Best Pawed Poems
"The Right Eye Removed"
intuition guides a feline mind
to feel vain glorious
in the poetry of dreams
stretching limits of awareness
velvet pawed
a burnt orange
bittersweet marmalade coat
delicious to kiss
the point between
the ears that listen for signs
mink stole he wears
himself striped around my neck
finding new ways
to purr through his dark night
into the mystery of
his opaque opalus opallios world
his left analytical
glistening topaz
prehistoric amber
shines like glass
black iris blooming
in a pool of honey
questioning ideas
that run through his
greyhound strides
the right eye removed
bone white phantom oculus
poached out by a thief
with a pad, pen and
surgically precise knife
drugged on strong catnip
the discarded damaged marble
thrown in a bin overnight
he works his way around
this bad romance
feels the colours of light
he is sensually sincere
licking necks and ears
and the other's eyes
twin forest jade stones
the foreign ponds
of something new
holding tight
this kamikaze pilot
flying across high rise cupboards
treasure boxes to plunder
tricky to navigate
he is immersed in a new life
the changing colours
of a small heart
with big dreams
romancing streams of
rainbow koi seen in his mind
he is a Japanese ninja warrior
a good luck token
protector of Moonlight
and ground zero
the bed…that he has claimed,
all his
and he is loved
perfection in
the damage of
the war zone delivered
to him at birth
he is free to wonder
and he wanders
this brave and distinguished hunter
preying with delight
he bows on all fours
he stops still
and in the reflection
that is left
I look at him
and I see
we are two
of one mind
searching
for the same
all along
am I her’s,
or is she mine
am I his
or is he mine
it no longer matters
old souls
we belong
in this time
(LadyLabyrinth / 2021)
Opallios. Greek.
“to see a change in colour”
Opalus. Latin.
“precious jewel”
Categories:
pawed, love,
Form:
Epic
(Why I'm Still Breathing)
When the cow was dry, she was compliant.
When she calved, she turned vicious
and no fence could hold her,
but she gave milk in abundance,
and Dad refused to sell her.
She chased Mother 'round and 'round the barn
until Mom panicked, climbed the corner logs,
and perched under the roof,
clinging like a cicada shell on a weed-pod.
Beasty pawed and bellowed until Dad came home.
"I could gain on her on the corners,"
Mother said, "because I could turn faster,
but she gained on me on the straightaway."
Plug-ugly tore through the fence,
into the garden, where Mom and I worked.
"Run, Cona Faye, run," my mother shouted.
How did she know? The cow passed Mother
and thundered straight for me. I ran.
At the fence, snorts filled my ears. Hot breath
steamed my back. I saw myself stomped,
pulverized into the dirt. I turned, screaming
at full volume, and flailed my arms
like a windmill in a strong wind.
That old red cow locked her front legs
and skidded like a freight train on full brake.
I seized the moment, and scaled that rail fence.
Categories:
pawed, animal, childhood, family, farm,
Form:
Narrative
The Little Dog ( Scotty )
I’m only a small female
Little legs you see
The other two are huge
Males big pawed and hairy
Great tongues lolling
But they protect me
They are nice to me
I’m only small
The human is a giant !
If I look straight ahead
I can only see the shins
And while the other two are off
Galloping and romping
I am trotting behind
Little legs you see
But the human
He waits for me
I think the human is male
He must be
As I feel so drawn to it
And its kind hands
And kind eyes
He must be male
I am female
I know these things
I love to go out walking
The human he takes us all
All three !
