Mike Meraz

Get Off The Stage 

that your pride

took the stage

and not your talent.

that your ego

was speaking

and not the muse.

that a has-been

is a has-been

and one must learn

to accept this.

the moment we had

let it last forever:

original and brilliant.

do not dress it up

with trying to be

new again.

let birth be birth,

let death be death.

let the crowd love you

when you are brilliant

not in your need

for applause:

get off the stage.

A 911 Kind Of Love

she sits in front of me,

chest lifted out,

heaving.

she smiles.

I collapse

under the weight

of affection.

why didn’t we see this coming?

it will take years to rebuild.

the world will never be the same.

we will never forget.

The Great Poets

the great poets

aren’t really

the great poets

they just work

the hardest

yes, there is magic

and talent

but there is also

digging in the dirt

determination

and sending everything

you have out to

every fucking publisher

you know,

there is doing odd

and crazy things

for the written word

like boarding a Greyhound

to a different state

only to end up

a year later

in 4 anthologies

17 magazines

and 14 girls.

Your Letter

your letter made me so happy

I got up and smoked a cigarette

then cleaned my house

then washed the dishes

then did some laundry

then fed the dog

then sent that poem

to that cruel online literary magazine

I’ve been putting off for so long

then took a bath

washed my hair

cleaned my underarms

shaved a bit

rinsed off

toweled

and now here I am

writing a poem.

your letter made me

so productive

and that’s why it took me

so long to answer

it.

To Shawna:

it was L.A.

in the summer,

so stealing the covers

wasn’t a big tragedy,

but there were other things

like the heroin

and the daily doses

of rage.

there was going broke,

and looking for quarters

underneath the seat cushions

just to eat breakfast.

it was summer in L.A.

and the cops treated us nice

and the dealers

and the other junkies too,

but I would’ve rather had it normal,

just me and you

on the couch,

eating popcorn, watching

some corny movie.