Tethered on a string
balancing this thing,
life hovering over me,
stinging, like a bee.
Hula hoops and slinky stairs,
Spok’s hand thing and elder stares,
Shame on you, Shame on you
cried the chattering teeth,
Click, click, clicking shame.
I don’t care, cried the lonely boy,
whose wolf came once too often.
Shame no longer points to sin,
for the wolf will devour him.
Cry, cry now, lonely boy….
“Fuck your chattering teeth”
cried I, morning after cyanide.
Fuck your shame and fuck your game.
Pick your bones clean – the wolf will.
But never find respect inside.
Cuz you have already died….
You lost something you
never gave away…….
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
A thimble to give,
an ocean to receive.
Life is gone now.
Resting where you lay.
Clicking, Clicking ….
. .. ... ..... ........ .............. ......................... © 2014 John Allen Richter .........................
johnallenrichter 
May 12th, 2014 at 6:56 pm
This is an awesome piece. I’ve got to admit, it’s a little over my head. Spok’s hand thing and elder stares, I have no idea what that even means!
May 12th, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Hi Kip… Thanks for visiting. My poetry is not always evident… Younger readers will not remember sitting in the school yard playground attempting to spread their fingers apart like Dr. Spok of the 60s Television show Star Trek… Some can – some can’t. I never could. Elder stares represent elders who would keep children in line by whispering Shame! I was trying to present the life of a man, from childhood to manhood, who was asked to give respect to elders as a child, and through out his life, even to his own children, but who received no respect from his children as he became old. He laments that he ever gave respect as a child and realizes that even the boy who cried wolf did not have shame, for the next time he cried wolf he was killed by it. No one came. He wishes his own life were over, now realizing his own children do not share respect that he has been asked to give through out all of his life, to his own elders and then to his children. Dying by his own hand, his only regret is that his children will some day die without ever having the joy of sharing respect.
May 13th, 2014 at 12:09 am
Oh, do I feel stupid. Spock!
May 13th, 2014 at 1:04 am
You feel stupid? I’m the one who mispelled it…..