I have to skip over boulders
Which to them are just pebbles
And sometimes all of them
Have to wait for me patiently
Little legs with little paws you see
I love them all
Especially the human
And especially when he feeds me
Even more when he tickles my tummy
Do you know he built a little house for me
Just for me
I curl up on pillows at night
Nice warm and cozy
So because I love him
And even though I am rather small
I growl and bark
When he needs protecting
And I can see him smiling
So I know I am being a good girl
The human has a “ H U G E ” kennel
So big a dog could get lost in
And when he returns from being gone
He always lets us in
But never up those little floors
Which go to the place he uses for sleeping
Never mind
I am content
Like the other two
To curl on the soft fluffy bit of the floor
And wait dozing
Occasionally sniffing about
The place food is kept in
Till the time comes
For us all to go out walking
And then I can barely contain myself
In jumps and circles
While the other two are whimpering and whining
Time for them to go off running, snuffling and playing
While behind I follow
Steadily trotting
Little legs you see
But the human
He waits for me
Categories:
pawed, funny, petsdog, dog, love,
Form:
Free verse
Look out the hobyah's are on their way
I hope they don't see me
If I don't manage to hide in time
They'll eat me for their tea
A month ago they came to town
Looking for some food
And as they eat humans, I'm sure you'll agree
That's not very good
So if you see them coming
Run into your house
Hide under your table's
Be quiet as a mouse
They live under the hedgerows
And also under logs
Their not afraid of much you know
But their terrified of dogs
You see one time a big black dog
Bit off a hobyahs head
He pawed and bit another one
Until it to fell down dead
The mayor of our little town
Called a meeting today
He wants everyone who has a dog
To chase the hobyah's away
It turned out that the mayor was right
The man deserves a crown
Everyone who has a dog
Chased the hobyah's out of town
So our lives are now much better
And its a well known fact
The hobyah's are away for good
And there never coming back
Categories:
pawed, adventure, fantasy, pets,
Form:
Light Verse
I was there
On my way to Laflin when the 55th and Garfield bus slowed down.
He should have been passed out from excitement like other 10 year olds playing
football in vacant lots,basketball in streets, and baseball with wooden sticks.
Instead on his way to gas station
collar bone caught bullet like a bleeding brown mitt.
He never made it to first base safe, he never made it home.
I sat there in blue and black CTA seats
and I wished he was struck by a
be-be, paint ball, or tranquilizer gun
but no they simply snatched back cocked metal and released.
He lied there surrounded
face had grazed grass
and when his mother saw him she wished she could resist what purples saw.
cross-fire whiplash
punctured neck
with a certificate to prove his end.
She pawed at his white outline
pleading he would breath life, but when i didn't she wept.
I was restricted to step off bus and on to pavement,
so i had to let my eyes listen
to how blue lights and smudged tears didn't compliment the tragedy.
I mean I was stuck to scene because of the caution tape
and the ambulance
and the way his stretcher jumped as he was being taken to the morgue.
Pedestrians though it was over until they fled like that little boys mother when she
heard her sons blood had been scrambled on the boulevard.
Police mans knees blasted to chest as they chased for blocks ones who failed to
follow: THOU SHALL NOT KILL!
I kept riding past Halsted then on to Racine finally came to Laflin stepped off bus,
looked at the bullet whole in the street sign then asked
what is the purpose of you holding hand high and think u have the right to kill.
Rebecca Johnson
Categories:
pawed, life, loss, sorry, blue,
Form:
Free verse
The perils they continue
As the lightening claimed the sun
"I's gots ta watch tha leader
Un hope her don't decides ta run"
"Gabe youse gits tha boys un tow
Case all hell coulds breaks oot"
Said Samuel as he started for his mount
Rope in hand he crawled aboard his eyes upon the cow
Another danger passed they traveled on
The days were getting shorter as the season changed
The grass was beginning to pale
But the cattle still managed to get their fill
They had just crossed the Platt River
And the ground began to move
Grasshoppers by the millions
As far as they could see.
The ground was totally naked
Not a spear of grass was found
And this was where they planned to camp
It was to late to travel on
Cookie banged the pots and pans
Trying to cook bug free
While the cowboys tried to clear the land
Thus their bedrolls to put down"
The cattle stomped
And pawed the ground
They weren't to anxious
Tonight to bed down
Categories:
pawed, adventure
Form:
Verse
Violins plucking strings
of horsehair, satin ribbons
violet violate a dark
foresaken world
like a beautiful dream
romance unravels
the sweet pain
comes undone
then those wild horses
dance macabre neck-to-neck
racing all the way home
for want of a better country,
these beautiful creatures
limbs racing all lathered
opening wide
and unconquered
plunder new territory
in the red seeded seat
royally the hidden thing
beats like a machine
underneath the skin
a ripe juicy red apple
no cherry pip
feeds the mind of
marquis de john donne
and dorian's sybil vane
gone all wrong
Violins the shape
of a woman
the music inside
her intense jungle
prowls around
like an exotic
soft pawed purring
black leopard
something wicked
or wonderful
in the garden
this way it comes
the soft satin
that binds metaphoric
minds like wrists
the will to resist
comes undone
something wicked
or wonderful
in the garden
dappled in shadow
shining and hidden
like a solitairy secret
like a morning star
this way, it comes
Candide Diderot. ‘24
Categories:
pawed, muse, sensual,
Form:
Free verse
I first met her on a holiday at Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve.
