Dave Tickel's Snow In The Forecast

David Tickel’s chapbook, Snow In The Forecast is published by Alternating Current:
http://alt-current.blogspot.com/
This is a collection of dead-pan true to life poems by Dave L. Tickel. While the chapbook doesn’t provide much information about Mr. Tickel I imagine these poems come straight from his experiences and I am happy to share several poems with you:


SEAT BELTS

Cousin Mike
And I played your
Drums.

You and Aunt Sandy slept as me and
Your son

Wandered through
Hungry
Hippie beads, through your apartment.

You sent me a
Christmas gift
A year and a half later, when I was
eleven, the Allman Bros’ Eat A Peach.

Still
A Chiropractic student, you
And your second wife Pam

Scaled the Sears Tower,
Gave King Kong a
Free exam.

You liked Brautigan
I liked Jack Kerouac.

Your mom
Died on the first day of spring. You
Were likewise fatally injured on
December 7th.

The title is confusing until you get to the end and I love it when a poet can title a poem in this way. Also, Mr. Tickel pieces together memories in a way that make it sound free-form and then ties it up neatly at the end.



WRITERS’ CONFERENCE DECEASED

I attended a
Yearly writers’ conference for
More than a few years.

I submitted
a play
- an outline for a novel

-unsavory characters/impeccable
Punctuation
-a
Joycean short story.

I submitted poems that
Lacked punctuation, that were
Poundian, that were
- I learned something – incorrect stanzy-wise.

I didn’t win any
Awards, I wasn’t a
Teacher/student at the college. Kurt
Vonnegut and
Ken Kesey

In
The night auditorium, on
The rock & roll stage.

I enjoy the story-telling of this poem. While Mr. Tickel keeps it fairly bare you can envision the writer’s conference/workshop he was involved in and get a sense of his less-than-thrilled attitude about the whole thing.



SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND

She calls me Temporary Trash. I
Want to get in her pants,
I’m a virgin.

We
Wear leather and plastic pants, go to all
The
Punk clubs. She taught me how to

Dance
Down and up, up and down, how to
Walk the dog, how to do the frog.

We met at
Community College.
Our first date: she gave me a fat lip

This poem is just plain entertaining. A memory revealed by its skeleton in which we fill in the rest. The ending leaves you wondering how the fat lip transpired: concert mishap or something he said?


If you enjoyed these sample poems, you may purchase this chapbook for an astoundingly low price of $1.00 at http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#snow_in_the_forecast
through Propaganda Press. Remember that Alternating Current is one of the few small presses where poets are able to be paid for their work so definitely check them out!

Thanks always for reading, please stop in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…