The need for friction:

Survivors of the next apocalypse

Will be free of social media addictions

Thankfully, the next millennia will be devoid of

Boomers who thrived on self aggrandizement

And life among the masses who do not care

If their condo slides into the sea ten years from

The moment she looked into his eyes

Across the dance floor at the villages meet and greet 

Why should I worry, I heard her say

I don’t even have a grandchild to

Show you pictures of-

Welcome to Florida

They’re playing our song

Stock photos and images are available at cost.

©️Mark W. Ó Brien

03May2023

14 things you don’t want to know about heaven:

A typographical error made a mistake appear to

An American President who’s dementia was post office so

Ask me how much I have fallen in love with

An infection caused by a parasitic tapeworm from

A famous actor who got started on the wrong foot became

A clergyman who entered the ministry in 1775 on

A railroad line that runs down the spine and shows

Archival footage of the Kaydeross patent where

An Iowa specific map is available 

At the end of the day when attractions are numerous and

Alternate realities often begin upon arrival for

A yellow wedding dress with a huge steel spring bustle and

A courtship in which among other things all the stars fall silent 

And anger is beginning to affect your relationships.

©️Mark W. Ó Brien 

02May2023

103:

I dreamt myself lost on the Albany Frontier.

was rescued by Blind Peter and Freeborn Garrettson.

They asked me what a Saint was face to face.

So I prayed the Lord make me one.

Said: “A voice moves me to do so!”

And I walked in the light for a time.

Today by way of six degrees

I have met them in person both.

Yet find myself still riding circuit endlessly 

crossing the Delmarva peninsula

taking the Delaware way

around and about Delaware bay.

Where did they ever get a name like Delmar?

Huh? What? It’s on the map you say?

©️Mark W. Ó Brien

10January2023

102: The wild poetic kingdom is no place for the faint of heart.

My poem didn’t get 

Picked for the big game.

There it sits on the sidelines

Kicking dirt and ringing hands

Knowing it’s true worth it moves on 

In search of a new anthology 

After mowing the others down 

With a semi automatic word gun

Peppering the audience with

Hollow point adverbs

And snub nosed infinitives

Emphatic fantastic ekphrases!

Ekphrastic spermatic poetics!

Take that! And that! And that!

Markle-

01September2022

101- Boomers:

We are winding down

Tooling the lane

Parking the car

Putting the cows in the barn

Walking the dog

Soaking the coals

Closing down the porch

Tidying things up

Switching off the front light

Calling it a day

Hitting the sack

Putting our heads down

and drifting off

“Good night my loves!”

Markle-

31August2022

One-hundred:

I have a shirt tail relative

I'll never meet.

Hidden behind

our Irish lace curtains.

His second wife left him.

Moved away home.

Took the two children 

and the cat.

“So get a new cat." I suggested.

“Better yet get two!" He replied.

“But, I have a lot of antiques."He said.

And so he lives in that big house 

alone and lonely.

And I have two cats.

©️Mark W. Ó Brien

22July2022

Ninety-nine:

Esq. Filkins is not dead!

Someone has been telling stories.

A new species of Lillie has flowered.

When will this warm wave weaken?

The buckwheat is being cut.

Sand’s steam mill has commenced to grind.

Every kind of bug is copulating in our apple tree.

Black-eyed Susans are in bloom.

A dead bird has flown into our window

and lies in state among the flowers.

Mice are having the run of the place. 

We have been away on vacation for too long.

I’ve been writing the same poem for years.

You only just realized it.

©️Mark W. Ó Brien

13July2022