Poems For Rainy Days By Jack T. Marlowe

Poetry on a rainy day by Jack T. Marlowe, a name I find satisfying in multiple Mephistopholian ways. 


beware the rabid dog, its wagging tail
by Jack T. Marlowe

beware 
the rabid 
dog, Mama 
once said 
beware its 
wagging 
tail, and 
since then 
i have also 
learned to 
beware 
the oily  
politician 
bearing 
gifts, the 
friendly 
gap-
toothed  
dealer 
offering 
a free 
taste, the 
hawkers 
of free love 
the sellers 
of cheap sal-
vation and 
every other 
cockroach 
with a heart 
of gold: 
a wealth of 
wisdom 
forgotten 
by 
this 
lonely 
man 
whose 
indigent  
stare now  
spotlights 
a stripper's 
swaying 
hips, her 
ample tail 
wagging 
mere 
inches 
from his 
incan-
descent 
eyes


eat, sleep, dream, drink
by Jack T. Marlowe

we enter the 
city alone 
we leave the 
city alone 
and within 
its sullen 
gates of salt 
and iron 
we eat and 
sleep alone 
in search of 
meaning 
with the raw 
hunger of 
dim and 
truculent 
beasts, con- 
demned to 
a martyr's 
fast and 
the sleep 
of stone 
and broken 
saw, nights  
of cheating 
famine, an 
all-you-can-
eat buffet of 
dreams in 
the stead of 
purpose, or 
the waking 
option: to 
drink alone 
and wait for 
the taxman 
or some 
other thief 
to take away  
everything 
that we 
never 
had


in spite of the wind chimes
by Jack T. Marlowe

cold morning 
cold sun 
savage light 
daggering 
ice, a broken 
mirror, the 
chiming of 
cold keys

to open 
locks of 
cringing 
suitcase 
eyes

blind fist 
hammers 
a damned 
snooze bar 
and then 
submerges

dammed 
beneath 
the covers

a failed 
comforter 
and dollar 
store bed-
sheets: 

the cold 
womb

where 
hangover 
lies, fetal 



Jack T. Marlowe is a gentleman rogue from Dallas, TX.  A writer 
of poetry and fiction and a veteran of the open mic, his work has 
appeared in numerous zines, online and in print. Jack is also the 
editor of Gutter Eloquence Magazine