just messing with you…

a verizon service truck
pulled away from aunt bea’s
just as I drove up
i asked if she’d
had phone difficulties
she said
no
i had one of those
business lines installed
with
an automatic phone dialer
it randomly calls either
the irs
or
iran
when it calls
the irs
it asks when
the next dance lesson
is going to be held
and
when it calls iran
it just selects
some random number
says
as-salam
then
hangs up
i just want to see
if the nsc
is doing their
ss
kgb
secret police thing
maybe
they’ll send
one of those
handsome
fbi
or
partying cia agents
around
to
ask me
personal
questions

– Charles W. Martin

© 2013, illustration and poem, Charles W. Martin, All rights reserved

CHARLES W. MARTIN, Ph.D. (Reading Between the Minds) ~ Throughout Charlie’s educational training and career in speech and language therapy, he maintained a devotion to the arts (literature/poetry, the theater, music and photography). He was a published poet before he completed his graduate work. Since his retirement in 2010, he has turned his full attention to his poetry and photography. He publishes a poem and a photographic art piece each day on his blog.  Charlie has been blogging since January 31, 2010. He is hugely popular for his poetry, his ethic, and his support of other poets and bloggers.

Recently Charlie self-published a book of poetry entitled The Hawk Chronicles and will soon publish another book called A Bea in Your Bonnet: First Sting. The Hawk Chronicles is available through both Lulu and Amazon. In The Hawk Chronicles, Charlie provides a personification of his resident hawk with poems and photos taken over a two year period. By invitation Charlie has shown his photographs in local businesses that display the works of outstanding artists.