Tag Archives: Richard Schnap

We attach meaning To many things That have no meaning The rain falling At the same time The sun shines down A stranger passing That speaks our name As if they know us A strange bird With a strange song … Continue reading →

He wanders the streets alone Following paths that twist And swerve in sudden ways He long ago claimed as his own As he surveys an alien landscape He can only see in pieces Mirroring the one in his mind The … Continue reading →

Private investigator Expert in infidelity Salary not an issue Memoir writer For hospice patient Shorthand required Licensed counselor Suicide hotline Must work holidays Security guard Nursery school Should love children Phone fundraiser Charitable organizations Free coffee Paid companion Nights and … Continue reading →

He made dozens of posters Of his smiling face And carried them All over town To place upon walls And bulletin boards Then wait to see What would happen And when he went back He found them defiled In ways … Continue reading →

There’s the one on my chin When I fell off my bike While attempting to Ascend to the sky And the one on my hand When I punched a boy Upon realizing he’d Never be my friend But the deepest … Continue reading →

In a time that knew no clock Was a bar as dark as midnight Where my uniform of sable Made me one shadow more As upon a tilted stage A band of faint phantoms Played anthems that seemed Deliberately out … Continue reading →

On weekends he drives His car across town To where he can beg For change Returning at night To the shelter to watch Films on his flat screen TV Then sleeping till noon Awakening to A breakfast he orders By … Continue reading →

They linger in libraries Haunt corners of coffeehouses Spend hours in copy shops Days in used record stores Arrive first at art openings Leave last from summer yard sales Scrawl poems in cheap barrooms Leave them there when they go … Continue reading →

My sister bought it As a gift for my mother On her 70th birthday A three-story mansion Every room furnished With tiny antiques And when I moved out She placed it in my room Where it stayed for years While … Continue reading →

Once she was played By an actress who kept A diary written In a secret code Then she was played By a mad photographer With a camera that didn’t Have any film Next she was played By a cold-blooded vampire … Continue reading →

There’s a man I know With the heart of a child Who never grew up Who wanders the streets Like an unemployed ghost With no one to haunt He watches young lovers Pass hand in hand Like strange creatures From … Continue reading →

He spoke a language No one understood Not even himself As if some being Had stolen his voice To make way for its own That sometimes sounded Like an overfed pig Squealing for more Or a chattering hen That kept … Continue reading →

The antique boutique Didn’t want it Because it had Rips at its hem And the local thrift store Didn’t want it Because it had Stains on its breast And the consignment shop Didn’t want it Because it had Burns near … Continue reading →

He cheated on his wife So many times He’d forget their names Like a man who eats The same meal so often It loses its taste Or performing a sonata By a famous composer Again and again Until it becomes … Continue reading →

Once I had a job At the local library Returning books to their shelves Novels and biographies Manuals and memoirs Collecting dust through the years It reminded me of A New Orleans cemetery Where the graves were above ground Their … Continue reading →

I remember the days Of vodka and grapefruit juice That melted into nights Of quarter draft beers And the telemarketing jobs Like scripted auditions Where offscreen voices Would say “Sorry, but no” And the girls who would leave Early next … Continue reading →

Sometimes I see one Waiting for a bus To take him to a job Like a convict to death row And sometimes I see one In a bar’s corner booth Nursing a cheap beer As if it is his last … Continue reading →

I passed someone today That looked like a half-done painting An artist had grown tired of And then someone else That looked like a graduation portrait Someone left out in the rain And after that someone That looked like a … Continue reading →

The ugly duckling grew To be a beautiful swan Making the ducks jealous So they killed him in his sleep And Goldilocks consumed All three bowls of porridge So that when the bears returned They had her for dinner And … Continue reading →

She wanted a home for her heart For it had grown tired of motel rooms Where you’d have to pay by the hour With sheets that were always stained As if love wasn’t worth the effort To leave a clean … Continue reading →

He first began to notice it When letters arrived in the mail Addressed to someone else And when people kept calling To ask for a total stranger Whom he’d never heard of Then he discovered his key No longer opened … Continue reading →

When she was a child Her mother made a doll Exactly like her With the same black curls The same shy smile The same mischievous eyes And as she grew up The doll grew with her Year after year Wearing … Continue reading →

The trees in the cemetery compete with the dead For space, a neutral zone that does not care Which nation commands it. I stand at the cusp Of two world bordered by yew trees and myrtle Facing a stone: “Beloved … Continue reading →

He lived his life in a shadow Watching the landscape pass by Gathering the objects of others In hope he would feel less alone The diary of a deceased spinster With love letters to an imagined fiancé An album of … Continue reading →

There was a glass chess set On a mirrored board Where all of the pieces Were identical pawns And a version of Monopoly Where all of the properties Were already owned And only for rent And a pair of dice … Continue reading →