Best Reds Poems
I drive the night because of open road.
My retreads are sounding strong.
Hauling cars up from New Orleans
Where I'm not sure that I belonged.
Traded whiskey for a woman
At a bar in Abilene.
Then the pedal down up to Portland town
Helped along by methadrine.
There’s a lady there in Stumptown
She dances on the pole
Makes her pay in dollar bills
She's never ever home
Daylight fades and night descends
Men come, await their fate.
She sucks them dry and infects their soul,
Relights her lamp and waits…
She goes to church on Sunday.
Always comes in late.
She says a prayer, she sheds a tear,
puts food stamps in the plate.
Dropped my load down at the docks
there's a motel by the sea.
Homebase for my Peterbilt
That's parked out by the tree
Called her up, the kids are home.
I hear them laughining on the phone.
Grandma says she"s not around,
But she'll tell her I'm in town.
“Yea. tell her I'm in town again
And kiss the kids for me,
Gotta leave on Tuesday”.
Hung up and fell asleep.
The phone rang in the morning.
The call was short and sweet.
She had some things she had to do,
Didn’t think that we could meet.
Fueling up, the fog horns moan.
Red pills to feed the beast.
A woman left back in the fog.
A white line headed east.
Look at my life
Some say I've sinned.
My dreams were blown away
By the cruel ...
Highway Wind.
1.
Kathleen
Firehaired love of my life;
She's almost all Cab, with a dash of Shiraz spice.
A deep and complicated, earthy wife
A ruby sparkle in the looking glass
Long on my vision, soft and nice
The All-of-Her bouquet, I cannot pass.
2.
Susan
She may prefer to drink her Cabs,
But the red-maned lioness is pure Bourdeaux.
Her brightness fills a room, and quickly nabs
Away all weak indifference.
The complexity of her shines and glows;
The product of some special provenance.
These ladies make my life divine,
An perfect medly of song and wine.
They may well land on the "NO FLY" List,
For being such charming Terroirists.
For all of you, here is a little history:
Professional baseball got its start in Cincinnati.
The “Red Stockings” played in the Queen City.
That was in 1869; over a century ago.
Players were paid on the banks of the Ohio.
With gloves made of leather, and bats made of wood,
this year’s team is also pretty good.
“Great American Ballpark” is where they play ball.
The Central Division winners just might take it all.
portals of red hives
teeming with honey that thrives
sweeter than honey
reds
in hearts
beats in darts
feelings on hold
never crease or fold
beating untold
young or old
your heart
speaks
It is your birthday, you said
Me, pretending I forgot it
You wept when I said, "When is it?"
Your gift I swayed when you laid
I didn't mean to hurt you
When I asked what day that was
How special it is to you
Knowing I remember everything about you
You were leaving when I stayed in bed
I stood up and hugged you
You hugged me too
Kissed me and said, " You are the only one
who turns my heart red!"
The morning night thunder-shone
The bright stars fractured me
You in sudden surprise
Whirling in your misgivings
Baby gulls sit on our heads
And we weep forgetting to be merry
Broad is the scope of infinity
Meet me in brackish waters
Death to focus
Death to style
Come worming up to the hole
Peacetime summer reds
I can eat a clock and dream of orangutangs
Forgive these latches
Remove them
Remove them
Red Cardinals pair
singing the passion they share
hot up icy air.
3-March-2016
Contest: United colours: RED
Sponsored by: Silent One
The field stretched across the plains
like a sea of yellow sunrays
glistening off the peaks
of little hills of haystacks
dancing and floating across the fields
On a throne of wheat and wearing
a golden crown.
to honor the fertile ground
of reds and brown.
roses in full bloom
reds, yellows, pinks, whites, purples
dazzling display
Sedum flourished beneath the holly bound
pale green succulent formed mounds
atop thick stems and leaves groomed
aside the roses now out of bloom,
where chrysanthemums began to bud and fill
the earthen browning ground displays upon the hills.
September days inched in, sun out of reach
summer suddenly at its ending peek
and green became a hue of rosy pink delights
calling hummingbirds and butterflies from flight
where scented fragrances faded with the winds
and autumn turned the leaves to yellowed orange fringe
Wild finches whistled thru the cloudy days
taking seeded coneflower treats away
while squirrel chatter reveled fighting steals
knowing winter comes with chilly lack of appeal
and each day ends with the sedum turning crimson red
and creatures large and small hunker down within their beds.
Although I am a ***** white Queen
let me reassure you
I can be just as mean
or as green,
Mr. Clean,
as any fascist
conjured in your wildest
wettest dream.
I can kick my ruby RightWing heels
and hold my greenly skanky breath
as long as it takes, tis true,
until you eventually agree
to turn less boring white
and unenlightened blue
It's true,
I can spread my fascist net,
get in line with Straight White Men
with penile envy
of dark-skinned vets
you never could acknowledge seeing
in the singing shower
much less slurping
in your homophobic panic
nastiest place to hide
just yet.
Although a ***** male Queen
married to the blackest man
you've ever seen,
You may rest re-assured
I've clearly found it true
as red
white
and blushing blue:
Once a person
and a nation
has tried black,
There's a whole lotta happy folk
don't care to go back
to refight a civil war
against a white flight bully bore
Supremely self-chosen evangelists,
y'all just help me
deeply snore.
You think
and feel,
know
and spiel,
I'm rotten to my core
because, like your sissy sister
it's men this male adores
But, if men were good enough
for your sainted mother,
and hers too,
and my two,
let me introduce this thought
to you
It wouldn't really make you
all that blue
to admit just maybe
all that pleasure
could suit a special man just fine
too,
But, don't worry,
be happy,
I'm not the least bit hot
for white bread
RightWing you.
tree tops now falling
down as summer leaves
a cold wind drifting
sumac in blazing colors under autumn sun
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Dorothy can I borrow
Your Ruby Red shoes
I could use a vacation
From my state of blues
Don't care much where they take me
If you want truth or dare
Three steps over the rainbow
Or to Kansas somewhere
I feel those Ruby Reds
Are my only plan of escape
I hear that their magic
Can take me away
From this state of being
That I am stuck in
Oh by the way Dorothy
Do they come in size 10
And Dorothy I'll try not
To wear out the souls
As I make my way through
Places untold
So Dorothy what do you say
Can I borrow those shoes
As I need a vacation
From this state of blues