Best Familial Poems

Dad's youngest brother
is younger
than my brother:
Dad being the eldest
in his family,
my brother being
the eldest in mine.

Mother's sister
wed Dad's cousin.
Their offspring and I
are double cousins.

I crossed county lines
to choose a mate
totally unrelated.
 
Dream on.
Somewhere back there,
the name Pratt dangles
from both family trees....

Continue reading...

genes swapped
stirred by unbounded love
family is born

bound by filial bonds
maternal and paternal
relations emerge

love, caring, support
joy and sorrow shared alike
life's music composed

echoing through ages
increasing genetic pool
Malthus' theory

you, me, and Genghis
bound by familial ties
family tree thrives

culture, colors, race
babble, blather, and blubber
siblings world-over


~ 04 May 2016 ~...

Continue reading...

A fellow stranger's doubt will surely sense  
Judgmental indiscretion of defect.  
'Tween enemies pure hatred circumvents  
The moral obligation to respect.  
 
The various consistencies as friend,  
Distill from swollen hearts this lonely ache,  
With passion starts yet may...

Continue reading...

Dullness settles sharply, without warning;
The words are gone, as if they'd never been.
There is but acquiescent pain at the loss.
It is left now to wait
For the familial shadows to pass....

Continue reading...

A spider plant* with many offshoots --
The mother firmly holds onto her little girl's hand at the nursery.


*Chlorophytum comosum...

Continue reading...

From hero to villian
Within the same breath
Now choices have caught up
Sentencing your death

Creating in me, life
Yet shaming my existence
Still I have chosen
A life of forgiveness

Separating me
From what others had
Those little girls that knew
There was a king in their dad

Struggles with jealousy
Envy pushing my nerve
For not...

Continue reading...

Why does blood
Pull you apart? 
Instead of filling you up? 
        - one vein is comprised of multiple layers...

Continue reading...

Disgruntled, they come to me as bit-parts
ripped from black and white movies. 
Mad aunt Anastasia, who should have been a nun.
One of her hands will not touch her,
the other has been carried off
by wolfish priests.
The Holy Ghost has pickled her in a jar;
she floats now...

Continue reading...

It swirls about me   
this world
this chaos
of watching
from afar
those things so near.
I sit
a Guru of sorts
knowing…
not the answers..
but the quest...
the torment
of life’s
longings
searching
the present.
I am always
right here
have always been
right here
at the center
of a micro cosmic
universe
wavering with
winsome wings..
familial butterflies
rippling the sunset
knowing
I’m always right here.


John G....

Continue reading...

Who am I but another lost soul burning in hell
Once drowned in the blood of my dead heart
Ripped out without reason before doomsday
No one should have to die before their time
To be consumed by fire at any time of day 

Familial betrayal comes warm to...

Continue reading...

Disgruntled, they come to me as bit-parts
ripped from black and white movies.
Mad aunt Anastasia, who should have been a nun,
one of her hands would refrain from touching her,
the other has been long carried off
by wolfish priests.
The Holy Ghost has pickled her in a jar,
she now...

Continue reading...

The thought is a terror when alone and you feel weak.
Sometimes, the stakes are so high, for fear you dare not speak.
Neither bet your honest dollar it will not enter through that door; 
Its arrival will unravel everything, ending your lives if nothing more. 
It's...

Continue reading...

I often ponder about the perpetuous anathema in my household, because growing up, that abominable behavior was quite normalized.
I’ve always heard derogatory, disrespectful remarks or comments, God, they’re so standardized; my conception was that being unique deserved aberration.
Though, younger me questioned why I only heard...

Continue reading...

A definite air permeates
When in the walls of my room
Projected productivity is it?
Or rather the reflection of what those expect of me

Identity found... lost, through my grasp
Hard to dicier or fully know
Craving change, something swift
Yet nothing short of raw, with nature as my muse

Possibilities seem...

Continue reading...

I am all the people who came before me And I am all the people who will come after me

This is an ode to all of our ancestors Just because we don't all share the same blood Does not not mean that we are not...

Continue reading...