Best Damage Poems
Mara- Collateral damage
Hi, my name is Mara, I'm six years old, I have brown hair and brown eyes. People say I'm pretty like my mom, but, I don't know how that matters now.
My mom said she named me Mara because it means bitterness, my being born has only caused my family bitterness, as we are 4 children, in a war torn land. I am a girl and no one wants a girl, unless they are useful in some way.
My father escaped the war, and fled to America, he says to find us a better life. I don't understand how leaving us here would give us a better life! It's so dangerous here for woman, and even girls like me.
The only men we see are soldiers, or freedom fighters. My three brothers Ahmed 13, Sammir 12, Nicolo 11, went to get food at the market last week, they were looking for huma...humana....humani..tar i an relief. They were all killed when a bomb went off. I miss them a lot! No relief for me, I haven't eaten for a week.
I would love to go to school but all the schools are closed, most of the buildings are blown up, so I don't think I will go to school anyway.
My Mom left yesterday to play with the soldiers, she told me if you play with the soldiers they will give you food. I'm so hungry!!
Rat atat atat ata atatt knock knock knock open up, open up this door!!! Mom? I'm so glad your back! (opens door)
hey your not my mom!
Rat atat atat.
(Voice from behind) hey there's nobody here!! Let's go, lets go!
My name is Mara, I was 6 years old, now I'm dead. I guess I'm what they call collateral damage!
John Derek Hamilton
July 11,2017
First place premium contest winner
but who cares about a win really in this case.
Sinking into a True Despair
It’s like trying to shoot a monstrous ghost that you can’t ever see,
and, at the same time, this applies when one wants to kill a rumor,
and where everything is just like water running off a duck’s back,
and when you can’t see the source of it as it disappears over time.
Yet, if this leak becomes a true object of issue and a real concern,
then all the damage is irreparable and beyond any hope of saving.
It’s at this stage that we choose to cut our losses and to move on.
And, why not? Despair is always a part of the human experience.
Yet, where there is “despair” there can also be “hope,” if each of
us have the courage to summon it and to never take counsel of
our own fears. Hope can spring eternal, if the human will is stout
and courageous. Let us hope so and make it so!
Gary Bateman and Liam McDaid
Copyright © All Rights Reserved
July 5, 2021 (Verse)
A BAND OF ANGELS
I already knew that love comes with stuff
But I didn’t know that stuff comes with love
Until a fire destroyed all of our things.
And I looked to heaven above
I cried out “Lord, thank you God!
For saving me, my family and friends.”
No one was hurt. No lives were lost.
Lord knows there could have been.
We stood watching in the middle of the night
As flames claimed all of our things
We comforted each other
Under the umbrella of angels wings.
Little did we know at that time
That God was sending us more stuff.
Blessing us abundantly
Supplying more than enough.
Thank you Merced, CA community
Thank you family and friends
For allowing the Lord to use you
In Jesus’ Holy name,
Amen
No Damage Done
The storm approached suddenly
And the wind blew fiercely
But the tree fell slowly
It landed softly
Trying not to disturb the gentle plants and trees around it
The animals in the forest
Watched it fall
It would have been a cozy home
For me and my family
Said the squirrel
The perfect place for a nest
Said the robin
Its nuts would have given me food for winter
Said the chipmunk
It was a nice shady spot for napping
Said the bear
It landed softly, no damage done
Said the man
The animals of the forest agreed
The man will never know
The value of a tree
There no use in trying to mend these broken and shattered pieces.
Its done for. Your saying that I'm great, that I'm strong. That I'll find someone else.
It's cut a deep void in my life. And left me completely sleepless.
Only vulgarity comes to mind, I dug deep who knew that so easily, your feelings would melt.
It disappeared overnight. Oh! The unfairness I'm faced with.
Maybe I deserve the pain. From all angles it sprouts.
I'm filled with hate. Length and width.
I tried! I tried! Did you expect me to shout?!
