MY CD'S ARE SLOWLY KILLING ME

MY CD'S ARE SLOWLY KILLING ME

I eat frozen dinners and processed foods.

I'm a man of many and various moods,

I also eat three gorgeous red apples a day,

A ton of blueberries and sweet red grapes.

Hoping an untimely death to escape.

I resolutely have sworn off the lure of red meat,

I only will consume it as a rare special treat.

Poultry is my meat of choice and I love me too some fish-

For protein and Omega 3s, they make a perfect dish. 

Imagine my surprise, when I saw a treatise in the paper,

That made my normal pulse to quicken.

That said it was harmful to eat chicken.

Something about bird flu, viruses and all that.

Good grief, balderdash, Jumping Jehosaphat!

How in the world am I to live if you take away my favorite dish?

Now the papers warn me of the mercury in fish.

And when chicken and fish are microwaved to get to dinner faster,

You have, alas, the makings of a terrible disaster 

For the heat can trigger serious stuff that is most dire and drastic,

Releasing the perilous particles of the dreaded microplastic.

It creeps into the abdomen and the stomach microbiome,

It settles in quite easily and makes itself at home,

Causing abdominal pain and bloating, the subject of much fear and loathing,

The case is open and shut, it can wreak havoc with your gut.

The microplastic can also affect your airways and your lungs,

It reeks of oxidative stress, you breathe it through the air,

No matter if you're old or young, these particles are everywhere,

How this plastic tempts and teases, conjuring up diseases

Endocrine disruption and COPD, these plastIcs live in you and me,

Causing weight gain and insulin resistance, some say even cancers.

When it comes to microplastics, there are no easy answers

I still heat plastic bowls of frozen dinners in the microwave,

I'm foolish for that probably, either foolhardy or weirdly brave.

But what bugs me as a musicologist is i need all my CD's,

I rely on them to cheer me as I drink life to the lees

I have hundreds of them in my bedroom in sturdy plastic cases

I swear I see them taunting me with their twisted gleeful faces.

They surround my bed quite alarmingly on sturdy wooden racks.

Snickering as I'm sleeping, thinking I don't know the facts,

That though their music's thrilling me, my CD's are slowly killing me,       

Leaching noxious particles throughout my humble room,

Slinking through the ambient air like salt into an open wound.

Flailing about in a sea of doubt, I might need measures drastic,

To save me from the tyranny of the dreaded microplastics.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2026

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

UNKNOWABLE

UNKNOWABLE

Your pulse quickens.

Your blood thickens.

You slip and then you fall, 

Hard against a wall.

You then stumble backwards onto the floor, 

,

Your balance not so sure anymore,

You crash into a bedroom mirror,

Your road to glory drawing nearer.

What you know you must do is stark,

Traversing broken glass  in the dark,

Try to crawl toward the phone on the floor and look, 

Should I call 911 or film this for Facebook?

Why, call 911 of course, are you dull?

Do you have half a brain in your thickened skull?

Do not insult my brain please,

It is riddled with disease.

Besides if you're so smart, 

You could have saved us with your art.

I weary of this said Mr. God,  

 

You are getting tiresome and quite odd.

He pushes some buttons and pulls some knobs.

You try to stand back up but falter,

Falling prostrate on the altar

Slipping into the pull of the unknowable.

-Bruce Potts 

Copyright 2026

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

-

MINNEAPOLIS

MINNEAPOLIS

Oh, Minneapolis

You were never made for this,

Mayhem, violence in your streets,

Heightened fears and heightened heartbeats. 

Changing hearts and changing minds

Can sometimes take a long, long time.

Sometimes it isn't nice,

To protest when your foe is ICE,

Renee Good and Alex Pretti have become your rallying cry,

As innocent people are snatched from their homes and accusations fly.

Are you an American, do you deserve to be here?

Answer all our questions, or we'll make you disappear.

Oh, Minneapolis, 

You were never made for this.

Renee shot three times in the face,

Because she didn't know her place.

Alex shot ten timess, bleeding out on the concrete,

The coarseness of senseless death in the street.

Just watch the tapes, they do not lie.

You scream your lungs out asking why,

Shaking your fist at an uncaring sky.

Well, tell me now, Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller,

How does it feel to be a killer?

No warm blood in those cold, cold veins.

ICE is the way you convey your disdain

What's it like Misters Trump and Miller,

Knowing you are ruthless killers?

As surely as the agents who fired the guns,

You are as guilty as anyone.

Oh, Minneapolis,

Raise your fists

 In nonviolent peaceful protest

I pray you someday heal from this,

That you continue to resist.

That you rise above the enmity,

God bless your valiant, gallant city.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2026

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONSTELLATIONS

CONSTELLATIONS

Where exactly is it we go when we die

Does the soul linger on, hovering above the operating table

The hospice room, the car crash,

The slashing of the knife, the crack of the pistol,

Cognizant of its surroundings?

Does the spirit stay behind to comfort the mourners.

Counseling them in their abject grief

Hoping to provide a little succor or sustenance?

Or does the spirit simply fly away. 

