Turn A Page Or Two

Friday, July 3, 2026

The Big Score

Taking the midnight flight to Vegas on a hunch

He had all the numbers and he made them crunch

Kissed his wife goodbye with a sweet little lie

If she knew the truth it would only make her cry

He said come on baby just one more

I’ll be quitting after the big score

Don’t walk out that door

I’m going to be winning the big score

The stewardess was hot with no inhibition

Alas he was steadfast a man on his mission

He had three kids with dreams of education

If he won his bet so sweet would be salvation

He said come on baby just one more

I’ll be quitting after the big score

Don’t walk out that door

I’m going to be winning the big score

Touchdown the rain was pouring from way on high

When you don’t know the truth you can’t tell a lie

A limousine into town going all the way

Tonight was the night tomorrow the golden day

He said come on baby just one more

I’ll be quitting after the big score

Don’t walk out that door

I’m going to be winning the big score

Money is a poison the runs in the veins of the American dream

The green monster chews you up and makes you wanna scream

It’s more, more, more you’re looking for the big score

You hit it big then it’s another gig looking for the big score

It’s your life’s savings but are you gonna win

Win or lose you’ll have the blues of your sin

Deja vous on you as you walk the gambling floor

The mirror ball spins nobody wins the big score

He said come on baby just one more

I’ll be quitting after the big score

Don’t walk out that door

I’m going to be winning the big score

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Blighted The World

You spent days in the maze going all ways

Hyped you typed the words to the latest craze

What a pretender you can never surrender

Through the door the Minotaur the game ender

Scorned by your girl

So you blighted the world

The whore of the Minotaur

So you blighted the world

The rat runs from the cat chases the cheese

When you are homeless you do as you please

You served your time and you did no crime

Except for obeying orders and marching in line

Scorned by your girl

So you blighted the world

The whore of the Minotaur

So you blighted the world

They are gentrifying Harlem way uptown

The orders are given from the banks on down

While the disheveled veteran sleeps on grate

Mass production it’s hard to function with hate

LSD slips in his juice

He is free fabulously loose

He chases the dragon today

Tomorrow is the time to pay

Tomorrow and what more

Enter the Minotaur

Scorned by your girl

So you blighted the world

The whore of the Minotaur

So you blighted the world

In that fatal moment when insanity becomes real

You cannot repent or even see the total deal

And with open eyes you realize Babylon

With trembling slips time slips and all is gone

Scorned by your girl

So you blighted the world

The whore of the Minotaur

So you blighted the world

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Just One More

Hera got in a rage with the ageless Zeus

She cried baby just maybe I’ll turn you loose

The god of Olympus replied with lightning and thunder

He cried Hera girl let me fill you with wonder

I was walking out the door

And she cried just one more

I said we’ve been here before

She smiled just one more

The story of Pocahontas is a sad lullaby

By the Mississippi River we hear her cry

She asks the whimsical question which is why

Love songs are eternal they never die

I was walking out the door

And she cried just one more

I said we’ve been here before

She smiled just one more

I gave you orange roses it was your favorite kind of flower

We made love at midnight and talked into the early hours

So why am I crying when I know that my sins are forgiven

Why am I crying when God has taken you to heaven

And words of a song will never make it right

Bob Dylan is perishing but you see him fight

There are mysteries not meant to comprehend

The truth is that all good things come to an end

I was walking out the door

And she cried just one more

I said we’ve been here before

She smiled just one more

If I was Shakespeare I wouldn’t write a tragedy

Simple human kindness is the world’s remedy

When I say I love you know my words are pure

If you desire my fire than yes just one more

I was walking out the door

And she cried just one more

I said we’ve been here before

She smiled just one more

Friday, December 5, 2025

Radical Jeff

Radio is playing some long-forgotten song

John Fogarty splaining how the world went wrong

Radical Jeff is driving he’s humming along

When your heart is true you are strong

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Full of hope a little cynical

We’re all hoping on a miracle

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Well there are too many things we could protest

If you believe in love you just want the best

No more endless war and that means genocide

Sorry Uncle Sam we don’t like pilgrim pride

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Full of hope a little cynical

