Days That Are Pennies
Days that are pennies
Stepped on
Unnoticed
31 years
Unsaved
Discarded
Tossed into the water
The smallest ripple
In the Hudson River
Standing at the Snow Dock
Feeling in your
Pockets for
Pennies
For change
Nothing there
Wouldn’t it
Be funny
If you could
Jump in
And swim
Down and
Feel around
In the mud
To see if
You could find
One
You threw
away?
Gender Studies
It’s pretty much
The men who scowl
Or look away
When I wave
And peddle past
On the bike trail
And it’s the women
Who smile and
Say good morning
But sometimes
It’s the men
Who smile
And say
How you doing
And it’s
The women who
Don’t respond
(When I offer my
Little hand wave)
And turn away
Or glare back
With a look
That says
Leave.
Me.
Alone
Love Without Sex, Sex Without Love #1
Here’s Turgenev’s mom
Flogging the serfs
Forbidding they marry
Out of wedlock babies
Drowned in the lake
On the estate
Grandma beat a kid
To death and
Hid the body
And what did little
Ivan think of all this
While Dad was away
Doing whatever
Years later here’s Turgenev
Impregnating a serf
Providing money
To raise the girl
His daughter
But keeping his
Respectful
Distance
Of course
Here’s Turgenev
Pining for a married
Woman writing
Love letter after
Love letter
Asking for a locket
Of her hair
She rarely
Wrote back
So they say
Wise move
Which served to
Increase his
Devotion
His obsession
He loved Pauline
An unrequited love
The kind that lasts
And lasts
For forty years
Until the very
End of life
Dan Hubbs is a songwriter and string band musician. He has performed at Caffe Lena, Skidmore College (Solomon Northup Day), Great Camp Sagamore, and numerous venues in the Adirondacks and Saratoga region. His book of writing inspired by his years as a building super in Tribeca, Downtown Super Tells All, is available at Northshire Books, Amazon, etc.
