Best Constrict Poems
The heat of the street more than you can take
hem hiked high above your bony knees
spread slightly apart so you can breathe
you sit in the stifling air on a stony stoop
there’s no relief from the panting
your face stained with sweat and bad luck
the heave of your heavy breaths work
against the sticky cling of your spandex dress
your ribs confined by the constrict of fabric
or maybe it’s the feeling of your shrinking skin
— yes it’s hard to breathe
you lick a salty trickle falling on your lips
teary eyes swollen from the violence of a trick
a john who didn’t see the beauty beyond
the vivid blue and red against white skin —
body like the American flag for Christ’s sake!
but in the back-alley filth nobody’s patriotic
scabs and bruises distract from needle tracks
people only see what’s on the surface
afraid to see a trembling girl
hidden beneath the grime of shame
and the crime of syringes and burnt spoons —
you’re afraid too — to see the girl in the mirror
a veiled child jailed behind the glass
no you only see the next knot tied around a pulse
your dope sick eyes haunted decades older
oh older than nineteen years of beaten misery
hollow dope sick eyes once long ago large
lustrous like black pearls
until found by furious fists
Categories:
constrict, abuse, addiction, drug, lost,
Form:
Free verse
Solitary on my raft
Drifting peacefully away from the anguish towards sanctuary
The land becomes distant and harder to see.
Hurt subsides gradually and security softens my body
as the expanse of the ocean beckons me towards freedom
Languidly floating. Barely noticing.
Daydreaming of a burdenless future.
Harbingers unnoticed
Winds pick up
A swell begins
Almost imperceptible at first
Rocking, sickening
Intensity builds
More ominous, threatening
Thrashing, disorienting
Caught in the curl
Lungs constrict
I cannot breathe or call for help
There is no help anyway
Flailing wildly, finally grasping a piece of my shattered vessel
Bobbing to the surface, I can gasp for air
But start to drown in my own soul instead as the pain returns
My limp form is tossed by the final crash of the wave
It draws away
I land on the beach where I started
Abandoned and spent on the sand
I pick myself up and search for wood to build another raft.
Categories:
constrict, boat, depression, ocean, peace,
Form:
Free verse
Riding stormy winds to the past
To find out how we lost our way
How long did the great ones last
Mayans left their pyramids where trees sway
We are left to ponder the whys
As vines constrict their ruins
Incas left their calling card in the mountains
A vast empire now left to the clouds
Winds take me to the Roman empire
They were great indeed but now their ruins decay
Deserted coliseums tell the story
As they crumbled under wars and strife
The winds return me to the present
It journeyed on, it did not stay
But I heard it whisper before it left;
'Once again they've lost the way'!
8-17-2022
Categories:
constrict, lost, people, places,
Form:
Rhyme
Not for the contest
No more do I despair
writing for contests with an off the wall theme
Those that want me to create a nightmare
from what was once a beautiful dream.
No more do I care
about Marvel characters who fight and kill
I'd rather spend my time writing silly limericks
for fun and honing a particular poetry skill
than worrying about meter and syllable tricks.
No more do I write
for contests where a sponsor forbids me to choose
how many spaces I indent each middle line
by someone who thinks they're a bard. No, I refuse
to write for a yobo whose rules constrict and confine.
No more contests
do I enter for judges who hold grudges and spite
or who offer friendship placements with a wink.
It's not fair to good poets who get N/A'd as a backbite
I've no more interest in participation with pen and ink
No longer care
to write for judges who give novel length instruction
Yes, rules should be followed, but not to such extreme.
It negates poetic license, serving as a poetic obstruction
making that contest sponsor, head of his or her regime.
No more writing
for those who prohibit adjectives and adverbs be used
or if the sponsor has never written in the specified form.
The power that some feel as a judge can be abused
while preaching about dos and don'ts from a platform.
Oh, spare me
from those who don't know the use of literary devices,
metaphors, proper grammar, and over doing alliteration.
To anyone who wants to enter contests, my advice is...
"Don't take a crown seriously. It will lead to abdication."
No more issues
to deal with sponsors who change their minds midway
through contests because no entries for the theme... bizarre,
and decide, without warning they have the right to say,
"I can do what I want." Who made them the contest czar?"
No blight is this
on judges who sincerely host, giving up their leisure time
to make PS a place where everyone can take an active part.
Those who appreciate good fun in free verse or with rhyme.
I applaud the fair-minded sponsors who have a good heart.
A few weeks ago, I decided to not enter PS contests any longer.
