Best Test The Water Poems
Never test the water with BOTH your feet
To determine the temperature or if it's deep
One pinky at a time
For testing the brine
It's over my head, words I screamed I had to bleep
© Jack Ellison 2016
What Parents Should Say
Written by: D. Collins 5/6/16
And We Quote…………
“Go out and test the water, but swim the right way.”
“We relinquished rights on your eighteenth birthday.”
“We’re on vacation enjoying some of life.”
“We can’t get a signal or enough height.”
“Your dad is busy. He can’t come to the phone.”
“When you blow all your money don’t call home.”
“Join the Army and go see the world.”
“Wear a condom when you get with the girls.”
“We’re only weening you ‘cause all animals ween.”
“We’ll have to call you back, we’re on the putting green.”
“We gave you the tools, now its time to use them.”
"It’s called growing up to become young women and men.”
Moldy feet of clay
Wearing smelly moldy feet of clay,
as purity walks slow away,
the attraction of the pity curse,
a lady solves the verse,
but is she here to play?
Unsent bewitched beguiled I say,
a bird transfixed by serpent gaze,
struggles weakly in the haze,
something in her mind has clicked.
Heart beats fast restricts,
does logic have its say?
A bird in fight she comes about,
in thought the treasures of the doubt,
to test the water hey,
flushed of face she closer comes,
lost in the eyes, is he the one?
Muttering its ok,
surrender rights are done...
Don Johnson
I DON'T LOVE YOU (I JUST LIKE YOU)
You keep staring
From the corner of your eyes.
You look at me,
While I’m looking away.
When I look back,
You shudder and retreat.
Both of us know
What you are doing.
You drop hints about your love for me.
Come close, egg me into proposing you.
But you can’t make me fall in love.
‘Cause it’s clear that I don’t love you.
I just like you child-like smile,
You innocent gaze,
Your caught-in-the-act
And then embarrassed phase.
The movement of your hands,
Stealing sights a few,
Giving a side glance,
I just like you.
Your friends,
They know all about this.
They are helping you
Bridge the gap between us.
Trying to get us
Into talking,
Trying to develop
The love that they can’t.
I might try to test the water.
Go close, then hold myself back.
No you can’t make me fall in love.
‘Cause I know that I don’t love you.
I just like your black spects,
Your glad days,
Your showing off
And then shocked face.
The sound of your voice,
The deep red hue
On your swollen cheeks,
I just like you.
No! This is not possible.
Not letting my guard down.
I’m preoccupied with my goals.
Love is the last thing on my mind.
You could climb the stepping stones to my heart,
Only to find a deserted mountain peak.
No you can’t make me fall in love.
It’s sorted out that I don’t love you.
I just like your child-like smiles,
Your innocent gaze,
Your caught-in-the-act
And then embarrassed phase.
Your leather jacket,
Your brown hair too,
Your tied plait,
I just lov---- like you.
Now check out a more detailed version of this poem on my blog here:
http://www.shivammurarispoetry.blogspot.in/2015/06/i-dont-love-you-i-just-like-you.html
Also, find my other works and inside scoops, "BEHIND THE POEMS" and a lot more on my blog, just a click away.
http://www.shivammurarispoetry.blogspot.in/
See you there!
THE CHECKOUT LINE
I made the phone call
he's holdin got the work.
We gotta have the "ins" this time,
said he wouldn't front me dirt.
What we got between us
still ain't enough to score
Let's hit some jerk at an ATM
Or take out a liquor store
Warrants out for writin' bad checks.
Pawned everything we stole or had.
I'm tired of doing small time crime,
rolling whores and fags.
Haven't seen any gumball machines,
Just Dominos on the road.
Pull the piece from under the seat
I gotta feed this Jones
She turns to me grabs my hand
and she calmly says,
"Gotta feeling we're goin' down, goin' down We're on the road to ruin
can't find a place to turn around.
There's no need to test the water
when ya know you're gonna drown.
I gotta a feeling we're goin down.
Goin' down, goin' down".
We've shared a couple years together,
Still don't know your real name.
The only thing we have in common
is this disease and it's pain.
Dope makes magnetic friendships
Until the poles get turned around.
Look up ahead there's a Mini Mart.
We score then leave this town.
We only need enough,
to feed the monkey twice.
I'll take the clerk you hit the till.
Now listen to my advice.
Don't turn your back to the rear door.
Don't worry about the safe.
Lift and check under the drawer insert.
Grab the cash and we're outta the place!
She forces a smile and says to me.
"Gotta feeling we're goin' down, goin' down We're on the road to ruin
can't find a place to turn around.
There's no need to test the water
when ya know you're gonna drown.
I gotta a feeling we're goin' down".
I never saw the second guy
behind the office door.
Only heard the shots
And watched her drop
laying motionless on the floor..
I emptied my gatt
not one found home.
Used every hot rock in my clip.
Pulled the trigger on my 3x3
and only heard a click,
I knelt down put my hands in the air.
He knew I was his *****.
I called out to her,
there was no response.