Love strikes me like lightning when I saw her,
so powerful and intense it can’t be denied.
It turns me inside out,
and there was no going back from it.
Once the thunderbolt hits, my life irrevocably changed.
With a carved stem-thin figure,
And sparkly appearance.
Her pencil-thin eyebrows,
eased down gently to her velvety,
Eyelashes.
Her beauty is the celebrity's cute wind-swept
twisting through
the late evening's darkening heavens.
Her smile shines stunningly
like the sun rising over the skyline,
her luminous, heavenly-white teeth flashed
as she pawed at me with her flick star nails.
Her gorgeousness is the stars
that is now quivering into view
as their star shine ends its life journey
as a whim I am.
Her enticing, constellation-blue eyes
gazed at me
over her syrup-sweet lips,
She had a springy character
and a syrupy voice, which I idolized.
She is like a candle's flickering flame,
radiating a soft warm light into me.
Her hair was ebony-black
and it tumbled over her shoulders.
Her beauty shines from the inside out,
It flows like a journey down a long route.
Those sugar candy-sweet lips,
her well-designed personality,
all awestruck me.
Her eyes sparkle like a bright star in the sky,
seek out the good in me.
Her body ornately furnished with typically girlish curves,
Her voguish garments still kept enslaved an odor evocative
of lemony fresh and floral-fresh mint.
It loitered in the apartment long after she had gone.
Categories:
pawed, beautiful, beauty, chocolate, color,
Form:
ABC
A dog and a goose
For some unknown reason,
Fell hopelessly in love
Last Spring season.
He serenaded her
With his barking voice,
She wobbled at the wings
With his barking choice.
Next he started plucking
His country guitar,
He pawed out a tune,
She fell in love so far.
Then they sailed on
A river boat cruise,
He howled at the moon,
Then sung her the blues.
Now both have returned
To their rustic farm,
Goose still swooning
At his doggy charm.
They moved in together
In a haystack barn,
He tends to sheep
While she knits their yarn.
Categories:
pawed, animal, dog, children, funny,
Form:
Rhyme
Once upon a time, in a place not so far away lived a cat named Reflection. To most
people Reflection wasn't much to look at. He had dirty black and white fur with patches of grease stains from rubbing up against a stack of old, discarded tires, which was where he humbly called " Home." He had a slender build, which was caused
from a lack of food and adequate water. He didn't complain though and was grateful
for what he did have. Reflection often laid and thought back about when he was just
a kitten. He remembered how cold he was, laying in a pile of old papers inside a broken
down old shack. His mom tried her best to keep him and his brothers and sisters warm
but she too was very skinny and it was hard for her to even keep warm. He
remembered she would go out in search of any food, sometimes looking in these big
silver containers, but was often frightened away by humans, being forced to return
to us empty pawed. It was very frightening. Before long my brothers and sisters, as well as my mom went to sleep and for some reason never woke up. I meowed loudly, as it made me very sad. My whole family was gone, and I was all alone. As weak and dirty as I was, I knew I had to be brave and venture out in this frightening world to try and find food and water. I didn't know which way to go. I smelled food, but when I'd get close, a person would yell at me, sometimes throwing a rock, or swinging a broom at me, telling me to go away. These humans would call me all sorts of names, like dirty
stray. I never understood why. Do you think it was because I was born in a garbage pile? My mom said she never meant to have us there, but the human in the house she
was living in said she was tired of her and put her in the car, driving out to where there were no houses, stopping the car, then opening the door, tossed her out and sped away. ( story will continue in part two).
Categories:
pawed, animal, cat, courage,
Form:
Dank club
Beasts' hub
Sleazy
Queasy
False smiles
Damp tiles
Lights dimmed
Eight-limbed
Client?
Pliant.
Tawdry
Bawdry
Creased notes
Fiend gloats
Cash gripped
Head dipped
Lewd song
Will strong
Gyrates
Primates!
All stare
Rent bare
Whistles
Bristles
Tunes cease
No peace
Rump pawed
Applaud
Defile
Fight bile
Soul stabbed
Clothes grabbed
Backstage
Does rage
Crushed dream
Tears stream
-----------------
* "Peppermint Panda" is a riff on a London-based 'Gentlemen's club'.
3 November 2017
Categories:
pawed, abuse, corruption, dance, depression,
Form:
Footle
Words hold the meaning that we assign them
Ever since the fall of the tower .....
