Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Robert P. Hansen - Three Poems

Carrot Top

You dangle like a carrot on a string
that’s held before a most reluctant mule
whose stubbornness is like a solid thing
resisting everything beyond the tool.
I buckle like an addict much in need
whenever I go strolling up to you,
and then I follow where you choose to lead
as if there’s nothing else I’d rather do.
You seem to have me firmly in your grasp
(a grasp I never did intend to fill)
and, now, I find my heart is softly cast
(a heart that never, ever learned to yield).
So, like the farmer leading stubborn mule,
you’ve coaxed me into chasing after you.



Left to Right from Me Read

seems it sure I’m odd how
English in backward me read to
Hebrew read you unless
course of
fate of twist simple a but with
natural perfectly be would this
read to
instead of this



Fundamentalism

They claim to know the truth but lie:
It isn't possible. So why
do they insist on forcing oth-
ers to agree? I wish they'd both-
er someone else. They knock on my

front door with pamphlets claiming Christ
has saved us all. My sins are mine,
not Christ's, regardless of the truth
they claim to know.

If Jesus lived today, they'd try
converting him. But he'd deny
intolerance with every breath
he took. Forgiveness comes, not wrath.
These truths are lost amid the lies
they claim to know.



Robert P. Hansen currently teaches philosophy and ethics at a community college. He has had over 40 poems and a dozen short stories published.

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