Best Shift Poems

My Dad taught me to drive stick
On warm Sunday mornings while Chicago slept
Before the church people left and returned
On a freeway still under construction
Past yellow barricades and
Caution signs
Recklessly cautious
Without benefit of power steering
And power brakes
We flew past run down homes
And new skyscrapers
We owned the road
The...

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For years and years
I lived the curse of all women

A woman’s work is never done
That is, never finished
The more work I did the more work showed up
The To Do list was never ending
If I made a dent in it 
You couldn’t tell
 It was multiple...

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The lighting - it was over-bright
above the table where she lay,
her skin dead cold but lovely white.
The lighting -it was over-bright,
He loved work best alone at night.
With corpses he could have his way.
The lighting - it was over-bright
above the table where she lay.

Written June 19,...

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Summer's dead leaves spin down
                                       Autumn's red,...

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‘My biological clock
is upside down,
fifty years and more of night shift,
so, the experts tell us
will decay one’s memory over time.’

To remember the innocence of youth
from out of these eight decades of mine,
trawling each day within crystal memories
some days those of montage to piece together
others full...

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If this is going to work
It's time to change
How you shift

You'll be smooth as lubed
Changing gears
If you ease up on the pedal

Find your cadence 
Then roll with it




***...

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I'm all that I am
Without being all I'm not
Friendship fills the gaps...

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Night Shift Worker


At sunset is the beginning of our day
Darkness embraces our peevish spirit
Flashing neon signs bring us in esprit
We are mindful of making a living

Danger awaits us anytime
But this is where my feet are destined to go
Where the crime took place, I need to...

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Shift gears, shift gears, excite our spiritual peers, 
they’ve lived for years… observing our generations of tears, 
 
for Love’s sake from the limitations of egos’ innovations…
the outer self logic, the mechanic.. the mechanic, of cumbersome thought,

 processes the established enemy , escape… escape...

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Every night since you've gone
I sleep on both sides of the bed
as if to reenact
sleeping with you...

If I switch sides
quickly enough I feel the warmth
from my own body
as if you were beside me...

Back and forth wrapped around
my body pillow as if it were you
I hear...

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Poem for contest: Short Shift, prison,
 betrayal, dance, death, death of a friend, destiny,, food,

Short Shrift Betrayal! 

Governor's out to dine and dance
With important guests who count
Invitation requested to attend 
One five star restaurant uptown
Menu fair is set for seven courses
Savannah cigars and vintage wine
Will...

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PARADIGM SHIFT.

Here is my version of a paradigm shift,
Socratic questions if you get my drift!
Why did God make the Universe elliptical?
To make an Aussie football, not spherical!
Why did God make football? See here,
To make men miserable, my dears!
Why did God make beer?
To make men happy,...

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I used to complain about having to work at night on weekends.
Everyone was having fun but li'l ol' me.
Some years back I had an epiphany on the matter.
Suddenly, I had time to cash my check AND pay my bills!
Then, I might possibly catch a movie,...

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ghostly figures dance
diaphanous dresses swirl
in the pale moonlight


it’s the graveyard shift
on the eve of Halloween 
we’re in good spirits!

10/10/17

Senryu Contest
Sponsored by Laura Loo...

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Unfortunately, Regrettably, Sadly - This is for the Inspirer, my Mother

Long was my time of proudly witnessing her endless charms
ability to seed smiles and respect with Southern wiles aplenty.

Then, intrusion of quick insist, in shadowed shift, gave glimpse
of her facial expression failing her known impression...

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