Obstacles
Wide-mouthed your speech
Subtle doubts in your mind
Honorable mentions for your ideas
Spreading butter on your bread
Slipping on your silk robe
Turning the kettle on your stove
Burden of your shackled feet
Dampened cloth between your legs
Fist clenched on your hammer’s handle
Border control asks for your papers
Eye of the storm guides your fears
Feeling safe under your covers
Anthropological studies on your desk
Ballroom dancing for your pleasure
Existing in your secluded fourth dimension
Release your constructed barriers
Falsify your historical records
Give birth to your undeveloped theories
Ravens remove your eyes
End of time has the ultimate grip on your clock
Pleasantries don’t expand your necessitates
Feeling the pinching of your cheek
Giving up on your forever dreams
Finding destiny was never in your control
Drowning under your accumulated debt
Losing all your investments
Paying for your delivery fees
Sheriff on the tail of your chaotic driving
Ambassador of love bruising your heart
Drought won’t save your tears
Doctors refuse your resuscitation
Parasites feeding on your freedom
Supper plate shattered at your knees
Obstruction of your innocence
Sale of your childhood
Burying your last emotional turmoil
Midnight mass apologies for your felonies
Mystery disease enslaving your brain
Past decisions preventing your escape
Highest bidder buys your art
Wolves feed on your compassion
Memories complete your self-destruction
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.12.15.10.15@345NYC
Road to Nowhere
Tired of my feet leading me this way
Tired of turning the wheel
Haven’t succeeded
Haven’t done anything lately
Haven’t accomplished anything
Haven’t followed my dream
So tired of this
Road to nowhere
–
Tired of wrong paths taken
Tired of wrong choices made
Haven’t inspired myself
Haven’t achieved my goals
Haven’t looked to the future
Haven’t learned from the past
So tired of this
Road to nowhere
–
Tired of hiding from the truth
Tired of living a false livelihood
Haven’t created in a long time
Haven’t revealed my biggest secret
Haven’t released my inner child
Haven’t aced my own test
So tired of this
Road to nowhere
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.11.14.53.00@345NYC
God Returned My Call
Let me tell you about God.
I don’t capitalize god.
I don’t believe in god.
I hate wasting my time writing about god.
I’ll never try to convince you that god does not exist.
But as much as I don’t accept this concept of a higher power.
I must tell you about this phone call I received the other day,
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.11.0912.58@345NYC
Out of Control
Action packing
Addiction producing
Aimless flying
Air suffocating
Airplane descending
Alarm sounding
All engulfing
Answer delaying
Ant colonizing
Asphalt paving
Asteroid landing
Autumn harvesting
Baby birthing
Backyard barbecuing
Banjo playing
Bank robbing
Bar hopping
Battery charging
Bee buzzing
Beliefs upending
Belly aching
Bible reading
Bird chirping
Blood sucking
Box hoarding
Boxer punching
Bridge spanning
Bubble bursting
Bulb lighting
Bull shitting
Cake baking
Camera flashing
Car crashing
Cash withdrawing
Casino betting
Cat petting
Cave crawling
Cement mixing
Cereal munching
Chalkboard erasing
Chess moving
Citizens protesting
Cliff jumping
Clock ticking
Cloud puffing
Cock stroking
Color blinding
Comedian portraying
Compass navigating
Constant pleading
Corrupt governing
Coupon saving
Credit card spending
Cum swallowing
Dead breathing
Deep sleeping
Democracy voting
Disease defeating
Dish washing
Donut frying
Drug inducing
Drum beating
Dust collecting
Egg hatching
Election cheating
Envelope sealing
Face shaving
False promising
Fighter jets bombing
Finger trembling
Fire burning
First date kissing
Fist bumping
Flag raising
Flower bedding
Forced childbearing
Funeral gathering
Galaxy observing
Gas passing
Germ catching
Gift giving
Glass breaking
Golden peeing
Grade school flirting
Granola grinding
Gravity defying
Gum chewing
Gun Shooting
Hail Mary praying
Hang gliding
Heart stopping
Heavy benching
Home refinancing
Hostile plotting
Hot wheeling
Ice melting
Idea nixing
Illegal crossing
Illegally hallucinating
Image stealing
In bed spooning
Infidelity hiding
Inmate electrifying
Innocent crucifying
Intimate lovemaking
Irrational thinking
Knee bending
Lane signaling
Lawn mowing
Lazer beaming
Loan borrowing
Lollipop licking
Losing everything
Luggage carrying
Machine malfunctioning
Mall shopping
Maximized activating
Milk pouring
Mirror reflecting
Money laundering
Mosh pitting
Mountain climbing
Mouth foaming
Mud wrestling
Mushroom foraging
Nail clipping
Naked skydiving
Narcissistic self-caring
Nation building
Nighttime cricketing
Nose blowing
Number crunching
Ocean crushing
Oil drilling
Old schooling
Opera singing
Orgasm moaning
Package delivering
Page turning
Parent pleasing
Parishioners worshipping
Pimple popping
Planet orbiting
Plant watering
Playground bullying
Pocket protecting
Poison controlling
Political pushing
Presidential scamming
Pussy Pumping
Rain leaking
Razor thinning
Receipt totaling
Relentless unforgiving
Rocket launching
Sadly weeping
Satellite communicating
Science questioning
Scissor sistering
Seasons changing
Seeds growing
Serial killing
Ship sailing
Sitcom televising
Skin peeling
