by Michael W. Ollinger

2006-2010 Poems

“Questions to Kal”

Post author By Michael W. Ollinger
Post date November 29, 2008

Remove the spectacles, scarlet letter,
and the mercurial mythologies.
Grant a mask-less moment so I may ask
the being we have named the Man of Steel:
Did it hurt when you heard that you were not
Jonathan’s and Martha’s little boy Clark,
not even a boy at all, but some thing?
Did you weep any of those salty drops
of lost trust that leak out the reddish eyes
of your youngest fans when they discover
that Santa’s really just Dad’s MasterCard?

Is that why you prefer a glasses-mask,
to hide your own tired, dried-out, cried-out eyes?
Or are tears products of man’s reaction
and lowly to higher life forms like you?

2001-2005 Poems

“The Shadows of a Sunlit Life”

Post author By Michael W. Ollinger
Post date November 22, 2008

This is one of my favorite pieces. The language is a little archaic and clunky, but I love the aphoristic ending.

Tags Existentialism, Religion

2006-2010 Poems

“Driver’s Blues”

Post author By Michael W. Ollinger
Post date November 22, 2008

Exercisers on the streets
wave their aging arms
to the untapped beat
of an unseen drummer
while I sit, smoking,
behind a dark green Hummer
with sweat stinging my eyes
from the stifling summer
of CO in the skies!

Motorists on the street
wave their raging arms
in their sweat-soaked seats
at the cars next to them:
a Lexus whose driver
can’t remove the leather from his skin,
and his sweat stings his eyes
during the sweltering summer
of CO in the skies!

My greenbacks don’t go further
the farther I have to drive,
and if I ain’t careful,
my finances could deep-dive
into the sea of bankruptcy.

Tags Environmentalism

2001-2005 Poems

“Woman”

Post author By Michael W. Ollinger
Post date November 22, 2008

I once asked my Pop,
“What makes a man a man?”
He answered,
“Two things my boy:
a set of balls & a cock.”
I next asked my Pop,
“And a woman, what makes that?”
“Two things my boy:
a set of boobs & a twat.”

[It’s no wonder
He & Mother
can no longer
see each other.]

One man said that
all women came
from one man,
that man is made
by the Maker’s hands.
But who creates the Maker?
Who makes the creator’s hands?

I realize now
that wool-gathering
has no place within
the shepherd’s flock.
It’s better not
to ask such questions,
to question the maker,
to make inquires to the shepherd,
to shepherd the incensed flock.

What makes a man?
I may never know.
My Pop was right
on one thing, though.
Two things make woman:
the letter “W”
& the letter “O.”