Best Miami Poems
There was a Black Cat in Miami
There was a Black Cat in Miami
Whose owners were told he’s Siami
But he’s just a Black Cat
Nothing special about that
Disappointed those folks of Miami
Cruise ships appear over the horizon
As white
As the crest of tidal waves
Surging to harbor
No I said
To hell with cruise ships
To ride inside a machine
My wife and I
Prefer
To sit beside
The purr of ocean with opened books
Sun on our shoulders all day
A mom in a string bikini
Wrestling her morning pre-teen by his neck
With applied sunscreen
At low tide
I walk half a mile out to sea
On my knees
My wife watches me
A Royal Tern with a black tuft atop his head
Pesters a female until she is exhausted
Or that annoyed
She looks him in the eye
Then lifts her legs
And flies
As fast as her wings will carry her
Straight out to sea
And as far as I can see
She never turns around or looks back
But he pursues
Blind to her wake
He will follow
Over metal ships and the flesh of the horizon
Over the humpbacks of the spouting waves
He will follow her to where the sun and moon
Are born each day
He will follow
To that round shore of the tired spent and nests
Until she rests
And turns to him
Come my love come with me
Let us be one with the sea.
Miami and Mi
In Miami he sat outside a patio
on the floor against the wall
and felt the Miami breeze in December
and tried to remember
the times spent in another world
when the milieu was different
and each puff from his Cohiba
as he sipped a glass of wine
created a euphoric essence
of time alone with his thoughts
and better things to come
and now he lived in a foreign land
for the first time in his life
and he now knew strife
away from his time and space
he had no home or money
but his wife knew her time
in Miami
he puffed again and examined his ash
he still had a car to drive but no cash and
he always passed the hot colored houses
of pink, peach `and plum,
It's never cold or drab in Miami
and Jesus wears a guaybera
and no one can hear ya
because se habla español
in Miami
Miami- written in July, 2003
(c) Ralph Sergi
The ocean licks the shore
Like a puppy
Near high, pompous buildings
While in the far distance
Hurricanes are wrecking the coast
There are yet unawakened hurricanes
Why do people give them pretty human names?
Days here are full of sun
Glasses full of drinks
In the numerous bars
Where people forget their troubles
Which they’ve brought along with them
They are facts of life
My footprints are immediately wiped out in the wet sand
And the tail of this verse
Snatches with its beak a seagull
That screams far away
Distracted by its prey
I went to Miami to find the beach
The beach was sandy and warm
It tasted like rye whiskey
Smooth and hard to forget
I went to New York to find a vacant bench
But there were too many bums who’d made
Them their homes
I went to church to pay for my sins
And to search for meaning; but all I
Found were bad priests
I went to China to find communism
But the streets were too busy with
Mercedes’s to cross
I went to the fridge to get milk but
It had turned; so I read Chaucer and
drank tea from a saucer
Miami is the place to be.
Miami Nights
Calypso music plays;
Hips and arms sway to the beat,
Hearts melt in the heat.
Wake up to the 60's in Miami, northern folks praying for the sun
Ice-cold winds cutting, bundle up like it’s a blizzard snowbirds make fun
Nip of Cuban coffee to stay warm, sit around the fire to warm our hands
The frosty chill of a winter night, decide to run along the beach sands
Evening walks on lincoln road on south beach icy breeze blowing
Runny nose, watery eyes as the whipping wind flowing
Icy cold mornings, hot afternoons chill evening flows
Northern snowbirds travel to Miami to escape blast of snows
Miami an international city with a short winter season
In depth of holidays flip-flops, shorts, bikinis; sunscreen is the reason
A sweater and shorts complete a chilly night
Miami skyline on a winter night is breathless in its own right
International cuisine dinner on south beach while cool tropical evening
Jupiter and Venus meld like two canaries
Kissing in late February
In a black gap
Between mountainous sparkling beach hotels
As if
The planets have privacy in their own city alley
Sand in Miami
Warm as peach pie beneath our bare feet
A beach just for us
Bob and Kerri
What cosmic gale
Blew these names to our lunar sails?
The froth from ocean waves
Breaks
Like ghostly surfers of dull light
Riding the brink of non-existence
Swoosh and retreat
At the broken ankles of us
Silhouettes
Hobbling past prints in the mud
Sunny Isle Pier flinging her jeweled harpoon
To the starfish abyss
While we are gone
Our boys drive from Lansing to Denver
Forever-
More
They call from the highway and say they’ve discovered
Dark Side of the Moon
On the Plains in a blizzard of pebbles and stones
Try it, I say, while you watch The Wizard of Oz
Then you’ll understand the coming and going
Of our Universe
And all its tricks of sound and vision
Kerri
Pulls my face to her lips
Whispers, Kiss me
While we have this chance by the sea
Tomorrow
The two of us return home
To the zodiac space of our empty house.