Why did it go down like this?
It wasn't all a lost cause.
Someone had to pay the price.
Emily Maxwell traded this world
For a better life.
ZEBRA COMPLAINT
My mom gave me these stripes at birth:
In the veldt they‘ve proved their worth
For hidin’ from predators
Or National Geographic editors,
But in practice these stripes are a major
Eye-catcher not to mention privacy-destroyer.
Even the Budweiser Clydesdales can splash
In the sea without turning heads in their dash,
But if I test the water with a hoof,
Everyone stares vacuously and somewhat aloof,
Saying hey man check that way-out motion!
What’s that zebra doin’ in the ocean?
And all the sneered joke-verses in the Bahamas
About horses wearing pajamas
Supposed to be - but ain’t really - funny rhymes
When you’ve heard ‘em a thousand times.
Its simply racism - no other word for it all right.
That’s all it is if you look at it in black and white.
If I’m struttin’ with the Lipizzaner stallion types
They start to sneer at guys with black stripes
Making ‘em dizzy as they dance.
Or maybe if I care for a little prance,
Hangin’ with the Black Beauties and their shining backs
Just chillin’ the other side of the tracks
They don’t want “some guy with white stripes”
And they moan and whine their gripes.
They say we’re similar to the horse
But some of those guys are worse;
Maybe we’re related to these equine masses
But they’re less like horses - more like asses.
It's now time for us
to test the water;
see what else is out
there that has something
better to offer.
It is now time
for us to be
separated
but still best friends.
For us to
find how deep
each other's
love runs
in the
heart.
amen- i pray(ed to you for too) long
faces balanced - broken law
broken jaw
[teeny token] spoken out of
turn around - what is
should not be (lost)
found ------------------ crowned crest
the soul is : failed (test the water)
too deep. too much. don't -
[plunge] ------------ touch -
mind : sponge dripping / slipping . ; : . ,
. . , gripping . . .
. hard, the shard .
the scarred shared [can't
(scared)-----(beware) help] but stare
. somewhere .
/ you . are . there /
Life
I ask to dive deep
for what purpose would it serve
to go the breadth in the swallow end
I ask to be submerged
not to test the water with my toes
not to splash when it’s at my ankles
not to be content with it at my waist
or stay safe with it at my shoulders
but to be engulfed, caught up, and sweep away with joy
I ask to drown in life
You were such a good dream.
But then you became a reality.
The reality became comfortless.
So I did the best I could.
Because I never wanted to break your heart.
But now you have broken mine.
I miss the smiles that I could attract from you.
And what about those conversations we had.
Your holding my feelings against me,
It's an unexpected act of you.
I did what I could to satisfy our cravings,
Apologies for not being able to test the water
Without breaking your heart.
Feb, 2008
Never test the water with BOTH feet
To feel the temperature or if it's too deep
One foot at a time
For testing the brine
If it's over your head, bad words you'll bleep
A Rainy Walk
Me and Bertie's off for a walk,, he isn't very keen,
He's worried he may fall in a puddle where depths are quite unseen
But Mum will be very careful and test the water first.
Oh he loves his Mum so very much his heart is fit to burst.
But as she's only 5' naught, so she's got to take great care
Cos if a puddle swallows her up too, neither of them will be there.
Everyone told him to come out
His LTBGQ friends anyway
All six of them
For that is how many lived in his small town
in the Midwest
in the heart of Nebraska
The pressure was great,
and part of him yearned
To say something to his parents
To test the water,
To see if they would still love him
It was a quandary
But his heart kept saying no
His friends did not let up.
They hounded him for years.
Everything in his heart said no.
He did not feel ready
Until he was seventeen.
When he finally did
Thinking it would be a relief.
They loved him after all.
He spent the rest of the year
Sleeping on friends couches
Waiting for high school to end
So he could leave town
Never returning
Got to fix the car’s flat tire
the grass needs to be cut
All the gutters need to be cleaned
and fix the gate that won’t stay shut
Winterize the doors and windows
wash the grime from the car
Clean off the garage shelves
just to find where all the tools are
Pull the weeds out of the garden
test the water in the pool
Change out the furnace filters
make sure the condenser is running cool
Repair that leaky faucet
find out where the dog is getting out
Go across the road to the neighbors
to see what his digging is all about
Run down to the hardware store
buy tools for a project I’ll never start
Cut down that vine out back
before it tears the siding apart
The roof needs some new shingles
I have to watch some football with the friends
Nascar, basketball, fishing, and hunting
it seems that a husband’s work never ends
Count all them chores a husband does
adds up to be about one thousand and two
It’s no wonder I’m so blamed tuckered out
by the time the weekend is through
Into the love abyss she went
But this time with great trepidation on her part
As she had stood on the side-lines
For far too long
Too scared to test the water
As the fear of being burnt again was in the back of her mind
She would tread cautiously now
and not let her guard down quite so easily
She was so much more resilient now
Her heart and her soul were her biggest gifts... And she would bestow them to the right man when the time came..
As however long it took
She would wait for him...