We’re all hoping on a miracle

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

By God’s grace go punch a Nazi in the face

Let’s fix Earth before we ruin outer space

Peace love and understanding for the human race

And radical Jeff is setting things in their place

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Full of hope a little cynical

We’re all hoping on a miracle

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Radical Jeff is throwing the dice he’s playing the game

Radical Jeff I wish he had a better rhyming name

Call him an old hippie call him whatever you will

Jesus said a lot more than Thou Shall Not Kill

On the corner tonight the weather was bitter cold

All of the time day by day we’re growing old

We have but one wish in this wicked world of sin

To leave better than we got to our children

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Full of hope a little cynical

We’re all hoping on a miracle

Radical Jeff well he’s a radical

Check Out "The Lost Cantos Of John Kaniecki"

Saturday, November 15, 2025

A Day @ The Poet's Cafe

by John Kaniecki

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!!??!!"

Rosie is far from nosy

Serving as waitress at the restaurant

Chewing Bazooka bubble gum with a smile

Her raw radiance

Tightly fitting finely filled uniform

Compensates for her lack of style

Her glossy red cheeks speak abundantly

Strawberry Blossom - exactly

My eyes tip toe over the menu

"I'm not sure"

"I've never been here before"

"Perhaps an extended metaphor?"

Rosie smiles savage and cunning

Sultry, sexually stunning

"Take it from me"

"Try a simile"

"The taste is nice"

"At an excellent price"

Confounded by a vague reference

Like a ship lost upon the sea

"Oh my" I cry suddenly

It's the worst thing to say

At the Poet's Cafe

A corny cliché

So dead the corpse is but dust

Embarrassed like cuddling lovers discovered in lust

I surrender sorrowfully

"Just coffee for me"

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

The Revolutionary Legacy Of Allen Ginsburg

In the glory of City Lights

Howling through the darkest of nights

Walking, ever walking the beat

Robbed on a New York Street

A young man from Paterson

Perturbed, disturbed

Yet still widely heard

He was vile and obscene

So declared the machine

But I am happy to report

That even in their kangaroo court

They heard free speech’s call

As with a clenched fist

We squeezed to resist

Crushing Moloch’s balls

And so Allen’s works sits upon the shelf

A perverted version of our inner self

A man who strove for the common good

Like all men should

A man captured in time

Mostly for his alleged crime

Oh the misery of this revolutionary

He also wrote good poetry

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Cigarettes and Psychosis

Puffing upon the front steps

Multiple diagnosis

Cigarettes and psychosis

Hocus pocus

Life's role

Years became a marvelous magician

Once a young man

Abounding in ambition

Studying engineering

Now appearing

Broken down

Face full of a frustrated frown

Shadows under his eyes

An appearance pale in pain

Learned life's lustful lies

Now insane

Society

Stigma

Ostracized

The man in the mirror

Mesmerized

Socially crucified

Brunt of a cruel callous joke

See him smoke

Fear, hatred upon which the focus

Cigarettes and psychosis

Monday, August 4, 2025

True Love’s Call

I hear at night my true love call

I know not any more precious sound

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

My beauty, my soul, my passion, my all

I look to you for in you I’m found

I hear at night my true love call

I beg of you a kiss if but small

Let me help you to where you are bound

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

You are a dream so fondly I recall

I perceive a whisper I chase round and round

I hear at night my true love call

Heaven without you stands not so tall

The essence of love now walks the ground

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

On the cross for water they gave you gall

Why have you forsaken me, the words resound

I hear at night my true love call

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

Friday, June 6, 2025

After the Fire

Books burned as Alexandria was looted

Furious fires full of choking smoke polluted

Knowledge of millenniums consumed in the flame

What a shame

Voices, guardians of civilization, a guide

Denied

From the furious fire always to remember

To straggling pockets of hot ember

A soft reddish glow

Now only ashes to know

Gray dust for the wind to blow

To the corners of the Earth to and fro

Do you mourn for the secrets lost

Treasure gained at such a high cost

What was learned before

We can learn once more

Of that I am sure

So what remains after the fire?