Categories:
constrict, conflict, how i feel,
Form:
Rhyme
Happiness rages outside smiles that wend ‘round my cracked doorway sirens fade from
the street music stops commercials scream dissonant chords walk across cat eyes lay
down on the keys sorrow is best sealed in lips a crying child throws angry toys rocking
-chairs whine with worried whistles in an empty room a grandmother snores despair
stares catatonic truth with no pupils no moon gleams blanks black-out while walking i
forget who i am frozen no sensation trees hold their breath words swallow spit scenes
flex and constrict this is outside of yourself concentrate nothing is behind you footsteps
cars crack snow dances mid-night the still blurs death stands and exhales ebony rooms
drifting with nothing to dream i open my eyes and read the clock my thoughts slam shut
Categories:
constrict, visionary,
Form:
Free verse
Don't let your dreams be drowned out by reality.
If your bound up with daily drudge confound real life, set your dreams free.
Get off life's merry go round, say no to the corporate pound break free.
Dreams are for living confound the non believers be gutsy.
Don't let the confines of others dreams constrict yours.
Set the headlines don't be sidelined, freedom calls
have the confidence to cha cha in the rain without a care
and follow your dreams to there conclusion, freedom.
The beauty to dream is your gift to yourself.
so get dressed up to the nines in your finery and break free.
and please just have the one dance for me who's stuck in corporate slavery.
Be a diva, a queen, the Freddie mercury of poetry, I want you to break free .
comp entry 09052016
Categories:
constrict, fun,
Form:
Free verse
My words are not poisonous
I have a spider in my mouth
They are neither venomous
I rest a forked tongue between my teeth
My words are lovers
They sentence hate to death
My words speak spokes
That turn the windmill of truth
My words are jealous
They sound only like me
My words are ravenous
They crave bloodlust for my enemy
My words are envious
Of the lips others’ melody
My words are ambiguous
They wrote what I couldn’t say
My words are ridiculous
They couldn’t escape my voice
My words are gregarious
They forever speak to my internal monologue
My words are polite
They ask to be read
My words are silent
But they speak to your mind
My words are selective
They censor my thoughts
My words are constructive
They survey willing hearts and minds
Categories:
constrict, words,
Form:
Rhyme
With its bite or baud or bit
It takes thick my stomach strict
When the mouse is there clicked
Then my brain is hard constrict
And my thoughts are in conflict
With my hair rough or slicked
I feel as a lousy kicked
By a mangy cat then licked
And my will completely nicked
Was by case so subtly tricked
That I am like a drug addict
Even though I am afflict
As deserving to be convict
In a way I can’t depict
Neither I can rapidly evict
Nor I want it be hand-picked
Insofar I can predict
That no penalty is inflicted
To this slapstic informa-tìc!
Categories:
constrict, assonance, drug,
Form:
Rhyme
Labyrinth of headache and heartache
Cold steel walls
Surrounding and compounding
Trapped passageways
Constrict and conflict
Navigating carefully
To avoid the hellish realms
Checking my three and my six
But still exist my qualms
The lava burns as my stomach churns
The firey glow awaits regardless of my turn
Finally i've been ensnared
And so I sigh and despair
I was expecting the curse
And so I bid thee
Do thy worst
How naive
How comically foolish!
The embers surge into my eyes
Siring, stinging, burning
Whites falling to red dyes
Pain, needles, drying
I seal it tight and my muscles fight
Tears seep out through impenetrable defences
And again, the blinding light
Locked up lids
But of the needles I cannot rid
Fire, fire, massive torrents of pain
World blurs as fists swing into tiles
Anger, consuming!
Must withhold for a while...
Blinded like a bat
My eyes scream and complain
WHAT IS VISION?!
For all I know is pain
To forgo the hurt and the heck
Please
Tell me i'm near death
The tissue is clutched
Forced into my face
Ahhh, cleansing serenity
The needles, done away
Then I got out of the shower
Categories:
constrict, emo, funny, how i
Form:
Free verse
Age is a snake that takes up residence,
just a small little snake, on your shoulders,
on the day you are born. Your radiance,
your energy and strength match your blunders,
and the viper is kept at bay for a while.
Oh, it marks the mistakes, the broken leg,
mindless anger, and it grows, and with wile,
cinches up like a belt, lets lose a peg,
when it has to, when mind and body are sure
and clean and honest and uncompromising.
It waits, for those times when you are unsure
of your course, and grows, when shortcuts you are taking,
old wounds and ills ignored, when you don't correct
the harm you've done, it waits to fatally constrict.
