Were you Born into a world on fire?
So many missing people, places
Labeled categories empty.
Logically you could have built
An existence from the vanished plans,
But another ensues without rhyme or reason.
Gaines Milligan June 2015
In the blazing sunshine,
Pick me a flower,
But when the clouds have darkened,
Dead leaves are flying.
There may be a cathedral
You’ve yet to see.
Not built from hewed stones. No,
From trees.
I walked between the giants,
Parting the curtains.
Nothing was said to me.
You went into the sunshine.
Gaines Milligan June 2015
People in the Street
All along the city streets
They move about
Each with an universe within.
The Venn diagram of common thought
Enormous foam
Vectorial the tiny bubbles.
A canon whispers in each heart
About the love
They are burning up the love.
It teaches where to light the page
Each instrument
Reading a symphonic score.
Gaines Milligan 22 June 2015
The Price of Me House — to the tune of “The Price of Me Pig”
In the year ’99, when the business was fine,
We decided to buy a small place of our own.
The loan officer sighed, and he jokingly cried,
‘It’s the smallest loan ever amount that I’ve done.
It was just a foreclosure with a northern exposure,
And that neighborhood then was less trendy than now.
So we listed for sale, and please hear out me tale,
At a price just so high market comps would allow.
With me toor-ee-eye-an-dee-dee
Toor-ee-eye-an-dee-dee
Toor-ee-eye-an-dee-dee
Fon-dee-dee-eye.
After some months had passed, then me Realtor asked,
Could you come in to meet in me office so fine?,
And when I questioned why, Come in, was the reply,
So I went to learn just what could be on her mind.
Well, a friend of hers came, it wasl part of the game,
And she bought it for more than just twice what we owed,
But it’s tripled since when a Metro station came in,
Yet we had to go somewhere, so we hit the road.
With me, etc.
A cheap condo we found, our finance being sound,
We were soon then ensconced in another cool place.
We remodeled the floors and the walls and the doors
And received a few compliments on our good taste.
Many days then went by; I decided to tryMe luck as a real estate agent meself.
I took a free course, and some could have done worse,
And it turned out a big broker needed me help.
With me, etc.
One day, traffic was down, and with snow on the ground,
I was able to buy a nice house with a yard.
The interest was high, but still I didn’t cry,
For to find a much sweeter deal would have been hard.
But now I can’t flip, and I keep hearing lip.
‘Cause the wife likes it here and she won’t move away.
The bankers act coy, these days money’s their toy,
And the price of me house up so high didn’t stay.
With me, etc.
I called up me banker, and I said with no rancor,
‘Twas hard for me all that big money to pay.
In a very short while, he then said, with a smile,
I will mail you a loan application today.
Paid the principle down; but the houses in town
All went down with the market, and yet to come back.
Principle to price ratio be less nice
Than the lenders would like to see after that fact.
With me, etc.
So now things could be worse; thankfully the last verse,
And I’m stuck here with small equity to enjoy.
With a low int’rest loan; I could then could just hold on.
I am getting too old; few would now me employ.
I once wanted to sell, and the wife gave me Hell.
Those fine market conditions might never come back.
The Fed bailed out the Banks, which have voted their thanks,
Now the rest of us feel an incredible lack.
With me, etc.
2012 Gaines I. Milligan
the ocean
by the ocean the breath of god
was in a bottle where the slick foam
kept it capsized.
to a little island someone made path
jesus must have done it but others drowned
beneath the sea
oh look up to the sky there are no things there
except what belongs in the sky some birds
beautiful flames
life out in front and down so far down
a zillion years before it rose and fell
and was murdered
a zillion years before it was just like a mother
two eyes looked up and out and fish played
in mothers mud
2014 Gaines I Milligan
Song on a Road
Alongside of a smoking highway
Selfish trees give up some shade
Para-goniffim of virtue purely understood
Bounties of Nature wantonly shed
In virgin summers upon the dirt
Bequeathed implacably by the Sun.
Elongated the plain enticing
Beckons a weed-infested mind
Marred by cheap mirages reflected from the tar.
Be assured there may have been a cavalier
Who must have lost the forward way
Please tread not heavy on his bones.
Gaines I. Milligan May 2015
The Vicious Earth
O mother floating in the air
Among the flower petals high
When may I go far away
To yonder mountain misty blue?
I want to get from out my bed
Go from the door to leave my house
The vicious earth tears at my heels
Flowers interrogate my wish.
Do you like our colors sir?
The hungry earth pulls at our roots,
And all our pleasure offers you.
And see that mountain far away?
The shoes so easy to your feet
Will never take you to the top
And down the other side there’s now
A roaring river wide and deep.
The raging ocean is too small
To hold the foaming waters more
The vapor rises high and soars
To block the sun and moon and stars.
When once the river was a lake
You gazed into its moving depths
Though now it comes to visit us
With furious cold beauty gray.
December 2012 Gaines I. Milligan
The Lovely Trees
If you happen to be up there you will know
That life is a place among the treetops
With tiny birds and happy insects
The little birds are but infants in their savage minds
Who understand love perfectly and sing of slavery
Which some call freedom
You glance up but freedom does not know you
There are no words or melodies
To sing to you of freedom in these trees
I move about here freely not my real body
Just a memory
Of flying backwards like a hanged man
Who never got around to being hanged
November 2012 Gaines I. Milligan
block party
in the zig zag festival of nothing
frantic debauchery is the norm
mounted police on roller skates
chased the zig zag pie through gridlike streets
i gave liberty a useless bus schedule
who ran along the road with streaming hair
then died ecstatic in a ditch
fanned by chaotic wings of butterflies
above the steaming fields of glory
her monuments appear and slowly fade
disoriented bees and hornets chase the sun
which only they can see ahead
December 2012 Gaines I. Milligan
An Empty Perfect Glass
And if the glass had never fallen
Or I wasn’t there when it fell
The friendly shards remind us
Not to touch them
After you became perfect
If we had eaten all the food
But if the glass had never fallen
Empty and perfect
But now come forward to the present
We open many perfect glasses
The old glass was there to teach us
Not to touch you
Some new food now is opened
There are so many new tastes
And perfect starting to rot
Or say ferment
Perfection itself personified
Exuding the strange new energy
It smolders with unseen light
Which you reject
Gaines I. Milligan October 2012