How I miss waking up in love! All smiles, no regrets at all.
It's become a feeling I definitely don't want again, never ever again.
Its a lesson learned, behind happiness, despair crawls!
Don't fall too hard, once you fall, it happens over and over, it never ends.
I hate to say this again, but what's done is done.
There no turning back once the damage is done.
Cajole me in the right frame of mind
For I'm vexed not because of
Personal issues but because of the
Morbid, abstract canvas of life
I'm subjected to witness, where
Groups of so-called righteous men
Drop indiscriminate bombs
On fellow humans ripping
Homes and families apart
Shedding the blood of the innocent
Then simply labeling it
Collateral damage -
Collateral damage of War
Shelling babies... collateral
Damage of war!
Then pluck out thine eyes
With two bold fingers
For I cannot bear witness
To the dislodging of families
Fleeing wildly wherever
The cold wind blows
Crossing rough seas
None with the ability of
Jesus to walk on water
Nor faith to part it like Moses
Water ...swilling with red blood
And saline stinging tears
Mothers wailing bearing
The agony in suffering
Petrified twisted faces pressed
To their wet bosoms
Fathers gnashing teeth,
Raging, panting, feeling
Like a poltroon
Powerless. Gray skies depicts
No rainbow, no promise.
Strike me down
I refuse to bear witness
Beseeching before I meet my demise,
Obliterate borders, these
Man made borders
Us with our Jingoistic attitude
Jingoistic ... flag waving
Entitlement ... displaying
Utmost xenophobia
The mantra mocking
Go home, go home, go
Home - face your fate
On your homeland soil
Drenched and soaked in blood.
I shiver terrifically in my skin
What if it was me ... you
In those weathered skin
Under the moon and stars
Branded a refugee, worthless
Vulnerable, famished, weak
Motivated by hope to
Overcome barriers and borders
And when pruned fleshed
Feet imprint the coarse sand
There's no child in hand
Swallowed up by the gluttonous sea
Let hell's bells drone on
When dastardly Superpowers drop
Nasty bombs on the innocent
Butchering, maiming ... moribund
Then labeling it collateral damage
Cajole me in the right frame of mind
For I will go stark raving mad.
© 2015 Denise Morgan
My daughter was raped.
He penetrated my heart.
We're both dead inside.
If the Result is Insult:
Rethink that course of thought!
For what can lead to the Heart's revolt
Is not the path I sought...
Wayward walking; trouble stalking
(When one lets loose their tongue!)
I can accept the poets' balking-
At least, when I cease to run,
And stop to take ownership
Of all the mistakes I've made
Vacation for my guilty trip-
As I apologize today
*Submit a Smile Contest Entry
~JustThatArchaicPoet aka Chan :)
Green spores, thunderbolts
Rolling spheres taking over
Possibilities…
Against blue canvas
Of summer skies, the ball soared.
Laughter mixed with dust.
Silenced by the screaming shell.
They buried you in blankets
Abuse, misuse, and mistreat the object of your affection.
In the name of a game – hearts bound in another direction.
Not seen or keen to a face, instead this article to discard.
Senseless pain to gain, leaving our hearts forever scarred.
Heed naught, to being caught, watching you writhe in pain.
Cruelty told, does unfold – standing alone in a bloody rain.
Showering down, bleeding abound – I turn in your direction.
But you’re gone, amidst the dawn, a broken down reflection.
A man once proud, who always vowed to love me till the end.
Now merely a face, for me to retrace, this broken heart I mend.
To face the facts and brutal attacks is more than I can bear.
To admit my faults, and emotional assault, do I even dare?
Can a monster repent, a life they’ve spent or will they always be –
An abusive mass, first in their class for you see that ogre is me.
I stand alone, without a home because you were always my force.
A recluse I must be, to discover the old me, or end this in divorce.
