Written: May 25, 2026, for a contest sponsored by Silent One
2nd place contest winner
*************************
Quote: "Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” — By Rumi ( With my honest wishes of a long and healthy life— Very Happy Birthday.
The moon still glows—an alabaster flame,
memory’s mirror, never the same.
Spume drifts, shimmering and bright,
not shadowy, but limpid light.
You watch sunsets and softly muse—
Do you fade, or do you fuse?
Their shades shroud loss and gain,
a peculiar parity of pleasure and pain.
Lessons grasped don’t be acrimonious,
regrets mollified primarily harmonious.
Time’s conundrum teaches clear—
Delicate days are a deep fear.
To your tender time, you’d tell and attire,
Beware quixotry, yet seize the desire.
Do not anathemize your fall—
Failure’s anodyne heals all.
Though tristful shadows at times prowl,
still you liaise with joy, still you howl.
Twilight or dawn, the soul’s refrain—
amaranthine light will remain.
He would leave home, seek adventure, and explore the wide world.
Would it be so hard to remember those who meant the most to him?
Not really, as they would be as close as a finger snap.
He would woo the most beautiful girl and make her his queen.
They would have a big family, and one day grow old together,
that is, until they had an acrimonious divorce.
He would live for his dreams and would fight for his ideals.
So many would be deeply influenced by his groundbreaking work,
specially the policyholders of his employer.
His story would inspire a host of ardent admirers
Hey, what is going on around here? Is there some kind of mix up?
It seems to me that I have been born into the wrong life.
your field lies bare and vacant
a patch of wasteland never toiled
pardon not granted merciless and cold
a harvest of apology’s acceptance lost
in resentment anger fear and insecurity
seeds of opportunity thrown away
serving your own narrow narrative
change shrivels up for scraps
growth stunted and discarded
a memory extending past the moment
acrimonious feeling feeds fertile soil
in lack of kindness and compassion
love’s detritus bordering on hatred
serves victimhood and animosity
lacks courtesy respect forgiveness
it takes courage and emotional maturity
to receive amends in decency and grace
to grant remorse regrets concessions
I love you dearly my wayward child
yet when you refuse to consider
my wife and lover’s redress and plea
to normalize what had been tainted
you need to know I stand with her
while you cannot I do forgive you
may not accept your stubborn disregard
feel sadness disbelief and disappointment
for the prodigal acorn from my oak tree
therefore I pray for us and wish you well
A lot have their eyes fixed at a far end
Holding on tight but only with one hand
Imagining things that only few could understand.
The brain is twisted like a rope into believing
and it believes as in days of living
Through all there is a chance of surviving.
The main reason behind taking a risk
Is caused by how breathtaking our minds get brisk
brisk enough to overlook and fix.
It controls, fights and sometime ostentatious,
it can be fair at the same time devious
not once but the process is continuous
and carries on being acrimonious.
In all, the door is to find a way to manipulate it
not all at once but bit by bit.
Because like the heart it is brittle
and strikes, it does not at all tickle
Tickle you to let you know what you have done wrong
And it continues like that for long
Until one gathers strength for that spell
Probably after the far end, all gets well.
Howling winds flung me into the sea
waves lashed kelp ropes around me
my belligerence grew when I was seized
anger brewed the tighter they squeezed
With fists raised and teeth clenched
I resisted the harder they wrenched
voice rang out in acrimonious scream
my face contorted, wild eyes agleam
spittle dribbled from cracked lips
I neared the verge of sanity's eclipse
Man is but an elfin grain of sand
a mortal never has the upper hand
when wrangling with a sea of thunder
I was punished and plowed asunder
beneath coral reefs to ocean's floor
I cursed until I could no more
My swearing wails echoed my destiny
retched was my body from an angry sea
briny foam spit me on the rocky shore
done with me like an oft beaten whore
My crime was that I'd chosen wrong
the one I loved became my swan song
Piercing needles of torrential rain
burning injections increased the pain
Such bitter tea the cruel sea can steep
and I, a crumpet, tossed in restless sleep
Where is Daddy going with that big
suitcase Mummy
Is he going to the shops
To buy you the biggest bunch of
flowers and box of chocs
And hopefully when he is there get
me a lucky packet and a Barbie
Because I heard you both having
a monumental blazing row
Never you mind my pretty little head
my Angel
My most precious above all and
everything
Mummy doesn't actually want you to know
That he is in actual fact leaving us
behind for good
For some or other new women he
met just recently online
Looks as if our once upon a time
happy marriage
Is now heading for an acrimonious
divorce
So no lucky packet for you
And
Sadly no box of chocs , roses or
happy ending it looks like
For either or either of us either
Apart from him
I just hope it doesn't effect you too much
And you eventually get weaponized and
used as a means
To hurt each other even more in the
end
Adonai authors all,
anticipates all,
altruistically acts,
accomodating* acrimonious aliens,
allowing adoptive access.
