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Best Poems From
LAURENCE OVERMIRE
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69.
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Artist in a Box
I wish I could believe in money.
I wish I could believe in ego.
I wish I could believe in competition, in winning
At all costs.
But I can't. I see too much.
So I guess I'm stuck as a poor, humble, loser of an
Artist
Who can't make a living.
Oh well.
Artists don't really catch on until
After they're dead
Anyway.
And by then, who gives a fig leaf
One way or the other?
(Previously published in Megaera, No.4, Fall 2000)
Laurence Overmire
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70.
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Artist with Shovel
We're trying to come to terms with this thing called
'Life'
That's what artists do
Trying to dig beauty out of the
Pain
To create something lasting
Something that speaks beyond
Generations
Something extraordinary
To mock the crude incivility of the grave.
(First electronically published in This Hard Wind, by EWGPresents, Vol.4, No.5, May 2000)
Laurence Overmire
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71.
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Asleep at the Switch
There were bombs exploding in Iraq
Babies turning blue in the immovable quash of rubble
A government twisting truths into the most
Outrageous kinds of lies
The end-game justifying the means
But no one would believe
The long years of children left behind a hoax
Come to fruition, dusty books that no one
Reads, impossible to distinguish the text from the
Con
Old words make sweet bonfires
The world spinning in a drunken haze
All a blur of light and sound and colorized
Image
The patient on his etherized table his
Hamburger heart pumping beer and blue-eyed
Bimbos into the vain artery of his
American unconscious
O, we may wonder, and O
We may die
Sleep the good sleep
Someday maybe
Someone will wake up, alone to find
And ask the inevitable question
A hundred years too late
Why?
Why didnt anyone try to stop
The madness?
(Previously published in The Hold, Oct. '04)
Laurence Overmire
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72.
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Assault and Battery
The heart gets used up
Year after year after year
The mileage wearing on balding tires
Sure, it can be recharged, with sufficient juice
Now and then, but
Eventually
The poor thing, just cant kick-start
The engine anymore
And has to be
Re-placed.
(Previously published in Poetry & Art, Feb. '01)
Laurence Overmire
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