Categories:
constrict, allegory
Form:
Sonnet
oh the distill
to fly the sky
I saw a garbage bag in the clouds
how could it makes it so hight
as I dropping my arms and legs
grew a pair of wings
going to China
and shared some barbecues
for the rescue
of lost birds
not knowing where
is north
the moon so confusing
with so many windows
but sure put my flag there
all stars and stripes
and a lack of oxygen
or call it gravity
I tend to my garden
not eden what's in a name
the boa I constrict
the horse to trot
the avenues
and the ventures
car traffics
the roads
of the rorschachs
and the last hamburger
must be germany
to eat the bun
oh no just a computer
with hefty bills
to eat you all
as my habit to drink coffee
Nespresso every morning
with almond milk
I got it free of charge
not reading their pamphlet
in chinese
gee saved myself 200 hundreds
and the coffee is good
must I've learn from Morocco
beef beaf what is your meat
to tell me the protest
of greens the goat climbing the tree
of argane or archaid
just a monkey
blinding my eyes
a mouth to silence
and ears not listen
but a look at the clouds
Categories:
constrict, absence,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter
Villanelle: Stringent laws only serve to constrict the heart to hate
For all Eric Garners who went down breathless
Stringent laws only serve to constrict our hearts to hate
“Nur wenn das Herz erschlossen Dann ist die Erde schön”
Put the blame on Bushmen genes which wandering mutate
Yea put the blame on the Maker too for making world rotate
Way we’re all made contend we not for the one an’ same bone
Stringent laws only serve to constrict our hearts to hate
Some people who on this earth set foot much too late
Still hope to displace take and hold on to what others earn
Put the blame on Bushmen genes which wandering mutate
Those who love to lick the chokehold sweat mostly gravitate
To the force that arms preserve till eternity burns in urn
Stringent laws only serve to constrict our hearts to hate
All that happens be it not the changes wrought by climate
If the winds just blew one single way will none ever moan
Put the blame on Bushmen genes which wandering mutate
Everything happens way it does to keep from kicking planet
Sans white or black beauty nor butt we’ll all die of boredom
Stringent laws only serve to constrict our hearts to hate
Put the blame on Bushmen genes which wandering mutate
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2014
Categories:
constrict, racism, violence,
Form:
Villanelle
what is this feeling, not grief
my heart wail, constrict and hurt
why the promise feel distant
i still wait in vain.
****
distance gives way to longing
a need to meet and devour
the strong thread binding two hearts
grows weaker with time.
© (3 Feb '15)
Contest: Dodoitsu by Dr. Ram
Categories:
constrict, lonely, longing, lost love,
Form:
Dodoitsu
My mind is already at the finish line
Right before the gun fired
My mind is already at the finish line waiting to foresee
what
the
hell
you
got
beneath that skin
That thin skin gets torn with concealed hell in my eyes
Get out of my way
Relax because it's over before it started
It's death before dishonor
Tarnish my body but don't touch my name
I'd sooner be starving then ask for your aid
So let me constrict my belt
three more notches ‘til hell
It's my dignity that gets me through these
rough times so keep your sleaze to yourself
I keep my head held high when the options are none and all I can do is walk
away from the grim reaper himself
I have never ran from anything in my life and I on no account will
I'll never ask for you to do something I won't do myself
I put my only faith in my death and God because that's the only thing that's certain
right now
Man, your trying too hard
With your hat tilted to the side and your faded eyes
Drugs coursing through your jugular vein
All you can hear is the rhythm of your death in your ear drum right before the
warning shots Lucifer makes to call you home
It makes me sick how you make your girl paint her face every morning
what exactly are you making her hide?
After daubing off Maybelline Eye-shadow and MAC foundation I realize it's me
Damn, it's really me, isn't it
What do you like the attention my counterfeit face attracts
Nah man your just afraid
of the hate in my every pore
before the warning shots I’m going to be waiting for you at the finish line to show
you what the hell I got
Categories:
constrict, inspirational, uplifting, urban, death,
Form:
Free verse
Wisdom tooth, the oral root of prophesy
I respect you with all my worth
When you speak my eyes come
I wake up and turn as you order
I constrict like a serpent stung
At your command I fizzle like coke
My champagne foams in your honor
My hands mate at the throat
Wisdom tooth, for you anything
Ice cube in my armpit
Burial in the swimming pool
Tight diadem on the head
I speak in tongues, Tooth!
Make your choice:
I will call you my uncle
my tutor, my referee, my signatory
You are the Untainted Governor, Sergeant-at-arms, president for life
Bishop of my church, Perfect Prefect, Captain who never farts
Head of Dental Department, Commander-in-chief...
You are the Tooth of all Teeth
Your stitch is profound and unfaltering
Your ache indefatigable and mature
Your wisdom infinite yet insurmountable
Your target is spot on
You are majestic and brilliant
Your unrelenting questionnaire
Appeals to the veins
See how my eyes are swollen
My hairs erect, my nose running
I am squinting with respect
My ears are blocked and left shoulder sags
I limp and claim to walk
Mighty tooth, you go anywhere
When I hear you I shiver
This far, you have brought me, Mister!
Look at the altar
I have brought you the sacrifice
A harvest of Chocolate cake, Sugar coats, Sugar cream, Bubble gum, and Candy Lozenge
All I have, I have put at your feet, mighty one
I surrender all
Take them all with you
Leave in peace
I live in peace!
Categories:
constrict, allegory, wisdom,
Form:
Dramatic Monologue