PSH: Poets of the Week

Judith R. Robinson
pghdazzler@aol.com

Bio (auto)

Judith R. Robinson is an editor, teacher, fiction writer and poet from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A 1980 summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, listed in the Directory of American Poets and Writers. She is the author of several books, most recently Orange Fire, 2012, Main Street Rag Publishing; author

Urbanity

how to tolerate crowds
of human strangers
all those bodies that sweat
and push and displace
space and air and seats
on buses or clog the roadways
I don’t mean robbers
rapists or molesters
or anything like that
I mean the strangers who
load up on wine in restaurants
and scream their shrill
heads off when you are trying to eat
the ones who smell lousy
that you have to wait behind
in long lines at the store
the ones who run red lights
and cut you off in traffic
and what about all the pretending
that goes on? One honest curmudgeon
said hell is other people but few
will admit that is the truth
nor will most admit a reasonable
preference for dogs.

John Tustin
johnhtustin@yahoo.com

Bio (auto)

John Tustin (New Hyde Park, NY) is a 40 year old diagnosed obsessive compulsive with attention deficit disorder. A former bed-wetter and stutterer, he often cries alone in a dark room, trembling with fear that his children will be taken away from him. He has been published in The Arbitrary Journal and Who-Gives-A-Shit-Nobody-Reads-It-But-The-Contributors-Quarterly. His mother is dead, as are his dreams. He is eagerly checking his email, the window, and the mirror looking for something to give him a feeling of worth. He has 763 rejection letters, diarrhea, a GED and a cat named Shadow.

Rhyming fun for Ailments
Real, Suspected and
Imagined

Diverticulitis –
...a hole in
...the colon

Ulcer –
...lit cigarette butt
...burnin’ the gut

Gonorrhea –
...paid cash,
...got bad gash

Concussion –
...found in the wrong bed
...got bashed in the head

Broken heart –
...you left that night
...now it don’t beat right