The Friday Poem: Juan Doe

Alas and alack. A lack of poetic submission that is. This week I had no poems to choose from. Patch has been kind enough to afford the Benicia poetry community a chance to spread the joy of poetry to the greater world through on line publication and people are not affording themselves of this great opportunity. Therefore here is one of my "Rhyme and Reason" poems. This poem is about one of my best friends, Juan Martin Vallejo. Juan lives in Benicia and has worked for the Parks department for the last 25 years. He has taken early retirement and is going home to Mexicali to take care of his mamacita. We are all having a drink to send him off Tuesday, August 23 around 5 pm. Join us.

P.S. Submit your poems to me at jeffburkhart@randomlyaccessedmemories.com or benicia@patch.com 

Juan Doe by Jeff Burkhart

I have a friend I drink with
Mi amigo known as Juan
A distinguished man of character
I could go on and on
He’s really quite cerebral
He studied medicine
The scope of his great intellect
Spans many disciplines
I told him ‘bout this poem I wrote
And how that I esteem
The honest way that he pursued
The great American dream
He said withhold my last name
Before you go to press
Because I come from Mexico
I fear the INS

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If there’s something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor JB Davis at 707-628-0051 or email him at benicia@patch.com.