IT'S REALLY BRAIN DAMAGE
So here you come, our back's against THE WALL,
and UMMAGUMMA, you're the worst we've seen,
you'll MEDDLE in our lives, that says it all,
but please BE CAREFUL WITH THAT AX EUGENE.
I'd ride my BIKE, but there is too much rain,
if you SEE EMILY (she'll) PLAY for you,
and RELICS that you leave will be a pain,
if Roger Waters more what will we do???
Your ATOM HEART, MOTHER is stone and cold,
and US AND THEM you might be blowing soon,
like ECHOS of Camille, now dead or old,
you'll blow us to the DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.
Before you're done, we'll see PIGS ON THE WING,
SMALL FURRY ANIMALS, I'll rhyme this thing.
© RON WILSON aka vee bdosa the doylestown poet
From near one pole to the other, from South to North,
Billions of tons of ice melt every year, climate change
It’s become one of the major problems on this planet thenceforth.
Planet Earth has suffered many disasters, henceforth
As oceans swirl and cause worldwide havoc, a total range,
From near one pole to the other, from South to North,
Bush Fires cause incalculable damage to homes, once orth,
Now in ruins, animals die, bush, trees destroyed, people rearrange,
It’s become one of the major problems on this planet thenceforth.
In Australia, Knysna South Africa, Canada, other places, its wrath,
Sweeping across countryside, suburbs forcing snakes to writhe,
From near one pole to the other, from South to North,
Frightening storms lightening, dangerous by water or a porth,
People, animals, tall structures at risk, comfort for safety in exchange
From near one pole to the other, from South to North,
People across our globe we plead with you, help us go forth
To find a solution, for we will all perish if we don’t, we must arrange
From near one pole to the other, from South to North,
It’s become one of the major problems on this planet thenceforth.
Poetry Contest : A Major World Problem
Sponsored By: L Milton Hankins
Dated : 18/04/2021
He sits in a room which is spacious and quiet. He stares at the wall, contemplating his diet.
He thinks way back to ten years prior, at the weight he once was, now he’s three weights higher.
It all seemed so easy, to eat properly and train.
It all seemed so worth it, the titles, the reign.
At thirty five years of age, the young man he’s old.
The young man’s been warned of the danger fate holds.
But he knows no different, it’s all he does know.
The training, press conferences. The weigh in for the show.
He never was the most skilled, the most technically gifted.
The wins became seldom as the hopes and dreams drifted.
Thinking long ago when he last held a belt, It wasnt a bad run, with the cards he was dealt.
He had a good spell for a couple of years.
Which soon faded away with all the chanting and cheers.
He remembers the days with his wife at ringside.
His sons at school, telling their friends with pride.
Though He wished that he’d had a better defence, as the beatings he took were nothing short of immense.
A special kind of fighter, they would say. ‘A warrior’ they would shout.
It’s okay he got beaten so bad,
And in the tenth got knocked out!
Hi sits in a room which is spacious and quiet.
He stairs at the wall, contemplating his diet. He’s scared and anxious, he knows he can’t win.
He knows it’s all over once he’s hit on that chin.
He paces about, he shivers and cries. He believes no one cares if he lives or he dies.
But the truth is they do, they’ve kept him away.
He was in no fit state to have his own say.
The damage had been done, that’s what they said.
As the fight he had trained for was all in his head.
He’s now in good hands, he’s now safe and sound.
He’s now in a place with few people around.
So he sits in a room which is spacious and quiet, as he stares at a wall, contemplating his diet.
I tell you that love happened first,
In order
In that order— which is to be opened,
Flayed the heart that at first flinched
When the soul would blench at the sound of your voice
That once was love, turned destroyer,
You ask me if it was the chicken or the egg?
I can’t say, I know my heart quivering beating jelly pulpy thing
Would bet on the egg.
I know that heart then liquefies and pours itself out in a massive
torrential hemorrhage
Painting the pathway crimson
Congeals reconstitutes and reassembles into bricks,
That creates a wall that I place neatly back in my chest.