Knowing it is time,

Saying so long and farewell

Disappearing into the ether or blinding white light,

With loved ones who have gone before 

Inviting them to a fine initiation banquet

In a land where the streets are paved with gold?

Perhaps the spirit transmigrates into another corporal form,

Eager to perfect itself with another life, another body

Fervently hoping for the grace to finally get it right.

Or perhaps the dead hang out with the 88 constellations

That hang high in the heavens, sometimes hard to see,

Obscured by clouds or the smog of our cities

Like Orion The Hunter, Andromeda, Queen of Ethiopia

Cancer the Crab, Scorpio the Scorpion, and Pisces the Fish

Or one of the other 83 that reside in that realm

Perhaps the dead look down at us from the vastness of space.

Mystical stars, ensconced in a clear autumn sky.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2025

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I LONG TO BE PROLIFIC

I LONG TO BE PROLIFIC 

I long to be prolific, it would give me such a lift

To write my life in silhouette just like Taylor Swift.

Whose poetic word play I admire

I'd love to set people's hearts afire as only Taylor can

To turn out copious verses written in longhand

My God that gal is wordy, for a woman in her 30s

I long to be prolific, it would teach me such a lesson

To be as creative as Willie Nelson,

A man in his 90s, with two new records in the span of a year.

I can manage only one rhyme a month in my writing nook here.

With Parkinson's and failing eyesight I creep along in languid pace.

Struggling to even finish the race.

I long to be prolific with the amazing grace of Judy Collins.

Still writing, making records and touring even in her 80s

Even writing books with themes and topics weighty,

For most of my life she has always been there,

Lifting me from trouble and the depths of despair.

Making music since '61, the year Ithat I was born,

Soothing souls, fighting injustice, healing the forlorn

tt would make me happy truly, to be prolific as Judy.

Well, I wouldn't say I'm a "tortured" poet and i surely am no showgirl

But it would give my soul a lift to turn the poems out quicker.

As I spin my poison pen in my charming chair of wicker

Feeling despondent, morose and moody,

That I can't be prolific, like Taylor, Willie ,and Judy.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2025

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ENAMORED

ENAMORED

(For Kyle on our 24th year anniversary)

Like a stream in a desert, arid and warm,

Rain cooling the earth with a brisk summer storm,

Grace and beauty flowing, making all things new,

I am enamored, so enamored with you.

Like the dew in the morning that sweetens the grass,

Like a quick gulp of whiskey from a small shot glass.  

Like the well tailored man of great style and class.

You have made me one of your chosen few

And I am enamored, so enamored with you.

As the lifeguard is to a clear blue pool,

Like the student who's loyal to his school,

Like a wise king welcomes the motley fool,

You have kindly welcomed me too,

And I am enamored, so enamored with you.

Like a clown in a circus paving the way,

To a happy, bright, splendiferous day,

Like sunlight is to an arbor,

Like a ship is to a harbor.

Like a lighthouse guides the sailors, ever tried and true

You have gallantly guided me too

And I am enamored, so enamored with you.

Like a town crier with his proclamations

Ending each one with an exclamation,

We have been together now 24 years,

Had quite a few laughs and a smattering of tears,

You are my every mystery and my every clue,

You fill my heart with happiness, as all good lovers do

And I am enamored, so enamored with you. 

 -Bruce Potts

Copyright 2025

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

VACANCY

 VACANCY

These days I just can't concentrate,

My thoughts shot down like beer cans on a fencepost,

Suicide bombers falling to the ground,

Making a lost and lonely sound that only I can hear.

Afraid of giving in to the false god of fear

But, oh, it does get lonely, and in the night I scream,

Awakened by a nightmare or a waking dream.

Wondering if I am wearing that infamous Parkinson's mask

Too tired to really care too much, too proud maybe to ask.

I'm like a vanquished soldier or a broken, bent oak tree,

Like a ghost that haunts an old hotel, adorned in vacancy.

 

I find myself half blind, squinting at my screen

Blurry the words, they tease and teem

Have several different eye diseases,

But I don't know what they mean,

Corneal epithelial basement membrane,

Did I spend too much time downstairs?

Saltzmann's nodular dystrophy of both eyes,

No wonder I get stares.

Irregular astigmatism of both eyes,

I should win some kind of prize.

Nuclear sclerosis of both eyes too.

I know it sounds like it's a lot, but what's a boy to do?

Like some deluded dreamer beneath the hickory tree

My eyes stare blankly straight ahead, awash in vacancy.

These days my nerves are worn and frayed,

I shun the sun and crave the shade 

lf someone doesn't like me, that's cool

I have Iess time to suffer fools,

I'll just pull up stakes and go my way,

Try to celebrate each day. 

Floating above the scorched hot ground,

Breaking ancient barriers of sound.

I still have dignity, still have my pride,

In a world where hopes and dreams collide.

I'm stolid and solid and in my heart I know I have the key,

To open up this ghost hotel, to fill this vacancy.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2025

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Note:  I am under the care of an ophthalmologist for the above mentioned eye issues.