Beloved bestows blessing,
begetting bliss,
birthing born-again believers.
Creator conveys
captivating covenental communiques;
creatures cogitate,
construct creedal confessions.
Divine drama,
documented,
drives doctrine,
develops delighted disciples
drinking deeply,
delivering doxologies.
* in the sense of reconciling
Four years as an apprentice, skills combine
With my willing ability to thrive...
As I try again, let fortune be mine,
And compliment the acquired knowledge's wine -
Sip daily to boost quests, future contrive.
Four years as an apprentice, skills combine-
Hope with fulfilling efforts on dream's line,
Cum what risk in luck per chance can survive.
As I try again, let fortune be mine,
And save me from an acrimonious fine,
Of ceaseless dues while trying to revive
Four years as an apprentice, skills combine...
Discipline and endurance; wellbeing dine,
To nurture lifespan; sh*ts culture deprive.
As I try again, let fortune be mine.
Till I get back on its fruits so divine,
Within the reach of lazy old days' drive.
Four years as an apprentice, skills combine;
As I try again, let fortune be mine.
I Choose . . .
I choose to be brave, in the face of the fatal face of the unknown tomorrow.
I choose to be strong, under the weight of emotions the size of a thousand Earths.
I choose to call for forgiveness, when the merciless, relentless beatings inside
I choose to be self compassionate, when I feel alone, unloved, and acrimonious of my own actions
I choose To be calm, when inside a chaotic domestic warfare grows, also known as my mind.
I choose To be here, when the future begs for me to drown in the dark cold void it lives in or when the past tortures me with a time-loop of devastation.
I choose me, when I feel hated.
I choose myself.
I choose Hope.
Acrimonious Bureaucrats Consolidate Divisiveness Exploiting
Fearmongering Greed Hatred Ignorance Jealousy Knowingly Leading
Men Nowhere Oligarchs Perpetuating Quackery Resolutely
Supplanting Terroristic Unilaterial Vitiating Wrathful Xenophobic
Yellowbellied Zealots.
October, the fall of the living
Disease feeds the trees
Summer burned out leaves falling dead colours
Now left macabre and acrimonious
The whispy chilled winds, and rusty dead leafs chatter.
For many a depressing and melancholy matter
Everything dying withering to nothing, non conforming
Dead dull lifeless and grey the true reality
Times a change seasons bring truth.
Her anger blows
frigid, like Arctic wind
Tears of hostile disposition flows
bosom lethal —
Pulmonary liquid nitrogen
Acrimonious breath
expel serrated exclamations
Jagged exhalation
feels like six below death
Such an icy sensation
Formaldehyde intimation,
cadaver cold pulsation
Got a cryogenic nature
that resides
in an unemotional South Pole
Frostbite vocals
has igloo vibrations
Freezer burn temperamental flatline
show glacial striations
Sub-zero body language
Kilimanjaro translate
hypothermia lacerations
Those neon palpitations
has taken nether hold
Arrhythmic separation
breaks at the
jilted Fahrenheit of six below
Pulsating pain, so cadaver cold
09-10-21
Skeletal fingers of the past
reach to grab my psyche;
childhood specters enmeshed
in the shadows that
probe my inner child’s
nightmares.
Strains of melancholy
impress upon the page,
a lost youth.
Time’s acrimonious
stampede has
trampled beloved memories,
I thought I’d locked away
in my mind-attic.
I'm at my office at the AMA
I have a seizure, but I’m not DOA
So I get transported to the local ER
Who call my ex wife, she works in PR
Before I get treatment by a young MD
They want insurance and proof of my ID
But my evil ex had arranged a DNR
It’s clear to see that I am FUBAR!
*apology for use of the F but you will see that the acronym fitted in perfectly with the theme and the sponsor said it could be humorous!
ACRONYMS IN COUPLETS Poetry Contest
Sponsored by L Milton Hankins
03/21/21
Candy men work under the umbrella of the Big Boss
They deliver drugs and they are the most dangerous thugs
I have been wounded more than once and I am in pain
I am a soft target and they can hurt me again
Where there is no justice there is wrong exercise of freewill
They are beasts and acrimonious adversary is their drill
There are dead ends and prejudice and sorrow
I have no future no shore and no tomorrow.
Note. Violence breeds violence.
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