CREEK ROAD GANG
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Richard Moyer: 3 Poems
copyright 2010
AUNT ALICIA
At seventy,
suspicious;
Her husband dead;
Her daughter moved away.
She hired an attorney
who hired a head nurse
who hired six nurses to
wait on her
seven days a week.
They fed her;
took her temperature;
bathed her;
listened to her complaints about
how life had deceived her;
how her husband was a lousy lover;
how she had an unloving mother
and daughter.
One day she had a massive stroke
while eating a spoonful of oatmeal.
THE DOLLAR
In 1950--Harvard College
tuition--$650 a semester-
today $25,000!
For God's sake, don't put
dollars under your mattress or
bury them in your backyard!
Twenty years from now
you might have to use them
to light a fire!
Watch the dollar
go up in smoke!
THE SNAKE
There’s a slender striped snake
that comes to me at night.
His yellow stripes glisten.
A pointed red tongue slides in and out of his mouth.
Shark-tooth fangs move up and down.
Two green eyes watch me.
If he bites,
what will happen?
Will I live for years,
able to ward off his poison with antidotes
or will my body stiffen,
my heart stop
and my soul fly off to heaven?
The snake waits;
he is patient.
At seventy,
suspicious;
Her husband dead;
Her daughter moved away.
She hired an attorney
who hired a head nurse
who hired six nurses to
wait on her
seven days a week.
They fed her;
took her temperature;
bathed her;
listened to her complaints about
how life had deceived her;
how her husband was a lousy lover;
how she had an unloving mother
and daughter.
One day she had a massive stroke
while eating a spoonful of oatmeal.
THE DOLLAR
In 1950--Harvard College
tuition--$650 a semester-
today $25,000!
For God's sake, don't put
dollars under your mattress or
bury them in your backyard!
Twenty years from now
you might have to use them
to light a fire!
Watch the dollar
go up in smoke!
THE SNAKE
There’s a slender striped snake
that comes to me at night.
His yellow stripes glisten.
A pointed red tongue slides in and out of his mouth.
Shark-tooth fangs move up and down.
Two green eyes watch me.
If he bites,
what will happen?
Will I live for years,
able to ward off his poison with antidotes
or will my body stiffen,
my heart stop
and my soul fly off to heaven?
The snake waits;
he is patient.
Biographical Note for Richard Moyer: RichardMoyer was born in Youngtown, Ohio. He received a Bachelors degree in English from Harvard College, a Master of Humanity Degree from the University of Richmond, and a Master of Arts in English from Temple University. He has published poetry in over 25 small magazines, has published a chapbook, "The Cancer Center and Other Poems," and a book of selected poems.
