Best Barkers Poems

The flames of the furnace (well-travelled by wind
slowly glazing the rags of gray women chagrined
at the sight of a hair fleeing tresses now thinned) 
sometimes billow like waves flooding naves through the night,
when the lightning peeks in where the tension hangs tight
while the lanterns, alarmed,...

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The wind did stir the thought in kind wanting - for if she knew my soul, just a spark 
of it, I would be a rich man...

So long this ribbon of love that flows over the rocks of age and distant torment...
The gate keepers sit...

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Wally Brummell, fed em on Crow, ...
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Wally some call him Zip (fed em black duck) (crow actually)Kakadu song man of Gulf town Karumba Australia

Stay alive in 55 and 56 said the roadside sign..
As the Ford Mercury whizzed by...

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Cossack Cowboys
Riding Llamas
That they dress
In pink pajamas
Teeny boppers
Blowing bubbles
Biker chicks
Causing trouble
Nuns in Habits
Punks in chains
One or two
Of the deranged
Rubbing Buddha belly
Cravers
And the band
Harvey Danger
David Bowie
Elton John
Both of them
With Spacesuits on
Vegetarians 
Eating chicken
Love it fried
Finger licking
In a line to 
Meet and greet Obama
Now I wish
I'd brought...

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With apologies to Albert Camus

I once was a circus strongman,
Sovereign of midway spectacles.
I wore a leopard-skin loincloth
And a lion-claw necklace.
My club was seasoned hardwood.
I proudly dragged my knuckles
Through the sawdust and straw.
I wrestled the orangutan 
And boxed the kangaroo.
I tore phone books in half
With my...

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Wally some call him Zip (fed em black duck) (crow actually) Kakadu song man of Gulf town
Karumba Australia

Stay alive in 55 and 56 said the roadside sign..
As the Ford Mercury whizzed by on local Brisbane time...
A flat head 8 jumped into a muffled roar...
And Bronco...

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She sneaks into town
In the middle of the night;
Sets up before daybreak.
Her colors blind the town square.

Her barkers have games set up before the crowd arrives.
Her fantastic rides take two tickets;
Most kids lament they only have ten.
Some get replenished by their parents.
Others do not.

She smiles...

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The posters said tomorrow
At eleven on the dot
The Mishkin Brothers Circus
Would be here ....on this spot

There would be no carnival or midway
Just one tent and three rings
And all of the excitement
That a good old circus brings

There would be elephants and lions
Trapeze artists overhead
Dancing dogs and...

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Flawed Masquerade Carnival

Upon the midway of imperfection,
The traveling human circus, “illusion” of perfection,
A masquerading “mask,” in carnival unmasked,
Lies “cracked” in equinox
Like “torn” tickets discarded in the sawdust of dreams
As the “façade” crashes down into “flawed” fragments
To scatter splinters in wild spinning carousels
Flinging away the costumes...

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Those claiming their religious pride 
With snide invective speech, 
Insult all those who don't abide 
With what that pride might preach. 

These sideshow barkers blowin' wind, 
Who count the coin each night 
Are parasites who preach on sin, 
Like bloated beasts of blight. 

They rant...

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What struck you first 
was the smell of caged animals
rank with boredom and rage.

Lions with matted fur pacing restlessly
dreaming of antelopes on the hot savanna plain

Elephants ponderously swinging their trunks, 
snuffling up stray peanuts thrown
by bored, sticky children.

The teams of acrobats in the Big Tent
strutting defiantly to their...

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I SIT IN FRONT 
OF THE TV SCREEN
WATCHING NOTHINGNESS 
THAT APPEARS TO BE  REAL

TO 
APPEAL
TO 
THE VIEWER’S VISCERAL FEEL

BUT IN REALITY
NO MORE REAL 
THAN THE BARKERS SPIEL 
OR THE SALESMAN'S DEAL

WATCH OUT 
ON THE WORLD’S TV SCREEN 
FOR THE SALESMAN ‘S STEAL 
AND THEIR...

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the square
   was packed
& the high street full
meat&veg seemed plentiful

market barkers
  drew the queues
with jokes
         impromptu

shoppers filed
     neat& formal
in sainsburys greggs
  & home colonial

the bacon slicer
  shuttled back&...

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eagles don't fly with vultures
they rise above the carnage of sadistic sub-cultures
just like angels headed straight into the sun
never lost or led astray cause they always fly alone
born to rule with iron wings 
while vultures search and stalk for those dead and dying things
eagles dominate...

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