I Never Rhymed for My Father

By Donald King

Choosing the title of this collection was an easy decision for Donald. He has written poems for weddings, birthdays, funerals, and other occasions. His father, however, disappeared from his life when Donald was just four years old. I Never Rhymed for My Father is a book of poetry by Donald King who summarizes, "I'm not sure he would have appreciated the poem that I would have written about him!"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098045487

Book preview

Why I Curse the Snow

I watched it fall one moonlit night

It coated the earth a spotless white

It assigned to men a daunting task

They knew this portrait wouldn’t last

It’ll soon be trampled underfoot

Layered with grime, dirt, and soot

They cursed it for its growing height

No sleep for them this snowy night

While we suited up to hit the hay

They manned their plows till the break of day

That’s when my wife to my chagrin

Shouted words that would batter the proudest of men

Her words came forth not to demean

Yet she destroyed my self-esteem

When I ventured out to shovel snow

My wife yelled out and hollered no!

She snatched the shovel from my hand

And assigned it to a younger man

She soothed me with a compassionate smile

She wants to keep me here awhile

My sled and I, we once loved the snow

But at my age, I just don’t know

It will lay me out so I’ve been told

It always reminds me I’m growing old.

Bug

JuneBug and me’s best friends. We been hanging together since kindergarten. Mess with Bug, I get on your case. He the same way ’bout me. Bug and me’s different when it come to chicks.

I been going with Nadine since we was in high school. Bug screw around with any and everybody. Me and Nadine’s crazy bout Bug, but we stopped blind meeting with him and his chicks.

He might show up with anything. One was a strawberry he just plucked off the sidewalk. Me and Nadine tried to be polite, but we could smell the street on her. I told Bug he was gonna pick up something he couldn’t turn loose, and he did!

I was tore up when I found out he was HIV positive. Me and Nadine got ourselves checked out right away. We didn’t know much about AIDS and we was scared ’cause sometimes we ate and drank behind each other. Talk about relief when our test turned up negative.

Bug stayed my friend, but things wasn’t the same. I didn’t know enough about AIDS to be comfortable around him. He died two weeks before me and Nadine got married. My brother was my best man, but it should of been JuneBug! I knew him damn near all my life. He was my best friend!

Air Jordans

The lady called me to her house

She thinks she smells a rat.

She doesn’t know just when it died,

Or where that suckers at.

I said, "Just leave it up to me,

You needn’t have the blues.

Your son’s the source of all your woes,

His funky tennis shoes."

I didn’t want to pick them up

I kicked them out the door.

They left a trail of oozing stuff

That funkied up the floor.

From time to time, she smells a rat

But she doesn’t get the blues

Because right away I go and find

Those funky tennis shoes.

For a Greater Appreciation

Back to where we lost our freedom

Abducted to a foreign shore

Considered a little less than human

Let us go back there just once more

Let us stand there, naked, trembling

Our bodies examined head to toe

Place us in a field of cotton

Bending, picking, row after row

Let us wail for sons and daughters

How they are, where they might be

Bedded both by mate and master

Whenever master lust for thee

Let us go back now to our freedom

Our appreciation so much more

Songs of sadness ever fading

More and more a friendly shore

Lest we forget their pain and suffering

Their way of a life a closed door

Back to where we lost our freedom

Let us go back there just once more.

Beans and Greens

I planted beans and greens and other things

But nothing planted grows.

My neighbor looks at me and smiles

I wonder what he knows.

He reaped beans and greens and other things

All that he planted grew,

I asked him would he be so kind

And tell me what he knew.

I sneaked and peeked at what he did

And when I thought I knew.

I planted beans, greens, and other things

But nothing planted grew.

My neighbor looked at me and smiled

Then he shared all that he grew.

His beans and greens and other things

But he kept all that he knew.

A Beautiful Name

America, America, how beautiful is your name,

Violent your beginning, checkered your past, beautiful just the same.

Your arms opened wide