There is a poison that has ravaged man
ever since creation
This poison deceived Adam and Eve
The poison pushed Caleb to murder
his brother
This poison was traced in the family of
Israel
I believe you know the story
This same poison pushed Haman to plan
The mass execution of Jews in the days of
Queen Esther and Mordecai
Now coming to recent times
Hitler and his henchmen planned the
extermination
of Jews during the second World War.
This poison is deadlier than that of the
Adder and the Cobra
The poisonous ivy is hate, now check
yourself if you do not have it reserved
There is an antidote for every poison
The antidote for hate is love.
You have come mightily upon my brows,
Yet blessing my folly when I had cried nude and
Watery,
My vagitus loud with the frenetic timbre of wartime
You have swept through the corridors of
Silhouetted stalks, fanning lean, vertical leaves that shield
The nakedness of the African seasons —perched
And soggy,
And at waking time, when November bares its
Thunder-whetted fangs with the ruthlessness of a Puff adder.
It is cold and skin-whitening.
Streaks of flaking, dancing rods descend on femurs un-pumiced.
Dehydrated throats accompany ancestral hymns on the
Humming bees’ melody, stifling the courage of the Tchagra.
Drab, and cracking the serrated softness of heels and
Stale, moss-ridden kernels, the waves of the storm,
Blinding, besiege our common sempervirence,
Long lost among the blurred firmamental gaze
And straw-gold material upon this prostituted earth.
Snuggly warmth comes by the power of woodsmoke
When dawn, shy from the raillery of the rising sun,
Hastens to the coronation of sacred rain beyond
Our limits —a pomp of relegated and flustered seasons.
English writer/actor Rowan Atkinson
To watch some of his shows is just plain fun
His Black Adder character has sharp wit
while his Mr. Bean is a bumbling idiot
I saw King Olav of Norway
going on board his sailboat
he needed help
which he was grateful for
even if the hand was that of a flunky.
When we are older, we should
be thankful for a helping hand,
say some younger person on the bus
He gave up his seat
I have never seen it happen.
Going to my shop is easy, but I forget my reading glasses
on one shelf and the sunglasses on another
And they help me find things I´m looking for
and I do not pretend that I have forgotten where I have left
my shopping.
Now I no longer have to remember my card number
I put it on the top of the adder-upper
and that is that,
I have no problem going up steps, it is the going down
steps that is difficult, and someone help me for this too
Not a proud old man struggles alone, but one thing is
Sure, no one is driving my car.
Not Anne, But Gabrielle
by Gabrielle Munslow
If you want me to take you to another time,
take my hand.
Don’t furrow your brow.
Slick with storylines,
my tongue twists
like an adder.
Poetry spills—
some good, some bad,
but always real.
I write of suffering.
I write of death.
I write of want.
No pretty, prophetic prose.
But I can still
slip a ditty off my toes.
I am Anne with an E.
No bird.
No net ensnares me.
Still, I rest,
and language thrills my bones.
Time stills—
or quickens.
Language isn’t luxury;
it’s necessity.
Down rabbit holes I go,
deep and twisted.
I braid my breath into roots.
I speak to the dirt,
and it answers.
Once a girl.
Now a woman,
retelling her youth.
I
am not Anne with an E.
I am Gabrielle—
with poems for sale.
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© 2025 Gabrielle Munslow. All rights reserved.
This poem may not be reproduced, distributed, or performed without the author’s permission.
She's like a puff adder
Pure poison spews from her mouth
Please bite your tongue!
The bloody soul we learn to hate
Is not our own nor pain within us
The visions of fantasy which we partake
Cause violence; man’s weakness, unjust
Illusions like the strike of an adder
Destroy the wealth of human might
The spirit strains at its lonesome ladder
And pitches itself down into the night
If a viper's a snake
And an asp's an adder
If either one bites you
Then what does it matter
white corals around
landscapes sparkle in pure white ---
adder snakes creep on creepers
white furs and sponges
ornament the environs ---
white fox innocently blinks
10 January 2023
Shall I forget my asking a brother:
“Who of The Two has A Much Taller Order?”
