Best Pretense Poems
If you were not going to
Love me in the morning,
You should have crept away
Into the moonlight,
Faceless
You should have left
Before the daylight
Burst into the bedroom
With sparkling hope
You should not have stayed
Lingered
Loitered
Laughing in my kitchen
Drinking from my plastic mug
Acting as If
You were going to throw
Your painted mask
Into the fire
No
You should have
Faded away
Like an echo into a canyon
Like a name on the tip of a tongue
Like a dream almost recalled --
The only clue that you were here
An indentation in my sheets
I could have smoothed away
Instead of This
This pretense of love
Of normalcy,
Of old lovers on
An ordinary day,
When you won’t even
Look me in the eye --
If there is no hope
Of love
Of a you and me, an “us”
Then please just LEAVE
I fiercely prefer
The fleeting memory
Simple Pretense
Shut up!
My God. Can’t you say anything positive?
Can’t you say anything that will sweep this darkness away.
Away from the corneas of my soul?
I know where the light switch is. Do you?
I know where the dog has buried its bone. Do you?
I know what lurks past your knees.
Crazy gravitational forces will have the final word.
Burning breathless whispers at midnight
Will tell of the final spasm.
Of the final heartbreak,
Of the final flat tire,
And of the final kiss.
Here, take this smooth stone.
I found it in the turtle garden with the cacti.
And with the black droppings of reptilian pretense.
Go ahead.
Say something now.
Cat got your tongue?
Never mind.
It’s all been said before.
The mad earth continues to turn like a dumb dog
Chasing its tail before the melting mush is served.
Truth - Justice - Trust
Three players around a bridge table
move their pieces on the game board,
all the Squares are Red
from blood spilled by making the wrong move,
for believing the lies of a worthy opponent called Truth
eyes that lie - lies of a spy - all rolling the same die -
power struggle to control the outcome of the game
first over the wall and across the bridge wins.
Roll the dice if you dare take the chance of making the wrong move.
What is the risk if the rules of the game keep changing?
Justice cheats but Justice is blind; not to the strategy of opponents.
Truth lies and Trust can't be trusted to tell the truth.
Pretense and subterfuge
Three players around the bridge table. Who holds the winning piece?
Will Trust be the loser if he's caught in the middle?
If he believes Truth and Justice he should be called Gullible.
Blowing up the bridge table would put an end to Trust
an end to the game - of the world? Liberty does have a price.
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2/24/16 Pick a Theme Contest: Craig Cornish
Promiscuous passions pretense
Promiscuous passion puts on a pretense
as he pridefully tries to prove his physical prowess
Promiscuous passion presumptuously pursues prey
by projecting his powerful persona on the perfect person
Promiscuous passions asks would you dance with me please
as he pours profusely personal admiration along with the drink
Promiscuous passion persistently says you are so beautiful
but it's only a pretense to persuade her to provide permission
Promiscuous passion promises perpetual devotion proclaiming
permanence of passion as a possibility (but remember the pretense)
Promiscuous passions pretense provides positive proof so she falls for it
promptly providing privacy... so predictable.
Promiscuous passions pretense plan works perfectly mission complete so...
promiscuous passion promptly puts on his pants and parts ways permanently
Leaving the pitiful prey to ponder what happened and how to proceed with this perfectly predictable predicament.
John Derek Hamilton
April 09,2016
Why shouldn't beautiful truth be felt profoundly and seen clearly,
not as perceived in a mirror fogged up by imperfection and pretense?
What we fearfully hide from ourselves: is conspiuous pity!
We lie to embellish what is ugly and deceitful,
but the unpleasant feeling doesn't become evident
until we realize how untrue we have been to all!
So why create something that is rooted in lies,
when honesty can break the bond of hidden bitterness,
not to confound and deceive others with fake smiles?
Cleanse yourself of impurity, look for a guiding light
with anxious eyes and a rejoicing heart by loving godly;
and if more stars shine, why be afraid of a dark night?
Now the darkness has been lifted from your existence,
and hopes of finding joy never vanish when truth is upheld...
look into a mirrow not fogged up by imperfection and pretense!
I vividly recall the dream, of the moment, I first saw your face
Unsettled, quite smitten, my mind became an empty space
Words tripped over, then skipped out, along with my voice
Like a bashful school girl meeting her first crush, I lost my poise
The fine, white, sun baked sand, like sugar, glistened
Lost in thought, building sand castles, I listened
Soothing sounds from crashing waves, seduced me into sleep
As cool mists from crested waves hungrily licked my pretty bare feet
I turned, to watch the seagulls, and there you stood, in the distance, staring
In that moment, quite unafraid, I stared right back, admiring
With each step towards me, this silly heart begged wings to fly
Before long, we stood face to face, knowing steamy summer love had arrived
Abruptly, I averted my eyes, from alluring smile, your eyes, too intense
Steamy heat invaded this body, leaving no chance for pretense
Proper conduct at its best when under check
Returning to originality when freedom is let loose
Experienced to show inactivity while in action or
Traditionally doing while in the real sense not doing
Even the sun isn’t powerful enough to detect foul play
Not until a misstep sets the fake yard ablaze
So engulfed in the presence of the concerned to
Established a false sense of responsibility and honour.
