Best Aftershave Poems

The snow slowly morphs into rain, a thousand cold cocoons that release raindrop butterflies into the frosty air. They glisten in the morning light, clinging to soft leather like tiny diamonds as he drapes his jacket across my shoulders.

The jacket smells like him: fresh soap...

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To never see your face again 
To lose the map of your body
To misplace memory itself 

For example   
Today I lost your nose 
I couldn't remember which nostril
Was bigger 
 
Last month it was your facial hair 
How it felt against my flesh...

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I light a candle for you this lonely night
Vanilla scented footsteps from the past.
The smell of your sweater a poignant delight
I wonder how long the memory will last.

Lavender scent to ease the empty pain
Potpourri of emotions in the smoky air.
In honeysuckle flames I see you...

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Cornflakes with honey and chilled little feet
from drafty morning windows and cool tile floors
sits next to her grandfather to listen 
as he tells stories from his days in the war.
 
She watches him lift his ceramic brown mug 
with steam like silhouette hands reaching his...

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“Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam 
                Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.”

John Keats Ode to a Nightingale

“Strange to find a sea captain quoting Keats.”

The Ghost and Mrs....

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I was first picked up
In a cast-off shop in Liverpool; 
Surrounded by racks of seasoned shirts
Bearing names of old soldiers.

“Draper” draped on an immature frame
In a collage of brown and green, 
Overlapping and enveloping
Any semblance of a past self.

Baby-faced and militant,
The paradoxical camo in an...

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Why am I grouchy, tired and upset?
And why can’t I cheer up like others I’ve met
Who go on their way as though walking on air?
Smiling and humming with nary a care

My friends have all shunned me and it’s getting me down
I can’t lift my spirits...

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My tale about the barnacle I bared upon my bum
has now passed into legend and folk law
The  battle I thought was over and now long done
Just when I thought I could sit down and relax
and lick my wounds
and heal my poor bum
I now have...

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The cold wisps of wind on the hard wood floors makes your toes cringe in holy socks.
The cabinets give room to store house spiders, they fill every crack and cranny.
Money spent on you alcoholic breath.
Why do you insist on blowing that smoke in my face?
Am...

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failing to see which road would be best,
not knowing how much i've really been blessed-
too much time on my hands with too much fear,
wishing you, my father, were still near

cramped in a box without room to breathe,
needing more than this life can believe-
my constant friend...

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I

 
Take out the caked grimy faucet plug

Let those unseen crawlies dive and duck

                               ...

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When I am gone you can spread the word
And leave your cage like a big black bird 
You can tell your world of my dreadful deeds
And give your hungry lover all the food he needs
You can eat your breakfast with you hair undone
When I'm dead...

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The show it is over another one gone
Never ever again I decry and bemoan
 Five days of eating the turkey and ham
Curries for me and the bones for dog Sam
The tree in the corner all naked and bare
Pine needles cover the carpet and chair
The presents...

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Nails 
If a cardinal, the day before the pope is cleaning his feet,
washes them himself day before and clip his toenails short 
 will he be cheating. Or do all cardinals do the same before
letting the pope clean their feet? 
When I go and see...

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You’re here.

I can see the goodness of your café au  lait skin turning mocha in the sun.
I can smell the sweat over your right brow as it slides down your cheek, mixing with the morning’s aftershave.
I hear the velvet rhythm of your baritone when...

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