Frontiers and Membranes

The river meets the bank –
      the garbage,
      the old bricks on the beach
      the dead fish

Discarded signs of life
      washed up
      in a useless
      forgotten place

Nobody knows,
      Nobody cares,
            Nobody goes there,
                  down where the
                  bushes are scratchy,
                  down among
                  the poison ivy
                  where the aluminum can
                  and broken Styrofoam chunks
                        are resting

And what about the bugs
      we don’t even know exist?
What about the bacteria
      that live in colonies
      on our skin?
What about maggots and dung beetles?

Their whole existence is on the
      edge of another life,
      between the lines of someone else’s
            plans

The things we were done with
      the places we couldn’t use


-Jim DuBois
Oct 1, 1998

I've Lost Track of Time

I've lost track of time
I've lost track of day and night
I've come to the edge of town
to sit and think
and apparently write some poems

I've lost track of what little ambition I had
I've lost track of my desire
I'm enjoying the sun and day downtown


-Jim DuBois
March 14, 2009

Spring

Dirty snow melt-off
trickles down the drain
  - spring is here!

-Jim

Another Short Poem

Sittin' here,
doin' nothin',
it's all
Sun and Now
and Whatever

-Jim DuBois

A World Full of Strangers

Time cracks the face of youth,
time cracks the images of your idols
– you’re not in love with
a person any longer,
just images
from years ago.

Even the people you knew,
you don’t still know,
they’re just distorted memories.

Who do you know?
Who do you think you know?
‘Cause you only know
who they just were.


-Jim DuBois
2005?

Genetic Astrology

They say
your destiny
has been written

in the stars
of your genetic make-up.

You can only be
so smart
so inventive
so analytical
you know.

Your mind
has been made up
for you,
since you were
born under the
constellation
of the
double helix.

It is a system
that has a place
for all of us,
even those destined
to be toilet cleaners
and idiots –
just remember
never to rise above
your station
or have any ambitions –
you’ll only be
disappointed by
your limitations.

There’s no arguing
with science.

Now go back
to that stupid job
and quit complaining.


-Jim DuBois
Aug 1, 2005