Many Americas: And Other Poetry

By Anthony J. Arant

These poems are a reflection of the varied and unusual life experiences of the author. The topics are as varied as life itself, and were written under the influence of the full range of human emotions. They are about the seriously tragic, the wildly absurd, the deeply sad, and the infectiously funny. They are poems about a childhood filled with doubt and confusion and an adulthood of faltering faith and persisting skepticism. The reader will quickly understand that the poems are meant to gently jab one's sensibilities, and hopefully bring some of life's answers back into question. That is the author's sincerest hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503569898

Anthony J. Arant

Anthony Arant was born in Washington D.C. and has lived in more places than he would like to count. They include Virginia, Nevada, Maryland, Wisconsin, Maine, Colorado, Alaska, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, and his present home in Texas. He has spent most of his adult life as a proud public school teacher, having taught 3rd through 8th grade over the course of 34 years. He and his wife Sally have 4 children and 2 grandchildren. He is currently working as a Therapeutic Musician in Frisco, Texas.

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Copyright © 2015 by Anthony J. Arant.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 06/16/2015

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Contents

Musicians

Driving Home

What Am I, Old?

Octaves

Blow Your Nose!

Noah

My FAT Head

I Think So

Stories

The Nine Commandments

The CRASH!

A Place to Rest

If My Heart Could Have a Brain

Lucky Me

Peter Pan!

Bluezie News

The Author

A Guy

God’s Rocket

My Beating Brain

If We Could See

A Safe Distance

Christ in Space

Poorly Written

Bye Bye

The Emperor’s

Bare Bottom

Metamorphosis

God’s Last Idea

Rhyming and Timing

I Doubt It

A Good Laxative

Artists

Girls and Boys

Split for a Bit

Catholic Boy

Little Bubbles

The Car Radio

Pills That Were Pink

A Book

The Kiss

I Won’t Sit Still

Size Matters

Daisies and Crazies

Many Americas

Roommates

Reason to Cry

Him

Regret

Before Vatican II

Friends

Buying Life

Teaching

Worlds

Lovingly dedicated to my wife Sally

(whether she likes it or not)

MUSICIANS

You might think with all your hopin’ and wishin’

That it might be nice to love a musician

After all he must be the sensitive type

And probably won’t ever grumble or gripe

And if he loves music, he must be romantic!

And with music comes poems, so he must be semantic!

A man who actually knows how to speak

And he might even be humble and meek!

A man who will write love songs about YOU!

The lyrics he writes will show that he’s true

Music inspired by your very presence

And on your heart leave such lasting impressions

His melodies will touch what’s deepest inside

How you long for the day that you’ll be his bride!

A life so full of such romance and song

To the depths of his heart you will always belong!

(But…)

For the sake of argument, let’s say it comes true

Do you think for a minute he’d be true to you?

If it came down to a choice between you and his music

I’m sorry, he wouldn’t choose you…he’d choose IT!

And to each of your words, do you think he will listen?

In truth, all of your meaning he’s missin’

It might look like he hears all the words that you say

There’s something else that he’s hearing throughout every day

It’s melody and rhyme that bounce through his brain

And it won’t take long before it drives you insane!

You thought you would share a life full of love’s wealth

Instead you find out…he’s only full of himself!

And how sad it will be to have your dreams dashed

And you see he doesn’t care that they’ve crashed

In a very short time you feel that you’re forced

To run down to the courthouse….and FILE FOR DIVORCE!

DRIVING HOME

While I was driving home tonight

Through the traffic, jammed and tight

I was so tired, worn, and weary

Through this weather that’s so dreary!

My tired thoughts recalled my day

As I crawled along my way

Regretting much of what I said

I knew what should be said, instead

My heart sank slowly in my chest

I fought it, but I felt depressed

Slowly stopping at the light

I wondered how to make it right

I heard my windshield wipers slap

In time I felt my fingers tap

My eyes closed tight, the light stayed red

I needed to be home in bed

Finally I moved along

Trying to forget what’s wrong

I pushed the brake to stop once more

My heart sank like it did before

I glanced across and saw a face

A care-worn face with quiet grace

Her wipers slapping just like mine

Her aging fingers tapped in time