Best Scuffed Poems

My shoes have traveled miles of roads
Their soles are worn quite thin
Struggling with this heavy load
I carry deep within
Beyond repair, no longer shine
Scuffed with many stains
It's mostly been an uphill climb
Some sunny days, some rain

A little big when they were new
With ample room to grow
This...

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In the middle ages
these roughed and scuffed decades
between newborn crocus snow-melt-nursed and
dried hydrangea blooms sepia-skinned and papery thin
I earned the right to wear sapphires
and burn my mademoiselle mistakes with wisdom-fires

it took me a while to grow into my autumn season
—the autumn side of September
hair once...

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I went to a poor man's house
There was an exquisite car in the driveway
I walked up to the grand entryway
Rang his doorbell
The chimes sounded like cathedral bells
He greeted me with a practiced smile
Welcomed me to sample his world
Together we walked across marble floors
Gazed out magnificent...

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Old Zack Adams sits a slouch’n so sloppy drunk on a bar-room stool,
Wear’n his cheap-threaded cowboy suit and a stained satin shirt.
All the while a peek’n and a leer’n at women like an old poor fool,
But think’n man tonight—Oh Boy, I’m really gonna hit the...

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I put on your shoes
Tried to walk a mile
Sadly they were way to tight
I felt an old nail digging into my soul
I tried loosening the laces
However the knots were way too tight
Pain coursed through my body with each step
I walked through a puddle
Water poured through...

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Two riding on a single
Man! How fast that bike will go
Down the hill around the curve
Blow wind blow

At the very bottom piled up
In a culvert drain
In great agony and pain
Totally distained

Crumpled metal, torn clothes
Bleeding and blood stains
Harsh words from parents
Tears as soap and water cleaned

All...

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Broken fruit stacked forward, with
their tender lip-soft skins 
scuffed among her unspoiled sisters.

Lonely is the unripe peach
hoping to be chosen,
turning her sun side out, beckoning, 
longing to be washed and tasted, and
not knowing of her immature bitterness.

They always reach back 
for the fresh loaf of...

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Reality has escaped me as I sit in this dark room
The space that you used to occupy so fully.
Cold, sterile walls stare back at me
Ticking clocks go unnoticed as my mind is swept
Away, like your short-lived life.

Eyes closed
I hear the sweet lilt of your voice
See...

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We played sports
on asphalt fields
drains and sewer lids
for bases
Billy’s house the right field line
Tommy’s porch
a short left field.

We diagramed
football plays
bottle caps, fractured marbles,
Mikey’s favorite button.
The ball was scuffed
bladder worn
sticking out where it was torn.

The jump rope slapped
sidewalk cracks
sneakers tapped the beat
“Double Dutch” amazingly
twin passing ropes
a...

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As I lie in this box all dirty and scuffed
I remember the time I was shiny and fluffed
Alone and forgotten I doubt that is true
For I was once savored in red white and blue

Although it may seem it was a long time ago
I once flew...

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Written: November 12, 2024, for — Glenn Hughes Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori, inspired by the song “Let America Be America Again”
                       ...

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Long dreams
Alternate seems

Short happiness
Emerges snappiness

Sweetly savory
Faith bravery

Glossily scuffed
Hardly chuffed

Heat cracked
Odds stacked 

Ignitable flame
Hope's aim

Pair required
Thoughts rewired

Both rediscovered
Love recovered
...

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She lost her brain long ago
Sanity vanished along with the ghost of time
Calloused bones reach from the ground
No sound 
Just shallow breath
That breathes
And snarls a nasty smoke that suffocates my lungs
Oh how it used to tease
But now bleeds uncertainty
And that's why I feel so free
A...

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The traffic light
delayed us both
Me driving my car
She driving her cart.

The traffic direction changed, rotated,
making black eyes spark annoyed 
as her walk signal failed to appear,
   shrunken mouth twisting crooked 
   ‘neath her frowned brow
   as roughly she retreated,...

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A dull-looking scuffed up ebony toolbox full of pure happiness,
Sat in the back of Charley’s old green Chevy pick-up truck,
Waiting for him to drink his three cups of coffee.
“Another adventure!” the wrench said to the clamps.

The tools knew that Charley would be using them today...

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