I'm lieutenant to your pride dear collect scars on your behalf
I believe the cut on this forearm marks our anniversary
this one on your birthday made with Mumm's champagne glass.
Do I want to be a target, babe to be fired later in the oven
of your frenzied days? I linger in your range
you play me like a kite I've become a petty pilfering thief
though I cannot blame it all on you dear even though you cut me with a knife
and howl me out for my self-pity as a lame jackass all tied up in strife. in the firing line of your life.
FOR TALLULAH
Howitzer girl, howitzer spritzer how is it you came so late to the party recoiled and flew with the big gun she-gun nation’s at half mast now she’s gone
wear black to the party tonight black armbands and salute Howitzer-her, be bop a lula hallelujah
Tallulah teases me more wild cards no more queens or jokers you’re my Howitzer girl pounding no man’s land before I went over the top
Howitzer girl shocked and thrilled pounded and punched, sometime kills she was a debutante trickster an all night fixer
How-how-howitzer girl why did you come in so late, so late to my party.
Party girl Howitzer waits till the last minute Howitzer girl waits to see you fail and fall Howitzer girl doesn’t go over the top with any body.
Howitzer girl gone by. Howitzer girl went over the top without me Howitzer girl gone by. I miss her so. I miss the Howitzer girl.
I AMNESIAC
Excuse me Jack, excuse my slurred words
you guess right that I'm foreign, scared much has happened you see
I don't know how I fetched up here truly it's a mystery
I wonder if you've heard anything about a boy and his mother gone astray
even a detail, some gossip that might help me on my way.
Sorry Jack, don't think I'm drunk or wild
but I've been washed up here without my wife or child
and anything you might have heard a loose phrase, a slipped word
perhaps another stranger on this dark pedestrian night
a newsflash on the TV, a column inch all I have is this note in ink
from a kidnapper or worse, I guess or think all it says is 'I Amnaesiac'.
Now you look me in the eye like the others damn me like a runt among conforming brothers
your face a puzzle as if recognizing my hands.
Will you give me a shelter tonight
would you please relieve me of my plight?
Bio: Phillip’s poems have appeared in a number of magazines including: All Poetry, Asian Signature, Tripod, Miracle Magazine, Suisun Valley Review and Wilderness House Literary Journal. He currently lives in Prague.