JOE HAKE
PRETEND LOVE
Why don't we just pretend that I'll respect you as a friend
You're lonely and so am I
Pretend that when I leave you you won't cry
Pretend I'm who I claimed to be
When first you saw me drunk at that party
While I pretend your beauty blinds my eye to other faces
While you pretend to understand with your well practiced gazes
I'll pretend to say I love you, while you pretend to hear
I'll pretend you are worth more than guaranteed sex
While you pretend that we are something more complex
I'll pretend I'm trying not to smoke
While you pretend to laugh at my joke
I'll pretend to like your poem
While you pretend to accept my home
I'll pretend your mom's a good cook
While you pretend to enjoy my book
We'll pretend to enjoy the small talk occupying the time we're not in bed
And pretend that you don't care we never did what I said
Pretend I don't only call you when I'm all fucked up
Pretend you don't get upset when I just plain don't show up
I'm not always clean, pretend you don't notice that
While I pretend not to notice that your ass is getting fat
Who needs to be alone when we can play pretend
While further from reality each other we will send
CRY
When it's so hard not to be crying
While everyone around is dying
Ever so slow
Ever so slow
In the blink of an eye
Someone, and a part of Us will die
The enfolding story, forever around
They will just go, not even a sound
From the light we come
Into the dark we go
This, known by some
Soon to be known by all
When it's so hard not to be crying
While everyone around us is dying
Ever so slow
Ever so slow
I still want to know
Why my own tears won't flow
Down my cheeks for you
Or for me, too
If you look deep enough to the dark
You can make forms from any spark
If there is one made by you and me
I want that spark forever to see
When it's so hard not to be crying
While everyone around us is dying
Ever so slow
Ever so slow
I want to know
Who among us will be the first to go
I want to see into forever
To understand never
I want to hear music, and become a dancer
I want forever to smoke and not get cancer
I want forever to be young
Or at least know that my song will be sung
So hard not to cry
So hard not to cry
For you, for they, and for I
For every dream that will someday just die.
NATURE
The Crickets chirp their break beats
When the window screen sings to
The soothing hum of the highway
Like my own private beach
Birds chirp and police sirens sing tunes
The dim light on the porch is my own personal moon
In the driver's seat of my car,
Having a smoke,
Like a cave all my own,
In the peaceful eternal twilight from the industrial glow.
The sweet smell of Spring,
Fresh mud mingles with sweet gasoline
Pollution refracting red sunsets our ancestors could never know.
THE BALLARD OF AIDS MARY
A Ballard in Three Sonnets
Come hear ye a tale, O men of lust
A fair pretty woman is not to trust
There once was a man, whose night turned scary
And fell to the clutches of AIDS Mary
A man of wealth, and a man of renown
The tale unfolds from smile to frown
After his work at the neighborhood pub
Having some pints for to wash down his grub
A girl of the likes he'd ne'er before seen
He felt his loins growl as though they were mean
She came to him like a river will flow
Sit by my side, I can't bear let you go
Hurriedly they drank their fine pints of beer
This Mary, she gave him a lustful leer
I've had enough drink, I think we should leave
She spoke so sweetly as she tugged his sleeve
On the way home in the dark of the night
She began to undress, causing delight
Mary, my dear, wherefore art thou so free
`Tis for a man, cruelly had rapéd me
I take out my spite by pleasing my flesh
Hush now, we shall swive on this fences mesh
Fierce was her fire, the man did tire
Come to my home, where we shall retire
Off went her dress in the elevator
Lustful again, he had soon lain her
Up to his room she walked stark naked
Not e'en one sound tonight have I fakéd
They made their love in all possible ways
They passéd their night with so many lays
Hush now, Mary said, for I wish to sleep
To Morpheus's realm they went so deep
Upon the next morn, the sun did awake
As well as the wind, sweet Mary did take
Attached to the pillow sat a small note
There sat the foul news forever to quote
It said, I have AIDS, and now you do too.
The poor lusty man knew not what to do
He rose from be, for to begin his day
Contemplating how he would make her pay
He went not to work, but to buy a gun
To seek harsh vengeance upon last night's fun
And years passed by as the man grew frail
One look in his eye, your face grows pale
Now you may see him, walking down the street
A thin, frail man, who always packs heat
So all lusty men, please do be leery
The girl at the bar could be AIDS Mary.
HAVING A CIGARETTE
Having a cigarette
After I quit
The tree's shadow
On the neighbor's garage
Chekhov urging me
Write
Write
Write
Having a beer
In the clear
And by a pond
Is better than inside
My mind wonders as it wanders
Through the dark suburban sky
Nothing to do
Maybe go for a drive
Let the future unravel before my eyes
Get rich
Get out of debt
Meet a girl find a wife
And then I die a happy man
But do I have to go to work tomorrow?
Or am I fine?
What about the rent
To the apartment I don't live in anymore?
Reminisce a bit
Then pull in home
Sitting on my trunk
And having a cigarette
After I quit.
All
Text Copyrighted by Joe Hake
Appointment: 1228 N. Noble St. (coach house) Chicago, 60622 (773 348-8536)