IT DON’T PRETEND
It doesn’t on fun every day entices
It goes out of it way and no vices
It believes as it was on the credo nicea
It is not on the materials and frivolities
It wants to be always protected
Argument it hates to be protracted
Never does it want lazy and dead
Let the blood be bound and blessed
Don’t make me fade and deteriorate
I hate those that always frustrate
Let hear your diction and not romance
I AM LOVE don’t kill my fragrance.
White crosses
show a thousand loses
row upon row of wars destruction
each one a voice of reproach and accusation
felt in the tears of a families devastation
heard in each graves silence
a humankind offense
Man's pretense
For the contest "TROIS PAR HUIT A BRIDGE"
By Linda Rutherford
5/24/14
Good or evil in life are bound by rebirth,
Denounce karma and the riddles get complex,
Anoint the mind to tame Maya's virtuosity;
Or remain detached to its novel delights?
Confronted by soured hunger in false life's pleasure,
Aesthetic desire gagged with violent anger,
Permeate forlorn and forfeited frolic cravings,
Within destructive conscious degradation;
Free the intellect from all inert senses,
Meditating to one's ultimate nirvana:
She feels fake, a skilled adult impostor
constantly fostering a false decorum.
Her life stirs in seasons of autumn
but her grown-up has yet to blossom.
Marble-sided buildings sunk in the sand
Jumped 40 glassy stories on command.
Everyone thinks life is nothing and money’s grand.
Rolling chair hawkers spiel and cutely chide
Sunday suited daddies to pay for their brides.
So, a cavalcade of marmalade mommies ride,
(Fatted infants firmly holstered at each side),
Tossing constant comment diapers drenched with pride
To the beach where broken dreamers slept and died.
There's some urge in me that makes me want to dance. Dance the dizzying spin
of childhood again until I fall still, mimicking the lifeless on the grass and laugh
with the scent of dirt and air and life. No fear
of the unclean. Or the co-mingling scent of alcohol-laden
sweat or the lingering eyes of intoxicated men.
No music but the wind. This simple want is simple enough
to mend. So the un-doing must be my vice. But it's unwanted
and I'm thinking twice. What the heart wants is wild. Primal.
Behavior is not a spontaneous thing,
but a learned reaction. Like the fear of being seen
for too far gone and past the customary
stretch. I've been afraid. But nobody wins
without starting the race for the long-haul
even if it turns out to be a short spin. Nobody knows
and that's the thing
and the irony about what we know. If you want to taste the fruit
you might have to risk falling from the tree. It's the anecdote
of craving for the wild. And we all do.
So there's that cliche "passion for adventure".
I want to feed it what it craves and watch it spring up forbidden fruit
undeterred. Uncontrollable. Bloom into a raging obsession
that's dangerous. But it's a dangerous game,
and it's all about the novelty of a thing. That's how I know the game
is still wild. Right alongside our securities and self-inflicted
responsibilities that take front seat to the natural methods
we make to survive.
And there's suburban housewives,
and seven o'clock dinners
in the bigger houses for the biggest winners.
But we're never really cultured because culture's a lie.
We're just reprimanded too many times and the sameness
is weeded out through the television lines telling us stories
about the difference that coordinates the violence.
But people have to have their vices.
A way to let out the wild hoping for ways that appear tame,
if we give them a proper name just like our actions in the dark.
Or the things we want to do when nobody's watching,
and so we learn pretend games instead
until the feeling is dead.
Or expressed or repressed. And sometimes we joke about
the urges.
But it only gives the wild a different name.
The summer day is so hot
friends stay away.
I can picture them-
like me-
leaning into open refrigerators
and freezers
with frozen chicken,
hamburger,
Minute Maid.
We breathe the air
and fan the coolness
into ourselves.
We are not at all
thinking of wives or children
who try to sleep in the heat.
These moments are only for us,
the stolen coolness for us.
The appliance for food,
the cool air, accidental.
We stay apart
until the sun fades
and then with bottles of beer
begin our exaggerations
each one.
Pretense
I felt bad.
But not bad enough.
It's really all I ever had.
Waking up to reality is tough.
That was your choice.
I believed a lie.
The truth was right there.
You didn't even try.
Why am I asking myself why?
Why do I even care?
I shouldn't think twice.
Who were you to give me any advice?
You'd say anything now to repair your broken vow.
You'd lie again to keep the pretense.
I won't stand in your defense.
You played with my heart until it all fell apart.
Should I care that your empty promises were going nowhere?
I shouldn't think twice.
Who were you to give me any advice?
You'd say anything now to repair your broken vow.
You'd lie again to keep the pretense.
I won't stand in your defense.
Your pretense.
Your offence.
No defense.
I shouldn't think twice.
Who were you to give me any advice?
You'd say anything now to repair your broken vow.
You'd lie again to keep the pretense.
I won't stand in your defense.