Best Diatribes Poems

It's a melodrama. Try to picture the drama queen
A bit actress lying on the floor in her final scene
Her lips trembling, tears running down her face
ruining her makeup in a gown of satin and lace

You won't win any Oscars, Honey. Not this time
Take lessons, hon....

Continue reading...

Barefoot on the paving slab chill, concrete
feet feel frostbite emanations in their callused souls;
rooftop mystique clamours silent slate triangles,
perched the stray cat observers, red-eyes smoking coals.
Down to the river's edge where swaying reeds
feed mongrel contemplations with moist whispered words;
rusty oil-slicked surfaces lick the muddy banks,
karma...

Continue reading...

A slow funeral dirge loops through my head as I bend the reeds
of wild alley weeds in my old neighborhood, pausing to listen
to the drunken diatribes hurled by the shell of a man, 3-houses
down…praying I won’t be seen. 

Newcomers don’t often visit, the same faces...

Continue reading...

I am sick of excuses to avoid responsibility
and I am, today, sick with excuses to avoid responsibility
with "I'm just a mortal human. I make mistakes.
I judge situations and relationships,
assess potential risks to care and nourishing choices
badly sometimes."

I do. And so do you.

At the same time,
I...

Continue reading...

The birds of pray are on their way, in every beak the Word

(of ptomaine tomes by gnarly gnomes) whose meaning is obscured;

they roost aloof on every roof, obscene but always herd,

to tell the tale of Jonah’s whale and other rhymes absurd -

with shifty eyes, they’re...

Continue reading...

18 Stoic Faces
- by Bob Atkinson

eighteen stoic faces
faced four who had come
to read the erudite refrains
of poets both dead and gone

readings were in earnest spoken
for respect for some who had
garnered from the establishment
accolades, awards, well sanctioned

yes, eighteen stoic faces
faced four who read so good
those meaningless...

Continue reading...

The old house stands still.
Rot has set in.
A flying termite caught in the webs of a dead spider, sway to the shrill of a ceiling fan.
All things sway.
Dreams rise and suffocate in the mouldering mortars 
Falling on the adjacent tiled roof. 
They scream, laugh, make love, declare...

Continue reading...

IN ALL HONESTY I AM DISHONEST

Many people own what they refer to as a “cash cow”
A farm animal who produces milk to drink and make cheese
Well I am like an aged farmer praying for his last field to plow
And all I have is a cow...

Continue reading...

ADELAIDE REQUIRED AID 

Adelaide adored me
Ingrid ignored me
Adelaide and I made quite an odd pair
Yet Ingrid had silver silken threads instead of hair

Looking up to a cloud laden sky I prayed to heaven for Ingrid’s heavenly pleasure
Looking up to a syrupy and sunny sky I...

Continue reading...

Cockroach Soliloquy 
By:Judge Burdon

The cockroaches left me a wake up message
Written with saliva and excrement 
it was placed conspicuously  in a garbage can 
where they knew that I'd find it 
while in search of my morning nourishment
behind the Burger King on 3rd 
The dumpsters...

Continue reading...

A Goddess

A Goddess, divine, a heavenly Angel, a fair Beauty,
a Polish Princess, - her fathers daughter, her nations psyche,
in force, sits astride her Trojan horse, poised
to unleash upon man ( this man ) all the warriors
in her arsenal – the backbone of her diatribes,
her vilifications,...

Continue reading...

I'm a speech punk; kind of a menace
Not sure if the word is permissible in these parts
But that's the word I need, life's a furnace
So flush that. Gosh, you leave me no choice
I'm trying to speak, hear my voice in the whisper 
Through the walls...

Continue reading...

Tired Muscles, Cortexually Speaking

Straining against the ice-cold rhetoric-
Spewing from a winter of discontent; alive
Only because statues never die, they just 
Spout specious diatribes from the halls of
Congress, under glaring tv lights; illuminating
Lascivious lip-smacking gargoyled journalists
Intent on destruction, in any way, at every
Opportunity, America....but I did...

Continue reading...

Accept lack of infinite knowledge
accept there is much to impart
accept my mortal existence
accept my falable heart
accept the limits of language
accept the curving of time
accept the eternal expanse
accept my downfall of virtue
accept the inconsistency of words
accept my purposeful intentions
accept my discourse with ego
accept my negative nature
accept...

Continue reading...

Who is in the room?
Who owns the room?

When the GreenWoke Tribe
evaluate their strategic platform
for conquering RedUnWoke DiaTribes
what politically scientific purpose
and/or psychotherapeutic intent
for healthy inclusive democracy

[and not merely more wealthy
StraightWhiteMale corporate kleptocracy]

may wake up and win/win thrive?

Not so stuck on playing win/lose
monopoly games
preferred by monotheistic
anthrosupremacists,
privileged competitions
for...

Continue reading...