The George Washington Bridge
When I was younger,
I thought about jumping off the George Washington Bridge
But I decided not too
Because I didn’t want to inconvenience the drivers
I was younger yesterday
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.09.01.17.17@130BklynNYC
Everything Is All Right
Everything is all right
They tell me
And I tell them
But really, what is the truth of it?
Would I be lying if I told you I am no longer depressed how I once was?
Would I be lying if I told you that I don’t contemplate suicide anymore?
Would I be lying if I told you that I don’t think of suicide daily?
Tell me that everything is all right
Tell me that everything is going to be okay
Tell me that everything will work out
And I’ll tell you,
Everything is all right
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.07.15.50.12@130BklynNYC
Infamous Ashlee
Sat behind a desk at 599
Overlooking the city’s Houston
She had Doberman pinscher temporary tattoos
Displayed on her big guns
That went rat-tat-tat-tat-tat
She was a wild cat wild for fast cars
That growled and meowed and purred and went
Woooooooooosh!
Ladies adored her
Jealous of the brunette upstairs
Men lick her big black boots
Vicious red meat demolished
Light the booze on fire
Explosion of desire
Melted the asphalt street
Years later alerted me to the celebrities at heart
Lost touch with years between
Admire her photographer
Close so very near
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.01.19.20.00@130BklynNYC
08.05.13.16.03.00@599BWAYNYC
Briefly
Brief
Moment
Witness
It was brief
It was just a moment
Almost timeless
It was the whisper of a witness
A long good-bye
A hand-held
Just last night
I spoke to her on the phone
We laughed, we made plans, we said our good night
The phone rang this morning
I’ve been summoned to the city morgue
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.01.17.41.04@130BklynNYC
All That Remains
The prey for the predator
The fading last dawn
Carcass on the floor
Judged by authority
Living interpret my will
One stands
In water not of this mother
Wind wraps her hands around her ears
Broken glass intrudes anniversary
Knocking
No water will drown his tears away
No fire will burn like his lasting pain
No earth can bury his devotion so deeply
No wind can carry his desire so upwardly
No love will heal the broken heart of a forever hopeless man
Knock on the door of inferno
Dance on the back of a fallen man
It is not
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.01.17.24.36@130BklynNYC
07.10.29.17.20.00@296NYC
Nurse Betty
The window was open that day
Letting the unusually warm January winter breeze to swirl about inside
Flirting with the curtains that shouldn’t have been there
Teasing the tenants of the locked floor
Nurse Betty stood about 5’11”
She was black and reminded me of my grandmother Charlotte
A sharp square jaw
Thin lips
Big rimmed eyeglasses
A bob cut
Nurse Betty caught me more than once
With my pants down
First in the dayroom
Sitting on the couch
Erection in hand
Attempting to break free of the dream
Oma would bring me a banana at her daily visit
We’d sit on the couch
I’d watch the television I didn’t comprehend
Oma would give me back scratches
Her hand on my back
Up and down, a slight tickle, a calming touch
Nurse Betty will scold my Oma
Telling her it was too sexual
My Oma would scold Nurse Betty in return
I’ve never quite seen her so angry
I rotated the hot knob and cold knob in the shower
The running water came to a slow grinding halt
Still wet, I stood there naked, exposed, vulnerable
Nurse Betty opened the door to the bathroom
Called me by name
And said that I couldn’t do that
I couldn’t masturbate
That she knew I’ve been masturbating
She said “I see your penis is all red. I know you’ve been touching yourself again.”
And she told me I couldn’t do that
She told me I couldn’t do that
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.01.17.06.08@130BklynNYC
Salt To Taste
I took the meat out of the freezer
I let the meat thaw overnight
I turned off the alarm
I admired the sunrise
I got out of bed
I cleaned my body and cleaned the house
I took out the trash
I washed my hands
I put on my apron
I placed the meat on the cutting board
I carved the meat in preparation for cooking
I placed the meat chunks on skewers
I grilled the meat over the open flame
I opened the door for my dozen dinner guests
I sat them down one by one
I finished preparing the meal
I placed some cooked meat on every guest’s plate
I told each guest to salt the flesh to taste
I listened to my dinner guests admire my cooking
I told them what kind of meat it was after they inquired
I told them my wife died just last week
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.08.01.16.56.56@130BklynNYC
Elevator to the 77th Floor
After entering the lobby of the art deco building
The desk attendant instructed me to take elevator five to the 77th floor
I got in
With a woman
Who had auburn shoulder-length hair
She was in a grey pantsuit which I think was made of linen,
Or something easier to wear in the summer months
With a man
Who had a clean-shaven face
He was carrying a briefcase which had brass hinges with a gold finish,
And a worn leather shoulder strap
With another man
Who had a beard and a baseball cap with the word “DETROIT” on the front in orange stitching
He was deeply involved in a texting conversation
Or perhaps he was just scrolling
With another man
Who was dressed in all shades of various black
He was looking like a young Johnny Cash
And he also had a swagger like Elvis
It was just the five of us
Going up in the elevator
The first man got off on floor 67
The second man got off on floor 71
And the woman got off on floor 75
Then came my floor
- 77 -
I suppose the third man got off on another odd numbered floor
But I really don’t know
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.07.13.20.22.44@130BklynNYC
I’m Sick and Tired of Your Love Poems
“No more love poems.”