fat monkey's with beady little eyes
wander back and forth along the kitchens edges
licking their lips and hungrily kneading their hands
while i tend the pots and kettle
wearing my best low rent apparel
and listening to only the finest of garage grunge
its miami gardens in springtime
and all the pretty people are strutting the boardwalk
looking for backwater bargains at cheap motels
she is here with me in her barley there bikini
fashionably perfect in all the politically correct ways
its perpetual summer in miami gardens
all the sour hearts on the phone making travel arrangements
the snowbunnys are out in force this year
can't step one foot to a western wind with treading on some ugly mug
but they are oh so friendly
don't you want to cuddle up with some furry little monster
its wintertime in miami gardens
she strips down to her birthday suit
and the monkeys start getting itchy in
their mohair leisure suits
its hard to get comfortable in your own skin
in the land of picture perfect bodies on the sand
so lets all sit down to eat
share a meal and a mile of road
maybe we can find enough in common to keep out the cold
thinking about miami gardens in spring
City of Vices
Beaches Daisy Dukes and Sunshine
Dirty Cops and Palm Trees
By Great Dae
we heard that sammy
had a mother called mammy
won grammy in miami
button and button
after we had gone hunting
who has the button
we started to search
in a place where he would perch
on bench made of birch
were with many fears
they even had bought some steers
after rounds of beers
money disappears
when their twilight nears
in hock up to ears
you should see long spears
they did use to kill a deer
poor at changing gears
A big man
Stands
Roasted pink on the ocean beach
Unleashing his gut over his bathing suit
Holding a can of Miller Lite
Surely a used car salesman in real life
Shows off
In front of a group of friends
Lifts his free hand like the Statute of Liberty
To a flock of hungry seagulls
That swoop to his pinched fingers
He laughs and laughs
“Those dumb birds! Look at me training them!"
Shouting so loud
That all the beach sunbathers look up
Aroused
But the witty birds catch on quickly
Settle back to pecking the sand.
Annoyed
He bends down and rips open a bag of chips
Returns to his gross pose
Whistles like a Robin (I don’t know why)
And the gulls rise again
Snatching one chip after the other
Squawking fighting
He can’t help himself
Amidst the maelstrom of wings
But feed them the whole bag.
He loves it!
But with his friends still cheering him on
His wife casually smiles
And snaps her own two fingers
For him
To please please sit down.
Passing through towns
Backdrops in blue
Lonely times
Engulf my thoughts
Welcoming back you.
Suns pierce so clear
through these brilliant days
Breeze like boys
Run dancing,
Through girls
Like trees that sway
I often wonder
What you're thinking
Do you share such times as these?
Do you stop
But for a moment
only to think about me?
There was a panther roar
On an icy Canadian floor
Off in the distance
Images filled with persistence
Somewhere south marlins swim and dolphins dance
Aquarium stage is where they get the chance
While heat experience Orlando’s indoors
Loving the magic galore
Once Miami was not a sporting town
Sunshine greeted northerners having a wintry frown
Hotels on the beach
Causeway drive in reach
Cruise ships leaving port
Caribbean mystery destination wearing touristy shorts
Architectural artistry is the first rest
A town called Key West
Waiting to impress
America’s southernmost point
Ghostly Cuban cigars aroma in some joints
Even if a passenger goes
Only to the author’s self-destruction Sloppy Joes
It is time well spent on shore
Reminder last century who was running the country’s store
Off to the saintly islands
Scenic views romantic and admiring
Vacationers started tiring
Wondering any of these lines were hiring
Historical tours
And good weather more
Create a nice paradise
Purchasing the all-inclusive price
Finally comes the Mexican Mayan ruins
Smiling intently “who on the bus we are going fooling”
By asking “what are you doing?”
Homeward bound
Back to the tropical town
Where the colors are flashy
Soothing attitudes that are nasty
Stating their case
In the Florida place
Where oranges were once in a bowl
Pleasant escape from bitterness that was cold
I brush back
Her wave of turquoise hair
She winces but doesn’t yet
Pull back
From the salt in her wounds
And the sand on her hips
From the laughing seagulls snatching
Last night’s scrap of words
Leftover
From the plates and lips
Of Sunny Isles Pier
Our winter was very dark and very long
So far away from here
Who am I to make such a presumption?
To be so bold with the sea?
It’s unlike me
To have the strength
To pocket a seashell found on the beach
To rise from the dark of my hotel balcony
Kneel at the foot of the ocean
As the sky lightens to emerald
A non-believer
Petitioning the universe for absolution
While the shadow
Of a forgotten beach umbrella cartwheels down the shore
The ocean’s tide falling back
To that crease of Earth
Where our love still gently sleeps
At the mouth of clam
Closing
Orange sky to green sea
Pearl moon
A lover’s gift
Spit out then swallowed
Hours before
Re-opened now
With the tender thought of re-consideration
Burst of flame
Sunrays
My wife worn out
From our first night of margaritas
The air soft as cloth tending to her burned skin
Still in bed
Up there
In our high-rise hotel
The tower cast in new sunlight
Standing straight up
Brushing itself off
A waterfall of cascading gold coins
Shutters and railings rattling and glinting
In the new hot wind.
Wake up my love
Wake up to our new day.
Come down to me
See what we thought we had lost.