Serpent venomous, strike the breast.
Lay me low and leave.
Treasure found inside a chest?
Nightshade to bereave.
Sickle of the reaper grim?
Crater cauldron rim.
Pain in my heart, at the brim?
Light in my eyes, dim?
Slim thy chance, O circumstance.
Demagogue, thy rants.
Fortress mighty, stubborn stance?
Tympani, tyrants.
Destroyed, O sweet future?
You bet, and reason thus:
Stitch, support the suture?
Ornery damned, my cuss.
Poison-flower, trumpets high?
Apothecary, ply.
Deadly chemicals, make supply?
Ointment, have thy fly.
Cry of battle? Battlement.
Hope, thy sentiment.
Gears a-ground down? Where she went?
Said just what she meant?
Fluxion, thy flicker.
Axion, axe to wheel.
Sullen silence? Get sicker.
Wound, heal. Deal, sign seal.
Torn, O my tornado?
The options are but two.
Sell thy soul to vicious foe?
Be with who loves you...
A couple years after earning a G.E.D.
He came home from a tour of duty.
Sporting a tattoo and a pair of war eyes.
(2 black jellybeans where there once were stars).
One day the shine in those stars was displaced.
When his closest grunt friend got blown away via an I.E.D.
Rigged by a teenage Asp, slithering in a blistered land.
Dreaming only in the colors of death.
Truth is a mouthful of blood -spit upon a Persian rug.
A kick to the balls in the middle of the sweetest dream.
Karma doesn't stop gnawing until the soul's licked clean.
And what of our far-off God -that mysterious golden being.
Stirring devils into our kettle since we were mustard seeds.
Everyone thinks of offing themselves from time to time.
Usually when we're running low on honey and wine.
When mad horses trample over our parched lives.
Something brings most back from the frothy brink.
Maybe it's the bouncing star baby sleeping in the crib.
Or the dirty plunger when it finally frees up the sink.
You may as well dance because it's more painful to crawl.
Kiss a stranger on the mouth, have yourself a ball.
But don't bounce the ball off the devil's burning grass.
Or he just may kick over your little white picket fence.
And light up your fake happy little a$$.
What is this?
Spit at me, will you??
Hiss and spit and rattle your tail?!?
Be my guest, oh Great Coiled One ...
You are king, after all, and I but a fool!
But THIS jester has dealt with your kind before ...
Oh, yes, and far, FAR worse!
There is another creature that shames you in its ferocity ...
Her temperamental and capricious airs
Hold much more menace and fury!
Oh, she can rival the worst of your ire ...
Bare her fangs, hiss and snarl, rattle her tail, and strike ...
She is easily the most formidable opponent man has ever known,
Yet her most insidious and treacherous trait
Is the exquisitely captivating form that wraps her ...
Heaven help us, we are naught but powerless before it!
Oh, it is a deadly and guileful costume, indeed -
A slinky guise that takes your breath at one moment ...
And the next, brings you weeping to your wobbly knees!
So, do your worst, Asp ...
Bring your wicked wrath to bear,
For I have met my match,
And she laughs at your feeble folly
Even now ... this ...
Woman.
spying a snake
sliding over sand . . .
picnic at sunset
May 6, 2018
It's too late in the day to tell you of asps;
it's time for an afternoon nap.
The taxes are all filed, and on their way
by certified post from the c.p.a.
The afternoon is lazy;
the sun is just beginning to feel its dottage
as it leans on the wind for a crutch
weary as it hobbles through sky,
much the same way some say Ra
wandered through Egyptian dunes,
senile and babbling words of power
his spittle potent with secret sounds
and dropping on the sand.
How careful, clever Isis crept,
swadled in her lotus linen,
memorizing all his magic,
and taking up the dampened sand
rolled them into asps.
May 4th, '18
ABILITLY ABSTRACTLY ABSORBED, ABRIDGED , ABOUNDED AND ACCEPTED
SKYWAY SCRIBES SECRETLY SIEZED SIZED, SEMINATED, SILENTLY SUBTERFUGED
PRODDED PAGANIZATION, PALMEISTED, PROFFERED, PARANORMAL PROTECTION
A-s-p are three high-functioning letters
And while I imagine that some might do better
Here are some ways to bring them together
At the start of a word we have aspirin and asparagus
Not to mention aspartame, aspects, and aspersions
Then there's aspire, aspirations, and asperity
And maybe even an aspirator, between you and me
Of course, if you have asp in the middle
You get asp in the end
As you'll find in clasp grasp, hasp and rasp
And it works the other way too--
Which I'm sure you can grasp
That brings to an end this discussion of asp
For more, read the Bible or Shakespeare
Or find a teacher to ask
Charmion's hand trembles
The snake is enticed to kill
Ptolemaic queen;
Asp slithers down her body
And in deep embrace they sleep.
Form: TANKA
Asp - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Anthony Slausen
03rd May, 2018
Active Service Page!
Access Service Provider!
Alpha Sigma Phi!
Acing Sensible Precise.
Apply Simple Procedure
ONCE AN
A small slithering
Snake sneaking
Poison bites on prey
AWAYS AN ASP
May 5, 2018
Asp Contest by Anthony Slausen
N/A
Beware the perils of the golden asp
whose world is of dust and death
he moves as smoothly as satin
and is as deadly as anthrax.
How he writhes upon his belly
intent on catching his victim
ever searching, ever hunting
preditory, with pure blood lust.
In the apex of a dark night
that is blacker than India ink
the asp spies his helpless prey
with distant, unblinking eyes.
How he hisses, a heathen sound
then flares his upturned nostrils
how he flits his forked tongue about.
Sharp fangs boldly appear
from his scaly, snake mouth
then suddenly, the asp leaps
striking with prodigious precision
paralyzing his prey.
How quickly he hastens its demise
ushering his catch through death’s
distant door.
Oh, beware the perils of
the golden asp!
Written on 5/2/2018
Do not be an asp!
I say to my husband.
Putting him immediately into argument-ive mode.
Asp, I said Asp I shriek with glee
As he heads toward me
With a super angry face, to dismount and unload.
He stops at the couch.
Asp like a venomous snake? He asks me.
Yes, like a wonderful, Cleopatra-like, wonderful cobra, see?
And just how is that better? He asks me, in a dangerous way.
“Asps are handsome, determined, eager-to-please,” I happily say.
We both know I’m making this up on the fly.
We almost laugh when we catch each other’s eye.
He smiles. You’re an asp, he says.
Yes, I am, but not as much as Inez.
Submitted on 4-30-2018
Contest: ASP by Anthony Slausen
Can’t help this fatal attraction
Give me all your attention
A pinch of affection
Prick me with your love injection
Your hands around me move like a tide
Your lips taste like fine red wine
I want to taste every drop
until no, I can’t stop
Give it to me
ASP
It gives me thrills
It rocks
Thrill me
ASP
There are no rules, no direction
All I want is your affection
Prick me, pierce me
With your love injection
It tastes so great
I just can’t wait
Taste me
ASP
Dip your love
In my heart
Love me
ASP
29-04-2018
Asp - Poetry Contest
I gasped, as asp clasped fast
around my head like a plaster cast cap.
It was coiled round and round
like a ringlet of hair wrapped
around a curler, with head reared up
poised like spitting cobra.
What spell can I cast to uncoil, unclasp the asp?
For I'm too scared to grasp the asp
and cast the serpent skyward.
Perhaps wearing the Uraeus asp cap
means I'm a Pharaoh!
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