She demanded
It was a tough sentence to hear
How could I just stop cold from writing love poems?
Poetry about love?
About romance?
Affection?
Obsession?
Infatuation?
Searching?
Yearning?
How could I just stop cold suddenly?
Merely because she demanded.
Or did she request?
So, I stopped writing love poetry
And you should too
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.07.12.08.15.13@130BklynNYC
The 11th of July, The 11th Floor
I’ve struggled to make it one day more
I’ve struggled to get to the floor below
If I made it to the next day,
Then I would have considered that an accomplishment
For I went one more year
Without killing myself
If I made it to the floor below,
Then I would have considered that an accomplishment
For I managed to escape the locked floor
Without waking up from the dream
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.07.10.09.00.00@130BklynNYC
Held Dream
I held onto the dream so long,
I forgot to live
and
I didn’t make my dream come true
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.07.08.11.01.00@130BklynNYC
Lucille’s Sandwich
I had to journey out there myself
Not by the railroad
But by rented automobile
Because I wasn’t sure exactly where I was supposed to go
I found myself driving well past Huntington
In search of something ordinary yet so extraordinary
I heard rumors about this
And I’ve read articles about this
I’ve seen it in print
I’ve seen it online
I’ve even seen it on television
I drove around
I knocked on doors
I spoke to locals
I spoke to out-of-towner folks
I spoke to the baker
I spoke to the sheriff
I spoke to the barber
And I spoke to the pharmacist
It took me all day
But finally, as the sun was declining to stay in the sky
I pulled up to this diner
Where I knew for sure
I was about to have Lucille’s delicious egg salad sandwich
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.07.07.21.30.18@130BklynNYC
Tongue
Careful
With that tongue of yours
Your fleshy wet muscle in your mouth
Helping you –
Taste
Lick
Chew
Swallow
And
Speak
Tongue
-
Caught
Tongue
caught between a cat’s paws
caught between unleaded and diesel
Tongue
caught between arrivals and departures
caught between connecting flights
Tongue
caught between workshop vice
caught between springs of a clamp
Tongue
caught between railroad spikes
caught between a scorpion’s pincers
Tongue
caught between a black widow’s web and a lion’s den
caught between the frozen and thawed
Tongue
caught between spread thighs
caught between a zipper’s teeth
Tongue
caught between the seat cushions
caught between cunnilingus and fellatio
Tongue
caught between shibari and nuru
caught between dirty underwear and clean sheets
Tongue
caught between anonymity and identity
caught between given names and adopted names
Tongue
caught between the front seat and back seat
caught between casting couch obscenity
Tongue
caught between monogamy and polygamy
caught between a downpour crossing the street
Tongue
caught between elevator doors
caught between a lover’s quarrel
Tongue
caught between the Rolling Stones and the Beatles
caught between Ab-Ex and Pop
Tongue
caught between house grooves and 60s folk
caught between stocks and bonds
Tongue
caught between the Hudson River and East River
caught between North Dakota and South Dakota
Tongue
caught between transphobia and homophobia
caught between racism and sexism
Tongue
caught between Republicans and Democrats
caught between Fascists and Socialists
Tongue
caught between an arrow and tȟatȟáŋka
caught between a stinging bee and it’s hive
Tongue
caught between enemy flanks
caught between exosphere and thermosphere
Tongue
caught between innocence and sinfulness
caught between atrium and ventricle
Tongue
caught between Gaza and Palestine
caught between Jerusalem and Bethlehem
Tongue
caught between David and Goliath
caught between Adam and Eve
Tongue
caught between Mesozoic and Cenozoic
caught between Anno Domini and Christ
Tongue
caught between euthanasia and DOA
caught between life’s mystery and seppuku
Tongue
-
Caught
Crushed
Compressed
Squeezed
Squashed
Tongue
Destroyed
Demolished
Disintegrated
Tongue
-
Caught
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.06.26.17.47.20@130BklynNYC
Speak of the Shadows
There are whispers
When you turn corners
Don’t speak of an assault from yesterday
Incomplete assassinations are inadequate