Skinny dipping
Sled riding
Smoothie drinking
Sonic booming
Speed skating
Spell being
Stadium shouting
Stock falling
Stone throwing
Storage boxing
Sun setting
Sunburn tanning
Sunrise birding
Tax auditing
Taxi hailing
Telephone ringing
Thinking something
Threesome unicorning
Thunder clapping
Time wasting
Tiptoe sneaking
Tongue teasing
Total counting
Tractor bulldozing
Trash talking
Treasure hunting
Trouble breathing
Video pirating
Voice raising
War mongering
Weapon manufacturing
Weight lifting
Wind howling
Wing soaring
Wire tapping
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.08.21.33.03@130BKLYN
Glass Glass Glass
Glass Glass Glass
Broken glass
Bottle glass
Windshield glass
Jar glass plate glass pottery glass
Everywhere glass
Glass eyes Glass tolls Glass toes
Gas in the glass, light in the glass, colored glass
Gasoline glass, Fire glass, Sandstone glass
Glass on the beach
Glass on the floor
Glass full of lies
Glass empty
Glass full
Glass in your belly
Glass up the ass
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.07.16.18.35@345NYC
Redemption
I’m just a man on a mission
A man cloaked in black
With a bible under my arm
Preaching to those that would listen
About my harm and about my reason
About my charm and about my treason
–
Dancing with Lucifer
Holding hands
Stepping across the stone floor
A lyre whispers in the distance
Wearing a torn bride’s dress
Spotted red above the knees
See my hands
Please my eyes
Wine in my beard
Heart crucified to the wooden ark
Blood dripping down to the bimah
Slithering snakes tease to please
Love me
Don’t just unjust me
Scanning the congregation for hope
Eyes meeting your eyes
In this uncontrolled territory
Sea of Kineret excursion
My feet flirt with the benthos
Head south for the pillar
To wash my wounds with salt
Could not sink my toes into the Dead Sea
Infidels biting Eden’s forbidden fruit
Fighting over lands that do not forgive
For unkept promises
Casting out my shadow
My forever plea
It is something so ordinary
That I cannot see
For I am a man
A man on a mission
–
I’m just a man on a mission
A man cloaked in black
With a bible under my arm
Preaching to those that would listen
About my harm and about my reason
About my charm and about my treason
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.07.13.40.08@345NYC
Finding Grace
You have my heart
But my love is mine
While barefoot
I wandered into the woods
Got lost beneath the canopy of leaves
Below the needles of pine trees
Acorns at my feet
Grey skies hover overhead
Can’t see the clouds blanketing this forest
My heart tries to escape
But your hands hold me near
Tied down and guided
No echoes in faraway canyons
Attempting to evade
Making a path from beginning to end
Without a compass and without reason
Without justification and without apology
The trees sway in unison
Dancing a ballet of hidden truths
Making you a forgotten false memory
Tried to find an exit
Instead of this constant existence
Where you own my heart
And I own your heart
Where my love is mine
And your love is yours
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.06.15.24.02@345NYC
Wishful Banana
Yellow pencil
Siting on my desk
Morning sunshine taking my breath away
Shadows dance on my desk
Painted yellow wood
Filled with graphite
My pencil
Wishes it was a banana
A calcium filled delight
Ready to be peeled
Eaten bite by bite
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.05.04.15.56.18@345NYC
Mosquito
Swat so near
Never going to fear
That pest in my ear
Brain empty flood
Dragged me through the mud
Sucking my positive red blood
Tied me up like a hog
Left me in a breathless fog
Prayed in yesterday’s synagogue
Tried to get me to mate
Delivered me on a silver plate
Desperate measures to coordinate
Took me for a fool so anonymous
Abused every inch of my consciousness
Buried me to rot in a concrete sarcophagus
Ripped off my lizard scales
Chopped off my finger and toenails
Slipped me substance in dry cocktails
I shy away from
I ooze and seep and cum
I shrivel and shrink and succumb
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.30.15.57.30@345NYC
Given, Forgotten
We were young
You gave me your most hidden secret
It was my most prized possession
I kept it deep inside my heart
For the longest time
Never told anyone
As promised
We've grown older
Weathered and worn
We don’t move as easily
Watching sitcom reruns with laughter
Cherish our everyday prunes and nap time
Our joints get stiff
Our lips are chapped
Our skin has sunspots
Our hair turns kinky grey
Our eyes fail to see truths
Our organs don’t work properly
Our mind struggles to remember
Our diapers remind us of our younger years
Our dentures clean with effervescent tablets
Our bones twist our skin into their own unnatural forms
Lying in bed
Staring at the ceiling
In my cardigan over my flannel shirt
I’m reminded of my grandfather
Whom I look exactly like
Bundled up for a winter’s day
On this summer day
Lying in bed
I’ve now forgotten
The secret you’ve given me
All those years ago
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.30.13.44.19@345NYC
Apology
Execution was a fabrication
A Crookes radiometer sits on the sill
Birds sing their song as they land nearby
A cold glass of freshly poured lemonade dampens the white cloth it sits upon
Ice cubes crack in the heat of the sun