And Dairy Hand mishandled An Udder,
For round spinning to watch Close Adder…
Martin Luther and Nelson Mandela,
If they were Fidelis - Fidelia,
Then Stark Crudity of South Africa
Matched Mixed Decency of America
And True killers, sometimes reasonable,
Same as Searching Eyes for The Treasonable;
Or would one Some Healthy Type Writer
Praise like Zealous Breathless Writer?
More air outside The Cell for Martins,
Nelson in Dark Prison with Batons.
Martin Luther could time find for Quotes,
Nelson Mandela for The Word that floats...
And one had had A Far-Too-Funny Wife
That drew a picture of Another Strife,
The bizarre assembling for journalists;
For her Cosmetics the longest lists...
There always is some First Among Equals:
The same family but Yells aren’t Squalls…
It was a mystery
The death of her twin sister
Helen became jittery
On the manner death had kissed her.
These few words sister could only say
“It was the speckled band”
Before her last breath drifted away
The context Helen couldn’t understand.
To solve her sister’s death mystery
And fearing it could now be her turn
She told the scary story
To Sherlock Holmes with great concern.
The sleuth was confused by the word band
Was the criminal the gypsy roaming around
Committing the crime as planned
Or someone else out of bound?
Holmes searched for the physical clue
Saw the ventilator of stepfather Roylott’s room
Sister’s room it opened to
Through which danger could loom.
In sister’s room Holmes heard hissing sound
Coming from Roylott’s room on one night
He then rushed there and found
Swamp adder snake slithering in dim light.
Holmes attacked the snake with dexterity skilled
Onto Roylott’s head it was thrown
The mastermind behind the crime was killed
By the murder weapon of his own.
______________
August 23, 2022
Contest : Start Sleuthing
Sponsored by : Natasha L Scragg
Tom had to empty his bladder
The path was blocked by an adder
"Just Russians" it hissed
But Tom never missed
And now that adder is madder
There's plenty of goodness out there
, but it's been fanged by the puff adder DJS.
Goodness is slowly dying on media vines.
Behind boarded-up windows and riot fire.
With pistols and rosaries at the ready.
Awaiting the fires of salvation.
Blow blarney bugle blow
The bogus sound waves echo
bifurcated notes
That hollow sting tone
has a subtil serpentine drone
Toot the tout timbre tune deceptively
Let the stealth vibrations
blare witness with utter bandit ease
This covetous instrument
was slyly carved from a money tree
When the heist horn blow,
those with adder ears
let their ostrich eyes close
Be a blind mice in the atmospheric mint maze,
have a deaf eardrum
to the brass burn rubber sound theft getaway
Blow blarney bugle blow
Carny breath allow the counterfeit air
to fraudulently cash flow
Soon every silent blare witness
will empty pockets know
Snake oily palms
got a-plenty
under the table plans
Synthetic sly reptilian smile
bewitching many
Picking pockets with a hidden hand
Real filthy lucre fingernails
have the zircon gluttonous glow
that enticingly Endora sells
Dirty laundered money
boa clutches
that unclean epidermal soul
Those cobra soundbytes ain’t adder funny,
them sticky finger touches
love taking venom spit control
Dealing so anaconda treacherous
from the bottom of the deck
Pale poker face don’t wink reveal the poison ivy tell
Diamondback enamel scales
cover thorny digits —
Five fingers of sleight close the eclipse-colored veil
Oz-vader gator vice grip
unevenly tilt the bottom line balance
Stolen zeroes get a counterfeit eulogy farewell
Sympathetic shakes of hollow sincerity
accompany the revenue loss burial
Tainted double-cross lots of empty purse plots
Fervent loan believers only learn
when they forfeiture fit get iron glove squeezed
By the mint hidden hand inurned
Phantom phalanges scratch pilfering churn ...
fungi finger worms make the dirty green soil toxic turn
Emitting a dollar scent viper vapor burned
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