Two Poems by Michael Lee Johnson

by Michael Lee Johnson

Steel Bars a Single Sheet

I'm Steely Dan Seymour Butts,

South America, trust me on that.

I can't pull up my sheet inside

these steel bars anymore. 25 to life.

No man is God in the cold or the clouds.

Isolated poets grab words anywhere

they can find them in newspaper clippings,

ripped-out Bible verses are a sin.

No one pities people like me in prison.

Spiders hang from my cell ceiling—

dance the jitterbug, "In the Mood."

Jigger bug fleas on my unpainted

cement floors.

My butt is toilet paper brown, flush.

Toxic thoughts grind on my aging

face, body, and declining health.

In this dream, I reach

for a hacksaw that is not there.

End this night & so many more

suffer in just a snore.

Breadcrumbs for Starving Birds (V2)

Smiling across the ravine,

snow-cloaked footbridge.

Prickly ropes slick with ice,

snow-clad boards, pepper sprinkled

with raccoon tracks, virgin markers,

a fresh first trail.

Across and safe,

I toss yellow breadcrumbs

onto white snow for starving birds.