Paper Tigers

"Paper Tigers" eyes mark slow time spotting leopard rhyme never changing its spots black balled white pops the want-to-be bees sting the dripping honey spot slapping cards down kitty pots are shuffled bluffing intelligentsia between the gaps flatulent poets floss their teeth waxing lyrical strings tied to the weary mirrored soliloquy cheap conversations like thin cotton threads on a spinning wheel reeled in marked inconsequentially by small thimbles worn as armour pricks blood from a laureate limerick sad in its slapstick wet the fingers turn the pages theatrical degradation moves in well-dressed stages sucker-punched by trolls who belong in a dark Hieronymus Bosh have gone all dutch with Latin diabolus tying hearts and minds to ducking chairs immersed in the blood from discarded hearts unholy and baptismal all good poets must float to the top during the Poetry Assizes a small death before rebirth time stops, their life as poet starts Love craving light is born with soft lips and sharp teeth hungry and emerging visceral and wanting from dark hubris straight from the poet’s mind the mouth is sewn shut the words begin to fly like Hamlet’s Ravens black habits undressed like a nun more than ready before bed holding prayer with bless’ed crucifix on her knees she prays, “two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both I took the one less travelled” prowling with paper tigers who pretended to be poets I sat in their laps reading their growls and watching the lyrical naive romancing high school minds parked on perpetual sedentary thrones legacies grinning winning light voltage 100 high slow dark watts roll over in their rainbow unicorn dreaming flower beds like wilting pale blue forget-me-nots swallowing the sweets that are sent misunderstanding the beauty buried underneath the velvet Pink Roses of Heliogabalus Paper Tigers chasing Lions all knowing (LadyLabyrinth / 2021) "The Boiling Point" / The The https://youtu.be/tBnI8edwcFY “Begin, murderer, leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.” "Truth is truth, lies are lies Headlines strike between the eyes But when is a word not a word? How's the meaning been reversed?" “Oppressit in tricliniis versatilibus parasitos suos violis et floribus, sic ut animam aliqui efflaverint, cum erepere ad summum non possent.” The Roses of Heligabalus latin translation - https://useum.org/artwork/The-Roses-of-Heliogabalus-Lawrence-Alma-Tadema-1888 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roses_of_Heliogabalus "The Road Not Taken", Robert Frost https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken Paper Tiger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_tigerdehttps://www.luthercollege.edu/university/academics/impetus/spring-2011/the-unique-concept-of-the-witch-and-the-witch-trials-in-early-modern-england/ Assizes Assize. def. noun HISTORICAL plural noun: assizes a court which formerly sat at intervals in each county of England and Wales to administer the civil and criminal law. In 1972 the civil jurisdiction of assizes was transferred to the High Court, and the criminal jurisdiction to the Crown Court. The Assizes. https://www.luthercollege.edu/university/academics/impetus/spring-2011/the-unique-concept-of-the-witch-and-the-witch-trials-in-early-modern-england/ Cucking stool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucking_stool Pink - Gender. Sexuality. Politics. Social Movements. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinko LYRICS/ "The Boiling Point", The The https://genius.com/The-the-boiling-point-lyrics