Where is Martin Van Buren
now that America needs him?
(Glaring up from a creek
bed in Novato California)
A Martin Van Buren Frottage!
© 2024 by bob plainwilder
A Martin Van Buren Frottage, part one
// 
Author: webmaster
//A Martin Van Buren Frottage, part II
//
(Where is Martin Van Buren, now that America needs him?)
When Martin Van Buren appears
we give a toot.
We are the only duly recognized
Martin Van Buren authority.
We’ve learned well from history
what would Van Buren wear?
what would Van Buren say?
what made V.B. presidential?
The Martin Van Buren look.
The Martin Van Buren way.
Martin Van Buren’s greatest hits —
A Martin Van Buren Frottage!
Martin Van Buren’s hairline
Evoked his life and time.
His bulbous nose and pointed chin
the world might never see again…
A Martin Van Buren Frottage!
© 2024 by b. plainwilder
Edward Hopper Appliquè
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Film star Dennis this is not
Edward Hopper Appliquè
Sports a deep sea dive brush play
Pulsing light and shadow blodgets
over diners in Chop Suey
from that place and times yanked out
a marmelade Kablooey
Gruffly puffing cigarettes
Tapping mystic slats
characters on dingy platform
sporting porkpie hats
Trumpeting the sketchiest of
sketchy urban scenes
Nighthawks blasts into some cloud
a storybook of Dreams
Carving clever sculptures
the snappiest of ways
a twisty track through Nyack
the Cape Ann shore line sways
A glow in Hopper’s windswept spray
plasticene daubs remind
Coast the mind blowingly vast
azure sea of Time
© 2024 by Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder
–Hear b. plainwilder read this poem
More Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder poems:
–Thuh San Francisco Beat (this one’s dedicated to all the visionary painters out there)
–A Spiritual Muckrake (dedicated tor artists interested in free speech and making social progress thru art)
Grosz Gonzo Grosz
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This wild mongoose of an artist
Snapping in the social fray
turning lights on everything
a prophet of his day
A thoughtful and extremely rare
artist Visionaire
his particular winning shine
showed its detail for all time
A civilization in Decline
the Nazi rise it would unfold
in his paintings big and bold
Grosz unequaled social critic
Prescient foretold
Casting poignant imagery
Cultural degeneration
bureaucrats misguided
drippy grifters waving fists
Authoritarian Decadence
Grosz would be confronting this
Dramatizing evil snipes
who’d wipe the goodness from our midst
Courageous artists like George Grosz
today are sorely missed
© 2024 by Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder
Grinding Metal Corporate Teeth
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Icky times in Dinjyville
Pacin round the platform waitin for a train
stumblebum plinkin phone
Everywheres another clanky
smart device encrusted soul
worlds away from satisfaction or fulfillment
in Some Hole
Under monstrous office towers
trapped in sticky mires
the maelstrom of each day
Weary eyed and hesitant
Disappointed mucho
Bad luck dangles down lapels
at times glinting off from those
Grinding Metal Corporate Teeth
that don’t let go
Drawing above by Frost Newton
© 2025 by Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder
Thuh San Francisco Beat
//Not sure how this Happens
something in my brain
on a windswept corner
Pounding silver rain
Tete a tete with la dee dah
a storybook Gypsy Rose Lee
riffing Surreality
getting off with me
Steering an unlikely Craft
across a windswept sea
showing up in nameless joint
Promulgating mystery
Backlit by some har dee har
Inkity dink rocket car
pulling off a wild frown
i spacewalk down the bully vard
a character who’s carving footprints in the Margin’s Edge
Flippantly i postulate in some far out bar
Ricocheting otherworldly
sparks from my guitar
Weisenheimer stains on shoit
Getting down with righteous doit
Blowing open vintage
wobbly paths to creativity
My message for eternity
Boiling down a white hot seat
Tony rice a roni
Thuh San Francisco Beat
© 2025 by Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder
bob plainwilder music:
– IMPACT!
More Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder poems:
–edward hopper appliquè (this one’s dedicated to all the visionary painters out there)
–i grew up a muckrake (dedicated to artists interested in free speech and making social progress thru art)
Ode to Soho Zat
//At Soho Zat
fair minded Stan sold my Bad Newz
fanzine from a spinner rack
5 or more he’d move each month
Stan turned stuff around
Stan would actually pay
an EZ going operator
Out there in his way
Pre social media
Zat supported edgy culture
Stan dealt books & zines
not a single cell phone then
messed up peoples minds
This place extraordinary
nicely packed in Soho Zat
Klumps of arcane history
r crumb & Robert Williams
Coleman / Eric Stanton too
It’s fun to recollect
the Vintage Fauxbrow Kulture Klatch
That was Soho Zat
© 2025 by Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder
More Rob Sienna / b. plainwilder poems:
–Edward Hopper Appliquè (this one’s dedicated to all the visionary painters out there)
–A Spiritual Muckrake (dedicated to artists interested in free speech and making social progress thru art)
Welcome – The San Francisco Review
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Arts, Letters & Culture from SF Bay & Beyond.
Issue #101, Now – Contents:
Daly City, California
//Stack of suburban pancakes,
served with syrup, fries,
2 baked eggs, and no hungry
grandfather.
We were not born here
and we will not die here,
it said on the news.
Lay back in your chair
and count the blue stars
that fall from the ceiling.
© 2017 by Jeff Zable
Bomb Sniffing Dog Symbol
//
© 2017 by bob plainwilder