Claiming love as the only true vocation
Splinters from the wooden rocking chair puncture palms
Hands are weaving in the corner of the front porch
Ocean tide is conversing where the yard meets the rocky beach
The key is in the lock ready to turn
Hands up in time for negotiation
The sea sweeps vitality into its great gyre
Swallowing salt and honor
Weakness brought to the barrel at one’s knees
Apologizing for a broken heart
Thought about bridge’s height or immolation
Not catered to the public doubt
Cheeking medication on the ward yearning for cyanide
Lovers lost and found after the greatest compromised promise
Vacancy celebrated and remembered from the altar
With head down ready to surrender to suffocation
Dreams of fate and reason
Crushed with a deadly blow to the head
Name etched into the discharged bullet
Embedded deep within the frontal lobe
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.30.12.36.24@345NYC
Twice a Blade
Blade of grass in my teeth
Switchblade in my pocket
Neither an answer
Blade to my throat
Blade to my wrist
Neither an answer
Could surrender to the blade
Sharpen the blade
Polish the blade
Could hide the blade
Under my shoulder
In the drawer
Beneath the bed
So, they don’t see
So
they
don’t see
So
they
My shoulder rotates just fine
Healed well from surgery decades ago
After the crush on pavement
My razor glides across my jaw
Shaving tightly
Rounding the corners of my mouth
My one-minute soldier
Standing brave
Standing tall
Blade in my sheath
On my hip
At my side
Stolen my pride
I tried to roll down the street
I tried to get back on my feet
It’s all I could do
So, they don’t see
So, they don’t see
Blade of grass between my toes
Blade of grass compliments my woes
Neither an answer
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.30.10.52.16@345NYC
Returning Silence
I did not ask for this silence
I’d like to return this silence
-
I’d like to hear her voice once more
And hear her giggle filled laughter
I’d like to hold her hand
And cradle her head in my lap
I’d like to wipe tears away from her cheek
And help her chase her dreams
-
I’d like to return this silence
I did not ask for this silence
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.29.11.56.01@345NYC
Tabled Love
Wrote you poetry
Forgot your name
Photographed the wildflowers
Forgot your name
Waited under the willow
Forgot your name
Woke up from the dream
Without knowing my own name
Wandered into the tall grass
Helpless
I call out your name
Your name
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.28.16.54.52@345NYC
Letting Go
So many knives
So many cuts
So many ways to make you proud
Classes are over
Gotta go to work
Gotta make it on time
Didn’t ask for this (way of living)
Gotta get up in the morning
Set the alarm
See the sunrise
See another day
Just want to find my way
Follow my path
Construct the dream
It’s a struggle
To carry this weight
To share with you
I don’t want to burden you
You all - All of you
Punching the clock
Taking a swig
Falling down the stairs
Tripping over my thoughts
Cycling through the predictions
Smarten up
Hanging on to the last piece of rope
The thread is so thin
Temptation is at its all-time high
For the easier way out
Giving up on hope
Sometimes,
You must let go of the wind
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.28.14.39.52@345NYC
Listen Carefully
Placing my ear to the ground
Attempting to listen
Listen carefully
To the oncoming crusade
Intently
With soft pause
Without anger
With my hand not in a fist
I listen
To the trembling
The slight murmur of movement
From far away
The rattle is getting louder
Close
I listen carefully
I reflect
I remember
I’m tempted to respond
I stand tall
Steadfast
No intention of leaving
No departure
I listen carefully
To the wind
Carrying the echoes from canyons beyond
Listening to the flights of birds
The rain landing on the earth
The slow trickle of a river
Placing my ear to the ground
Attempting to listen
Listen carefully
To the oncoming crusade
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.23.16.09.23@345NYC
Simple Pimple
Simple pimple
On my chin
I’ve got a simple pimple
On my chin
I don’t have a simple pimple
On my chin
Just a simple pimple
Hanging out on the bottom of my chin
Simple pimple
Waiting to be popped
Simple pimple
On the bottom of my chin!
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.23.15.38.59@345NYC
Fire or Concrete
Burn your head on fire
Slam your head into concrete
Yes, that feels better
Thank you
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.21.16.41.39@345NYC
The Smell of Fire on a Thursday Afternoon
It’s just another Thursday afternoon
Working at my desk
On Park Avenue
in New York City
Grand Central Terminal is to the South
Park Avenue Armory is to the North
To the East is the United Nations
To the West is Rockfeller Center
I’m just sitting here
Typing on keys
Smelling the all-consuming fire
That no one else smells
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.16.16.40.12@345NYC
Changing Lanes
Forward
Reverse
You continue doing what you know
The comfortable routine
The common tradition
The repetitive pattern
The everyday habit
The go-to ritual
The daily grind
The same
Sometimes,
you just have to change lanes
© 2026 David Greg Harth
26.04.15.15.44.22@245NYC