by Martin Freebase

And writing poems about man’s fall

Puts her chips all on black

The redundancy of negativity

Seeps through the pores of her skin

Her first beach house

She wanted high upon a hill

To look over the turbulence

A physical reminder

Of existence

Saying hello to the ladies

As they pass by

Baskets full of turpitude

Her hopes have stopped being mine

A long time ago

I marvel as she fathoms

Multiple realities

Built by your Betty Crocker cookbook

At opposite ends of the cord

Lacing your feelings with an opportunistic spine

And wrap you in leather

We have both seen the wicked street ballet

Only I stood for the ovation

Martin Leonard Freebase lives in Dubuque, Iowa with his wife, daughter, and a black and white cat named “Daisy.” Martin’s work is solidly based on the concept of poetry as a social construction. Through our interactions with others, we create and recreate meanings that allow us to make sense out of a chaotic world full of contradictions. Martin considers the art of writing poetry as one small way of collapsing the confusion of experience into more meaningful patterns of social thought.