I’m a soldier of fortune
Just home from the War
Begging for food from
The woman at this door.
She took me to her kitchen
Fed me cold pie and beer
Looked at me intensely
No anxiety or fear.
She murmured very quietly
There’s a human under there
Then she took some scissors
And barbered my hair.
Then with what it seemed
Was a practiced grace
Produced a cut throat razor
To carefully shave my face.
She looked at my quite shyly
Surprising me when she said
Such a handsome gentleman
Deserves a night in my bed.
We shared together then an
Hour of pleasure and delight.
And then she held me tightly
For the rest of that night.
She asked me to leave
Just as dawn had broken
One kiss goodbye, very
Few words being spoken
I think perhaps she’d lost
Her beloved in my war
But I’d never asked and
She never said anymore.
I now carried more rations
In my much heavier pack
Which was again slung
Hanging from my back.
And I’m back tramping the roads
Knowing they’d call me back when
It suited their interests to make me
A Soldier of fortune once again.
Now is the winner of our disco tent comp
Maids glorious shimmer by
This sun on my Yorkie
Puffing clouds as Lorde plays in our house
In the deep base of the ocean eyes buried
Our brows found with sweated wreaths;
Our boozed arms
hands up for chocolate moments
Ring the alarms whoop whoop its the sound of the police
Our wayward marches due to delightful measures.
Grim has got his visa
The aged war has smoothed
And how, instead of mourning barbered heeds
Too light the soles of playful sand shoes
He rolls papers nimbly in a unisex chamber
To the languished pleasing of a Dr Dre loop
Have no shape for sport or tricks
Norwegian made dubious furniture not to last
I am that rude
Stamping on your majestic Magnum
To strut before
What you wan't man
I will cut that tail
Fair is my complexion
Cheated by the creature
Breaking is my nature
Deranged, not ends, start and not to stop
Breathing on this world, scared
your mind made up,
So tamely and in fashionably time
Take a step past my dogs that bark
It may be your last
Now is the winner of our disco tent comp
Maids glorious shimmer by
This sun on my Yorkie
Puffing clouds as Lorde plays in our house
In the deep base of the ocean eyes buried
Our brows found with sweated wreaths;
Our boozed arms
hands up for chocolate moments
Ring the alarms whoop whoop its the sound of the police
Our wayward marches due to delightful measures.
Grim has got his visa
The aged war has smoothed
And how, instead of mourning barbered heeds
Too light the soles of playful sand shoes
He rolls papers nimbly in a unisex chamber
To the languished pleasing of a Dr Dre loop
Have no shape for sport or tricks
Norwegian made dubious furniture not to last
I am that rude
Stamping on your majestic Magnum
To strut before
What you wan't man
I will cut that tail
Fair is my complexion
Cheated by the creature
Breaking is my nature
Deranged, not ends, start and not to stop
Breathing on this world, scared
your mind made up,
So tamely and in fashionably time
Take a step past my dogs that bark
It may be your last
your chickpea skin
my willing mouth
the mundane things
we talk about
your shadowed eyes
my bright despair
your barbered mane
my tussled hair
four confused hands
touch in the rain
The Art Show
At the art exhibition, it was about metal
craftily shaped to resemble tulips and roses
polished to mirror sharpness, and there were
trees made of barbered wire and a painting
made out of coat hangers, the type the give
at the laundry and filling up your closet.
There were many buyers, what do you do with
a steel vase with ditto steel roses, not in
the living room or the dining table, perhaps in
the study on a sideboard and forgotten.
Do metal roses rust, can they be rinsed under
the sink and dry in the sunlight.
It was spring outside a beautiful lawn and many
a variety of flowers and trees but that is not art.
Samson was known for strength and flowing mane
He loved Delilah who became his bane
Through many a bedroom schmooze
She found the key to his ruse
She barbered him bald in a coup de main
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
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