The Less Fortunate

The less fortunate

aren’t born into

family fortunes.

The les fortunate

have unbalanced

savings accounts.

The less fortunate

live upon the generosity

of the most greedy.

The less fortunate

hands are slapped

when offered handouts.

The less fortunate

are not entitled

to welfare royalty.

The less fortunate

depend upon for-profit

vanity charities

run by celebrities

for court-ordered 

community service

and tax breaks.

The less fortunate

must sell vital organs

to earn a living.

The less fortunate

stand in bread lines

until they harden stale.

The less fortunate

have no meat 

on their chicken bones.

The less fortunate

choke in dust bowls

on farms that don’t grow.

The less fortunate

shall inherit the earth,

only to be given

a useless patch of dirt.

Horse’s Wagon

You can lead

a drunk

to water,

but you can’t

help them

from mixing 

it with 

their whiskey. 

Fifty is the New Fifteen

When modern medicine becomes more concerned with curing 

male-pattern baldness, erectile dysfunction and low testosterone, 

folks look a lot whole better on the outside 

than they do on the inside.

Anatomy of a Writer

Ten fingers 

and 

a brain

is all 

I need.

The rest 

of me

just gets 

in the way.

Little Poem

I am a little poem,

made, not born,

in need of defined meaning,

as rough scrap paper drafts

folded into paper airplanes 

crash land through blizzards 

of crumpled snow balls into 

the overflowing recycling bin, 

until the inevitable avalanche.

But with so many 

words to write,

there are only so many

empty pages of white. 

Chris Butler is an illiterate poet. He has published ten collections of poetry, including Artsy Fartsy (Alternating Current), DOOMER (Ethel) and Neurotica (Scars Publications). He is also the co-editor of The Beatnik Cowboy.