Poor judgement and poor timing
No printed names in tomorrow’s paper
Don’t speak of that hidden space
Between her inner limbs
Just under the edge
Such a dark corner
Don’t speak of secluded cabinets
Filled with curious collections
Passionate about someone else’s skin
Just out of an upstate penitentiary
An interlude of romance
I love her
She heals my forever scars
Let’s me say no farewells
Introduces me to the wisdom of the moon
The illumination of the sun
Don’t wish you didn’t witness
Take an endless breath
Cut out their hearts
Plant their thumbs in terracotta pots
Don’t listen to secrets untold
Put your ear to the floor
Hear footsteps of the unknown
Drop a coin down the wishing well
Don’t turn back to history’s faults
Grow out of insufferable danger
Concentrate on camps for children
Find an escape route across vast seas
In our justice
There is silence
In the greatest violence
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.05.25.15.56.46@130BklynNYC
Parasite
With her bitten lip hidden under the furl of her tongue
She willingly descended into the darkness
Surrendered her body
There were no implications
And certainly no complications
There were only masterful calculations
And primal sensations
Debauchery relations
Divine actions
With a hint of a whisper
A delivered gaze
A story told
And a secret kept
Biting and Banging
Licking and Locking
Filthy Fisting
Effervescent Ejaculating
Gnawing and Gagging
Screaming
Salivating
Spanking
Seducing
Savaging
Stripping
Squirting
Slapping
Scolding
Subbing
Stroking
Slipping
Soaking
Sucking
Spitting
Soiling
Choking
and Cumming
and Cropping
Caught in a climax
of orgasmic shivering attacks
A seditious snail
A seductive slug
A lurking leech
I hear your cries
I claim them to be mine
Ownership is not corruption
Ownership is an undercover disruption
Parasites don’t deserve a thick cock fuck
Just an elegant mark of a firm hand struck
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.06.22.10.18.26@130BklynNYC
Afraid
Afraid of my knees buckling out,
Afraid of a humpback whale with a cavernous snout.
Afraid of conditioning after shampoo,
Afraid of pineapple chunks chew.
Afraid of a venomous snake’s bite,
Afraid of growing to towering height.
Afraid of shaving skin too bare,
Afraid of closeness caught in a stare.
Afraid of seeds stuck deep in my teeth,
Afraid of the red wet line underneath.
Afraid of french fries that keep me fat,
Afraid of diving off the building to splat.
Afraid of exploding gasoline tanks,
Afraid of the sun’s no thanks.
Afraid of basements dark and cold,
Afraid of patterns that never unfold.
Afraid of cracking up surrounded by padded walls,
Afraid of mosquitoes sucking on my balls.
Afraid of intolerance and night sweats,
Afraid of hatred the world forgets.
Afraid of downtown karma kneeled,
Afraid of secrets revealed.
Afraid of living in silence and wrong,
Afraid of regrets that hum like a song.
Afraid of learning to play guitar,
Afraid of leaning in close at the end of the bar.
Afraid of warm apple pie,
Afraid of dressing up in black tie.
Afraid of bald eagles saluting a false leader,
Afraid of bending over to witness my bleeder.
Afraid of removing all my worn-out clothes,
Afraid of a praying mantis tiptoeing behind my toes.
Afraid of the cat’s meow,
Afraid of the abysmal ocean beneath the bow.
Afraid of tempting the hand of fate,
Afraid of asking her out on a date.
Afraid of frequent reinvention,
Afraid of temperature apprehension.
Afraid of walking the path reversed,
Afraid of staircases steeply cursed.
Afraid of the steam locomotive at rapid speed,
Afraid of horses that thunder with greed.
Afraid of flights missed in a blur,
Afraid of clocks that always stir.
Afraid of corners that twist and turn,
Afraid of fighter jets that dive and burn.
Afraid of invasions by silent infections,
Afraid of immune system insurrections.
Afraid of asking the growing cancer,
Afraid of receiving the definitive answer.
Afraid of not living beyond midnight’s moon,
Afraid of falling too soon.
Afraid of turning age eighteen,
Afraid of a shattering orgasm scream.
Afraid of constant consensual intercourse,
Afraid of riding her like a cockhorse.
Afraid of butter on inner thighs,
Afraid of gouging out my blue eyes.
Afraid of letting go of my semen,
Afraid of the big bad wolf demon.
Afraid of taking it in the anus hole,
Afraid of chewing my teeth whole.
