive.

As we love we learn

We exchange strengths

Then go our own ways.

I am a bard playing the odds

Defying the devious

Offering the obvious

To the oblivious

By chancing

Dancing

With answers