January 9-15, 2017: Poetry from Lee Chottiner and Michael Lee Johnson

​Lee Chottiner and Michael Lee Johnson

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​Lee Chottiner
leechottiner@gmail.com

Bio (auto)

Lee Chottiner is a poet and award-winning journalist. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

The following work is Copyright © 2016, and owned by ​Lee Chottiner and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.


Prayer Decomposition

Here’s what happened
to prayers

Like an old shawl
the threads frayed

until you couldn’t tell
a psalm from a sermon

from an affirmation
so we put them

in the ground
or gave them away

at estate sales (the
clever ones turned them

into art) Doesn’t matter
dust to dust is done

Don’t despair
some still wrap themselves

They merely look
for new ways to tell

old stories.

 



Michael Lee Johnson
promomanusa@gmail.com

Bio (auto)

Michael Lee Johnson (Itasca, Illinois) lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era. He is a Canadian and USA citizen. Today he is a poet, editor, publisher, freelance writer, amateur photographer, small business owner in Itasca, Illinois. He has been published in more than 915 small press magazines in 27 countries, and he edits 10 poetry sites. Michael is the author of The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom, several chapbooks of poetry, including From Which Place the Morning Rises, Challenge of Night and Day, and Chicago Poems. He also has over 106 poetry videos on YouTube as of 2015. He has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards for poetry 2015 & Best of the Net 2016. Visit his Facebook Poetry Group and join here. He is also the editor/publisher of anthology, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze. A second poetry anthology, Dandelion in a Vase of Roses, edited by Michael, is due out soon. Visit him on the web here.

The following work is Copyright © 2016, and owned by Michael Lee Johnson and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.

Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy

Sing it Frank
I’m busy at physical therapy
struggling with back spasms
looking out this window, these clouds
this rain, slice this thunder,
listening to your songs over again
on the Muzak for this 6th week in a row,
peddling this mechanical bike,
might as well be a mechanical bull
with a heat pad on my spinal cord.
I’m deep inside your larynx 10 minutes
3 times a week tickling it back and forth,
jousting and reviewing those playgrounds
of all your illicit affairs. With a few shots of vodka
peddling these wheels with intensified pressure
I can appreciate Lana Turner, Judy Garland,
Lauren Bacall, even Marilyn Monroe.
"This is my kind of town Chicago is,
my kind of town Chicago is."

 

 

 

 


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