No More Cornborers
My steel-wool scrubbed & Comet-clean spuds
grate with injurious gusto
Protect the enamel at all costs!
And a sheen is added to our distended
esophagus.
Wintry blasts of fluoride and chlorophyll
attack the waste
But only further pollute the abused
frame.
Death enters the corridors, stalking stealthily
in the Ajax-whiteness.
All is blinding! There is no more gray!
Josephine is become a slaughter-baron.
Ammonia chokes us all
—Zumwalt
[1981?]
Von Bock Was A Pansy
Those iron plates that churned the mud and gravel
Impress me not.
The rifled bore was, and is a crashing bore,
I shut my eyes to the breechblock and
Do not care for thermite.
I recoil from venturi.
I have only cutting remarks for the bayonet;
C.B.W. stinks.
Give me Gandhi & Walden, with a little pickle
On the side, and I am content.
Blood-red waiters make me yawn.
—Zumwalt
[Early 1980s?]
Slice-o-life, Microwaved
Askew in a vinyl cosmos
life’s beading up on
a cold tumbler
And Juan Valdez
has repossessed my mind
for the glory of Brazil
or Colombia
Some squalid country at any rate
Leaving my 33
grooves
scarred by needles at 78
several rich hits
off of
Mrs. Olsen
And Muzak sounds
like steam jets
and
dark mutterings over eggs
become berserk natterings
of rabid chipmunks
Gee Zus !
Only 12:00?
Existence is
deformed
in a
time-warp
—Zumwalt
[Night of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1981, Washington, DC]
Just published in New Verse News — Zumwalt’s new news poem, Jousting Windmills.
Click on the following URL to read poem: https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2025/12/jousting-windmills.html
I will post the text here later on, but for now, let’s drive some traffic to New Verse News!
With apologies to Emily and the DOJ
Release the files but just in part —
Deception’s Pathway lies
Too raw for Headline’s hungry Spark
The whole would scandalize
As Cards dealt from some hidden Deck
With watching eyes confined
The Truth must flame out gradually
To hide the Guilt entwined —
–zumwalt (2025)
News event: “At least 15 files that were released by the Justice Department Friday were no longer available on the department’s website on Saturday.”
Reference: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-least-15-newly-released-epstein-files-have-disappeared-from-justice-departments-website/
Updated Dump
They loaded files on Friday night,
Though not the total lot;
The press was vexed by partial truths
But that is what we got.
On Saturday fifteen were gone —
One noticed from before:
A president in gilded frame —
A photo in a drawer.
What this all means to common folk
Escapes my simple mind
When wealth can build a mighty wall
That shields them from their crime —
And if a few are put in jail
That does us little good
For those that still control the wealth
Will raise the price of food.
The message here is pretty clear
And one that fits my rhyme
That money spent judiciously
Protects —
even the damnedest —
most despicable —
devils of our time.
— zumwalt (2025)
Imperfect information
This
is
a sequential game
even
when
I
attack
out
of
turn
each
and
every move
is
built
on the
one before.
Round
after
round
we proudly announce
a
target
square.
Sometimes
we
hit
Sometimes
we
m
i
s
s
But
never
fail to
attack.
Salvo,
my friend
When
you are most
relaxed
and think
all is
calm waters.
As
long as
there
are ships
afloat
There
will be
missiles
launched
across
these
now choppy seas.
Salvo,
my friend
All
shots at once
against
our better
judgment.
As
long as
there
are missiles
to launch
There
will be
ships
targeted
aggravating
these
now choppy seas.
But
once it is
clear
there
is some
chance at
sinking
even
one
ship
We
pull
back,
bend
the
rules,
re-
arrange
our
positions,
midway,
put some
ships
in reserve,
deny
any
cease fire
and
secretly
fill out
our
battle reports.
-- zumwalt (2011, modified 2025)
formaldehydration
flickering, fluttering inauspicious celestial butterfly
recklessly spatters dribbling drips of darkened burgundy
over underwhelmed over-conscientious Cal Poly Pomona Green.
diamanté dimensions collide with an autumn-autumn whisper
merging the flap-flap-flap fanlight florescence with a soft gentle tap
shamefully simmering shimmy-round-sizzling shake-down capabilities.
this high-speed, high-tech, high-result diet
has made me high-strung;
it streams passing indentations of over-charged electrons and phantom fairy-tales
faster than the past registers future impressions of near-miss impacts.
I know
time
is slow.
starting off
when I
begin
finishing long after I am done.
and
truth
the crippled fugitive hiding
in
shadows of possibilities
cannot resist darting
out
for
a quick encore before the opening curtain.
Accessory Imagination
unable to ensure an icy trail
weds speed-dating,
timed-release capsules
to produce a solid business case
for planetary intimidation
but
when references are required
habitually-blinking,
surreptitiously-slinking imagination
sneaks away
like an exhausted waiter
forced to serve final meals
to a negligently unchained
food-critiquing population
desperately devouring
the final bounty of resources
one deja-vu moment
before
the impending
never-ever-ever-ending
bright-light-headlight-headache supernova drought.
— zumwalt (2011, revised 2025)
I am pleased to announce Zumwalt’s recent poem “Elegy for a close attachment” has been published today at the respected topical poetry site, New Verse News: https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2025/11/elegy-for-close-attachment.html
Here was the original poem written by Zumwalt:
Elegy for a close attachment
I once loved this world–my world–which
danced with emdashes–
the best kind–
at end of lines–
seemed so clean–
went directly to the heart
–or at start of lines
or–in-between
now, it is the mark of the beast,
and I accept the notice to
cease and desist:
doing my best to
return to,
and better
learn, the
effective incorporation of proper punctuation.
–zumwalt (October 2025)
And then Zumwalt made a slight revision to align with this news story: It’s been discussed online for some time how ChatGPT’s excessive use of em dashes are more like a bug than a feature. Finally, Sam Altman and team have come to the rescue. As discussed in this November 14th news story, Sam Altman posted on X, a few minutes before midnight on November 13th: “Small-but-happy win: If you tell ChatGPT not to use em-dashes in your custom instructions, it finally does what it’s supposed to do!”
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/14/openai-says-its-fixed-chatgpts-em-dash-problem/
Elegy for a close attachment
I once loved this world–my world–which
danced with em dashes–
the best kind–
at end of lines–
seemed so clean–
went directly to the heart
–or at start of lines
or—in-between.
Now, it is the mark of the beast,
and I accept Sam’s notice to
cease and desist:
doing my best to implement on request
the effective incorporation of proper punctuation.
–zumwalt (revised November 14, 2025)
