After the introduction
they are familiar

one leans to talk
and like a tree to the light
the other leans to hear
They come together as bee to nectar
feeding
dripping
leaking
from ear to ear

© 2006 Kelly Galey

The Black Dog Knows I Come This Way

I'm tired of being chased by that black dog
I am tired.
He waits at the gate and follows my heels
biting at my flesh as I run.
And who the Hell is leaving shards of glass
strewn over my street.

The light in this room is fading
my magic eye has gotten weak
and I can't read the leaves
at the bottom of this cup
Everything is dark
and I am tired.

© 2006 Kelly Galey

Spinning

I feel no more dizzy than the average person feels when
falling out of the sky wondering if the parachute will open
no more numb than than any other soldier feels after
smelling death for months and years and sleeping in the rain.

I'm spinning*. But not very fast and if I hang one foot over
the side of the bed it seems to stop for a while.
That said, my equilibrium is no less stable
than it would be if I were in love.

I am no more confused spatially than I am conceptually.
gramatically, financially, mathmatically, sexually, and ecologically.

and it's surprising to me yet shouldn't  be so
that we spend as much time as we do,
training the dog to understand English
and so little time ourselves trying to understand the dog
we call ourselves the smarter of the two but
look at this objectively

© 2006 Kelly Galey

The Inner Circle

I let go of the circle, it wasn't easy
they didn't make it easy for me
you see the circle is a self sustaining force
that supports it's own weight

self medicated reciprocal enablers

is what it amounts to really
I signaled my intentions but it was like
quitting cigarettes
everybody says they will do it but
few ever do
"Yeah man I really hope you do
hey can you go with us later to pick something up?"
Cheech and Chong made a lot of money with that joke

There's always somebody to bail out of jail
to pick up a check from her old man
and somebody who is going to kill themselves
like Delores and her revolving door of
maladies and emergencies, part soap opera
part emergency room
moving away and changing the phone number doesn't work
unless you put some real distance between you
and them
they're stalkers, vampires on steroids,
the only thing they need more than their drug
is you
so they can have someone to be addicted with
Ecstasy loves company as they say
so I packed my bags and thought
"a thousand miles should do the trick"
but believe that I still look over my shoulder
I have quit a lot of things and a lot of jobs
even cigarettes but this
was the best move I ever made

© 2006 Kelly Galey

Fifteen

We called him Fifteen
this kid who had wandered into our den
nobody knew him or where he was from
and it was strange given the high degree of
p a r a n o i a
that existed around our circle that
we let him in at all
especially in light of his minor status
myself I thought it was gross
that a child like that wanted to
stick needles into his arms but then
they were his arms
I left the circle and gave up the den
so I don't know if he ever became
sixteen

© 2006 Kelly Galey

About the Poet:

Born April 30, 1962 in Ada Oklahoma, Kelly Galey's first heros were Woody Guthrie and Andrew Wyeth. Later he would be introduced (although never formally) to Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Andy Capp, Buster Keaton, Johnny Rotten and other cultural icons who through their existence created others. He never knew he was a writer until he became one, apparently though, it was in there all along. His website can be found here: www.xanga.com/pox

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