Strange

Mankind did not change

He still contains his desire

After the fire

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Go On Tyrone

Down in the righteous red raspberry field

Where even politicians promise to yield

There lies a dog who is longing for a bone

And all the cheerleaders are cheering alone

Go on Tryone score one for the team

Go on Tyrone life is but a dream

Go on Tyrone hear the scream

Go on Tyrone score one for the team

Momma loves you baby so says Julie

Johnnie Ninety-Nine says I miss you truly

Alexander sees in the crowd an empty space

You gotta earn heaven even if saved by grace

Go on Tryone score one for the team

Go on Tyrone life is but a dream

Go on Tyrone hear the scream

Go on Tyrone score one for the team

Marvin Gay lost his way in a distant day

We got free speech is a slogan they all say

Capitalist stooges sucking up to billionaires

You can’t get lunch but we got plenty of prayers

Go on Tryone score one for the team

Go on Tyrone life is but a dream

Go on Tyrone hear the scream

Go on Tyrone score one for the team

We are lining up trying to make the church great again

Ekong is praying the people swaying where’s the amen

We love you Jesus but hey I got this nine to five

I write poems but tricky rhymes ain’t gonna help me survive

The truth is that life is hard for the youth

Astro physics presents equations hard to refute

The seven star general I don’t salute

Percy got his pipe and he’s planning to toot

Go on Tryone score one for the team

Go on Tyrone life is but a dream

Go on Tyrone hear the scream

Go on Tyrone score one for the team

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Dating In The 20th Century

Dating In The 20^th Century

Love is a four letter word and so shall it be

Face to face living in a place of reality

I held your hand and baby that was the start

I came to understand the beauty of your heart

Back in the days when America was free

We were dating in the twentieth century

It was me and you and you and me

We were dating in the twentieth century

Tripping on modernization in chaotic times

Clever poets were ever searching for better rhymes

Darling tell me one and one do they make two

Darling tell me can you make all my dreams come true

Back in the days when America was free

We were dating in the twentieth century

It was me and you and you and me

We were dating in the twentieth century

Driving the long way home for a romantic view

Whispering sweet nothings the way that lovers do

I was seeking some pie in the sky fantasy

Dreaming of the ideal trying to feel the real me

Back in the days when America was free

We were dating in the twentieth century

It was me and you and you and me

We were dating in the twentieth century

I had visions of you in radiant naked glory

In deepest sin we told the blatant story

True lovers the truth discovers the very soul

Singing the blues in the age of rock and roll

Music on the radio we were singing along

Words of the prophets they were making us strong

Two voices united in the melody of the few

The voices united baby it was me and you

Back in the days when America was free

We were dating in the twentieth century

It was me and you and you and me

We were dating in the twentieth century

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Barry No Moore

School boy infatuation

Lost over a Richard M. Nixon rubber mask

Stretching the prominent nose

Flabbergasted at the elastic recoil upon release

A metaphor on life

Norma called

In a round about diplomacy she declared

Our comrade Barry is dead

He’s better off was the diagnosis

WTF?

Was Kissinger correct in his fascist arrogance?

Masturbating in lustful ego and influence

Time Magazine stained in the White House bathroom

Tricky Dick and Sticky Dick

Here’s a suggestion in memory of our dearly love departed

Herd together the entire collection of despots

And their spineless cohorts whispering sweet nothings of vile

No true warrior celebrates glory in death

Unless their humanity has been X’d

Like John Chivington and his cousin in killing Custard

Take a group Polaroid

After it is fully developed in techno color

Strike a match and set it ablaze

Just cause you can

Use claws of justice to shred the smug mocking mask

Of the sinister superior Nietzsche charged super man

Observe a tormented toddler

Wounded beyond point of view

Never to comprehend

The most precious words

I love you

Like Barry would pronounce

But no longer

He is fading fast into forgetfulness

Unless in irony in future days of radiant glory

Inquiring minds come across this pome

English a vanquished dead language

Babylon banished

Tyre toppled

And all the proponents of genocide meager ashes

The darkening of the face of humanity washed clean

As we pronounce bold words in caution

We walked the winding way once before

Of whom Barry was one

Demand in meekness

No more

May all wars cease

Then Barry

You may rest in peace

One you participated to create

Where Love rules over hate