Afraid of sticking my finger inside,
Afraid of confronting professor’s pride.
Afraid of her clever extortion,
Afraid of spreading her legs for an abortion.
Afraid of the birds and the bees,
Afraid of schoolgirl skirts cut above the knees.
Afraid of synagogue’s sermon,
Afraid of crotch-sized vermin.
Afraid of the ceaseless masturbation,
Afraid of my own castration.
Afraid of the heroine’s yesterday,
Afraid of inevitable decay.
Afraid of church service at fault,
Afraid of pillars of dead sea’s salt.
Afraid of creating my rejected art,
Afraid of giving up my somber heart.
Afraid of catching on fire,
Afraid of burning alive as I expire.
Afraid of reading psalms,
Afraid of nails driven through my palms.
Afraid of growing up to be homicidal,
Afraid of my best trait being suicidal.
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.06.05.10.29.59@130BklyNYC
Another East Girl
Oh, there goes just another East Girl
She’s a druggie
She’s a prostitute
She’s pushing a baby buggy
She’s got horns
She’s got a camera
She’s got honeycomb thorns
She’s got amber eyes
She’s got money troubles
She’s robbing banks in disguise
She’s just across the border
She’s got a deep sickness
She’s ignoring that court order
She’s selling herself
She’s cutting deals and giving discounts
She’s ignoring self-help books on the shelf
She’s challenging the fox
She’s swallowing the dreams
She’s choking on big cocks
She’s hidden her head in shame
She’s full of vulgar vocabulary
She’s playing the pretentious game
She’s digging in the coal mine
She’s abandoning reality
She’s snorting the snow line
She’s cut her wrists in pain
She’s pickled her thoughts
She’s stewed her brain
She’s ignoring her kids
She’s falling asleep on the crapper
She’s twisting her dry eyelids
She’s chewing her tongue
She’s swallowing her porcelain teeth
She’s bleeding anal from horse’s hung
She’s drunk with anxiety out of state
She’s soaked her panties with her own golden piss
She’s lost her twin’s trajectory fate
She’s dug an early grave
She’s craving more remedies
She’s spread her legs for a wax and shave
She’s mistakenly a champion of impregnation
She’s up all night and sleeps all day
She’s attempted her abuser’s castration
She’s living in the never-ending nightmare
She’s positive for gonorrhea and syphilis and chlamydia
She’s regretting fucking scum men so bare
She’s abominable and alone
She’s frail and fragile
She’s rotten to her very last bone
She’s hanging on to her last thread
She’s lost and buried her past
She’s without an obituary now dead
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.05.20.10.31.51@130BKLYNNYC
The Surgeon
Like a migrating bird
coming back each year
Like wild indigo
coming back each year
Like a trip around the sun
coming back each year
-
Took a photo together
Started over the East River
Took a dip and broke the bed
Admired the sunset
Three dozen stories above
Perverted
Passionate
Paradise
Children heal from her wisdom
Children heal from her steady hands
From the city that never sleeps
To the heartbeat of Africa
Reservoirs filled with cravings
Running laps and hiking mountains
A shade of autonomy anatomy
And a dash of brilliant buoyancy
Naughty nectar nailed
Orchestrated orgasmic oasis
Enjoyable erotic encounter
Genuine glowing grace
Raw radiant rhythm
Unrestrained unfolding uptown
Sensational seduction slipping
Going
Coming
Hiding
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.05.02.11.54.00@130BklynNYC
Madness
This pain I feel
In my head
Daily pain
In my head
All the time
In my head
It’s driving me to complete madness
It’s making me flirt with
Uncommon thoughts
Uncomfortable thoughts
It’s making me flirt with
Common thoughts
Comfortable thoughts
It’s making me contemplate
Wrong decisions
It’s making me contemplate
Easier decisions
Just to ease the pain
If only for a moment
So when you look at me
Do not stare in owe
Do not witness innocence
Do not hear without listening
Just recognize the pain in my head
Recognize the everyday madness
That I’d rather smash my skull
Into a concrete wall
Repeatedly
To relieve this daily pain
To relieve this daily pain
Over
And over
And over again
This madness in my head
No relief
Sleep
Drugs
Sprays
Steroids
Blockers
Infusions
Injections
Stimulants
Antagonists
Stimulations
Biofeedback
Acupuncture
Interventions
Supplements
Modifications
Electrocutions
Neuromodulations
Amputate my head
Be done with it
Rid of myself of this daily pain
No more
A lengthy sleep
A definitive sleep
A permanent sleep
Is what I forever seek
To get myself out of this
Madness
© 2025 David Greg Harth
25.05.01.16.26.49@130BklynNYC