Best Patrolled Poems

Bewitched again by autumn's laggard spell
Like alchemy, green leaves are turned to gold
Although the summer still has dreams to sell
I watch fall's silent sorcery unfold

Brisk morning breezes hint of coming cold
Forgotten are the yellow daffodils
The grass is brown where robins once patrolled
Who now, I'm sure,...

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Inside my heart I have unwritten codes
Those values I enforce by self demand
Unbreachable, my lines drawn in the sand
Their presence helps to navigate my load

With age my principles have not grown old
Though times may change, the heart's still in command
I'll walk a line to lend...

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I am a word, a simple scribble - 
ink arranged on empty page;
I'm voiced with passion from a preacher's 
pulpit, or the actor's stage.
        I'm sprayed in hate on subway walls 
      ...

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“Back in my day” his stories all would start
I’d  lean in close to listen though I knew ‘em all by heart
He was a living legend, one of Texas’ best
Not just another lawman with a tin star on his chest

He fought along “RIP” Ford &...

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even her name evoked colorful images
Ginger November, a student of mine
quiet girl with ebony hair
a blessing to teach till family troubles intervened

divorcing parents of a Catholic schoolgirl
Ginger tried to keep the burden hid
enduring much hardship
struggling to cope

mid-semester exams evoked fear
to avoid failure, students had to...

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School was a mile and a half
walk from home,
across roadways, busy streets
and railway lines and through
parklands patrolled
by swooping magpies in spring.
We thought nothing of it
when it was pouring with rain 
or hot as hell. Six year olds
walked a gauntlet of risk 
back then.

Memory can almost...

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Hurricane


By Edmund Siejka


There were warnings of a hurricane
People had been through this before
They knew what to do 
Why some of the houses on the water were worth over a million dollars
They would ride it out.

The hurricane came ashore and slowly marched inland
South of Merrick Road...

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As dark as night
You are nothing but agony
Misery ,separation, cries , death ,hate

Perpetrators once my 
Friends, neighbors, colleagues, companion
Transformed to haters.

GERMANY ,  EX YUGOSLAVIA ,RWANDA ,BURUNDI
You patrolled with negation
See ,see now they walk
Head bend ,shame on their faces
doubts in them , repentance they seek
We...

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Buck was a tough man
very fast with his gun
always just one step
ahead of the law

He rode from town to town
never staying all that long
because as soon as word got out
the young gunslingers would come

Now Buck was not a man
to go looking for trouble
but it seemed...

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It’s not just bricks and mortar
Nor a distant memory 
But the ground roots of our livelihood
And our future destiny. 

As this place prepares to close 
When the final bell will sound 
To mark the end of education  
 On these few acres of ground

So...

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It seems just like yesterday not even gravity would take me off the earth
But when you took me into your arms, you changed it all

Scenes keep locks on the sound of love
I feed on riddles of words
Silence have something to say
Seeking through the shapes and...

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I had a dog way back when
With white teeth and tail a wag
He slept so fine in steepled den
Crunched on a chicken, like a rag

With eyes of brown, and fur of black
Patrolled the farm, a canine cop
The silly cats he would attack
And barking noise should...

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A sugar cube that I once took
made the air around me look
as if I stood in painted air
Amazing colours everywhere

'Twas at a party in '69
We ate the sugar with some wine
And all at once things weren't the same
I think it was the wine to blame

And...

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Let me tell you a true story.
Hopefully to show God’s power and His glory.
Two army buddies, friends that went A.W.O.L.
Absent without leave a military crime, a foul.

Two young men scared in Saigon, not more than eighteen.
Came over together from Oakland meeting, both young and green.
Naïve...

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Li'l Angels, Child-aged old
Long time, lost out in the cold
Like clay were you shaped into a mold
Of What Not To Be, after you by Momma had been told
Now, for your safe return, We must be bold
Although, the rainbow's end lacks a pot of gold
On the...

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