2 poems by FPL featured poet, John Milkereit

John Milkereit began writing poetry after taking a seminar on the poetry of Billy Collins in 2005 at his local church. His poems have appeared in Harbinger Asylum, Swirl, Poetry Revolt, the Texas Poetry Calendar and has been a juried poet at the Houston Poetry Fest the last three years.  He also recorded several of his poems at Taping for the Blind. Pudding House Press published his chapbooks in 2010, and Paying Admissions was a Finalist-of Note in their 2009 chapbook competition. During the day, he is a rotating equipment specialist at a Houston engineering firm.

John Milkereit will be a featured poet at the FPL Poetry Series reading on Wednesday, July 18 at 7pm.  Other poets include Donna Cozart Pauley, Glynn Monroe Irby, and Dodie Meeks.

Because You Requested Poetry About Jimi Hendrix and Eggplant 

                                        

A dream must exist,

one about walking under

the flesh of a purple sea

soft and bitter.

The trip is rich and salted.

The sky acts funny as clouds

resemble five-lobed corolla

and shadows of birds oil across

whatever spell is mashed into this

brain dish.  Backstage a riff plays,

the air cries out the yellow flower’s

amplified release which begins the

stew of awakening in you

drifting onto an island

pollen-blotted and curried

for lavender.

--John Milkereit

Disgruntled Tree  

--from Mary Temple’s light installation Northwest Corner, Southeast Light 

No you cannot take my picture for the gazillionth time

or the greatest of insults paint shadows on the wooden

floor so you can trick people with bottle-nosed psychology

and who really cares about a sense of equilibrium I hate magnolias

but you know that even though I’m your neighbor in

Central Park and they’re from a Houston temple which

seems like I’m on an ouija board not a wall so don’t think

I’m calm after applying tiny-weensy brushstrokes of sealant

which is the opposite of your title this swath is the southwest

corner lady and light is from the northeast direction of your

little trompe l’oeil I will live longer than you and the carpenters

I suffer after feeling your nails and sanding what about

a day off when you are not carving or pissing what about

a couple minutes of voir dire to admit I’m smarter than you

and your little thing-a-ma-bob projector I will never visit this

gallery again even though I admit to digging the last exhibit

when the metal-airplane-looking wing jutted through glass

I will not embrace any more silhouettes I hate sucking

up to your “not-knowing” confusion because it is all fake

fake fake I would rather talk to a yam thanks to you I’m all

Alfred Hitchcock now with the birds but I am not like that

I lied about the magnolias I like magnolias and Dominique de

Menil because she hugs I don’t have to pose in your fantastic

fantasy behind a camera if you could just see with your own

naked eyes it is just so psycho and sorry all of this is just

really really sad

--John Milkereit