Babylon
Ancient land of mysteries solved
and shared
Where collective mind
cast away the shadow of doubt.
Creative thought
held siege by the Jealous Gods of war
and retribution
Zeus
Appolo
Yeshua
A hundred times, babylon fell
to the Kassites, the Assyrians,
She fell
and was re-built by Nebuchadnezzar
The hanging gardens, of Eden
her fruit of art and music
flowed through deserts
with the sweet wine of Bacchus
intoxicating all in her pleasure.
In the aftermath of the great feast
they awoke to find
The Persian army stationed amidst them
having walked through the river
and under the walls.
Order reform, separation.
corruption deterioration
Dust to dust.
till
Alexander the Great
wooed her alive again..
Babylon
dancing through gardens, libraries,
markets, travel and trade
musicians, poets and playwrights
came again to sing praises of her beauty.
With his death
she fell
pawed apart by the feuding decay of his bureaucrats.
Babylon, death and rebirth..
Now she lies beneath the sands,
beneath the waters of the Euphrates
A camel ride south of Bagdad
where the tanks and shells of many lands
shake the ancient tower down.
Hammurabi’s code still stands
shattered into a million languages.
Right is right
and Law is Law.
Categories:
pawed, history, introspection, life, loss,
Form:
Free verse
Shady-cat broke my Christmas tree one year,
overwhelmed by the flashing colored lights.
He attacked my tree, showing little fear,
scratching tinsel, taking nibbles and bites.
He could smell the fragrant needles of pine,
so he pawed decorations off each branch.
And exposing portions of the tree line,
he jumped in, creating an avalanche.
When the tree came down, he was fast to flee,
I believe he felt the tree was alive.
And he didn't like it at all, you see,
making sure not a single bell survived.
While he lives, I won't have a Christmas tree,
for my Shady cat means much more to me.
(Sonnet)
12/30/2018
Categories:
pawed, 10th grade, animal, beautiful,
Form:
Sonnet
To wrap Christmas gifts
Is not so easy to do
When the dog is near
As soon it is wrapped
It is pawed openedhe
She is told to stop
Barking is heard loudly
She does this to open gifts
The more gifts wrapped-
She will paw open
Whether it is her's or not
The dog does this every year
Categories:
pawed, christmas, dog,
Form:
Sonnet
...He flipped through the paper he’d bee given,
And saw the name ‘Ms. Karen Mallory,’
his mind reeled again, incredulous,
that was the girl he had saved by the sea!
Soon enough he was dragged into a court
and Ms. Mallory did loudly attest
that without consent he had kissed her,
and pawed like a pervert at her breasts!
His lawyer counter,”Consent can’t be given
when a person is hurt and unconscious,”
that nothing he did be called sexual,
and that a good soul could do nothing less.
Mallory’s activist lawyer shot back,
“Maybe she would have preferred a death
to knowing that she was violated,
forced to breath in a molestor’s breath.”
She prattled about body sanctity,
how even frantic times did no excuse men
from shamelessly groping defenseless girls
who were not able to give their consent.
Dylan rolled his eyes so many times
that he though they’d fall out of his head,
he’d known Feminazis could be extreme
but this pair was functionally brain-dead!
He expected most folks would see the truth
and recognize that he’d done a good deed,
nut one day a friend sent him a link
and told Dylan it was something to read.
He gaped as he read a professor’s rant,
filled with reasoning utterly absurd,
claiming that death did not justify ‘groping,’
never had he seen such nonsense words.
Then the many ‘minds’ on the internet
all chimed in with their digital voice,
half said that he was a would-be rapist
that unconscious girls could not avoid!
Then the media latched onto it,
made it their outrage-scandal of the week,
with people declaring ‘unconscious consent’
as a dark too of ‘The Patriarchy.’
And of course his boss feared the attention
so Dylan was quickly drummed out of his job,
for trying to step up and do the right thing
of a living he’d wrongly been robbed.
Inside the court they pointed to wild nights
to try to smear him with misogyny
regardless of the fact that his night life
had nothing to do with events on the beach!
In the end, at least, the jury chose right
and saw his actions for just what they were,
still the media called it travesty,
an ‘act of oppression’ against her.
As he walked out a reporter pressed close,
said,”Can you tell me what you learned inside?”
“Yes, next time you see a feminazi drown,
you’d be better off just letting her die.”
Categories:
pawed, abuse, anger, beach, dark,
Form:
Narrative