Exquisite Walking Corpse

Bob Dylan once wrote:
How does it feel
to be all alone,
like a complete unknown,
like a rolling stone?
I know how that feels.
Friends who run away.
Companions in name only
who major in wanting and taking.
Kind words sprinkled
with the broth of condescension.
No fingers lifted to catch me when I fall.
Instead, people stay hushhush
and want to see the leper
tinkle his medium-sized bell
and cry Unclean, Unclean!
Lots of free time
for unwanted thoughts
to multiply inside my brain.
Gordon Sumner wrote:
Be yourself, no matter what they say.
I know how that feels too.
But being myself
is what caused me
to be thrown out of a car
near a dry lake bed,
being told to find my way home
as the vehicle drives off
and I hear laughter before it disappears.

Terry McCarty was born on July 31, 1959 in Electra, Texas. He moved to Southern California in 1988. Terry began writing poetry in the summer of 1997. From 1998 to 1999, he was a member of the Midnight Special Bookstore poetry workshop in Santa Monica. He has been a featured poet in several Southern California venues. Terry has also featured at readings in Las Vegas, NV, San Francisco, CA, Santa Cruz, CA, Berkeley, CA and Seattle, WA.

Terry has also appeared in Lynda and Lisa LaRose’s THE POETRY SPIRAL at Luna Sol Café (Los Angeles), Roni Walter’s BAKSTREEET COMETRI at the Comedy Store (West Hollywood) and last July’s SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS reading at The Last Bookstore(Los Angeles).

Published in these anthologies:

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE CONTEMPORARY POETS
(VCP Press 2001 edition)
SO LUMINOUS THE WILDFLOWERS (Tebot Bach)
THE LONG WAY HOME: THE BEST OF THE LITTLE RED BOOKS SERIES 1998-2008
(Lummox Press)

Other books include:
I SAW IT ON TV (Lummox Press)
20 GREATEST HITS: POEMS 1997-2004 (e-book available on iTunes and Amazon Kindle)
IMPERFECTIONIST (Meridien PressWorks)
INTERLOPER (self-published chapbook)