Best Third Degree Poems
I do this each year, usually November
The box is heavier than I remember
I lift off the lid, inhale the odour
First it's the Yardley my Dad used to wear
A giant birthday card, a 21st treat
Hides the treasures I buried beneath
A removal of this, I'm suddenly there
Back to a time of no worries or cares
Silly old letters, words of love lost
Old theatre scripts, a small diamond cross
Cheesy song lyrics, wrote with intention
of giving. Your marriage my only prevention
I kept every one, to preserve memories
That many moons ago, you belonged to me
There's cinema tickets, ragged and spoiled
You gave your last Rolo so I kept the foil
A white envelope that smells of your house
A severe difference between then and now
And then comes the photo's I squirreled away
Why do I torture myself in this way?
Snapshots of people I forgot I knew
Of parties and whitey's and hullabaloo
Those LSD nights, third degree gurns
Burdenless shoulders, pink with sunburn
A dog-earred schoolbook covered in doodles
Traditional student living on noodles
Chases from police with weed in the car
Walking to the beach in shorts and a bra
Tokens and proof of infinate liberty
But for now, for another year, I put the lid back on me
‘babes you need UV protection’
from top to tail and midsection
‘I’m African don’t be daft’
quite insulted she laughed
a masterpiece of self deception
but the tan worshipper in Cape Town
decided her skin must get more brown
took a book to sun
but it was ’Shantaram’
now she got blisters and a burnt frown
the sequel is called ‘Mountain Shadow’
900 pages to become quite aglow
thought she reflected her lesson
from scripted obsession
and consumed part two in the snow
she became frosted in flakes and purblind
‘babes some advice if you don’t mind’
the book has dangerous thickness
and then there is altitude sickness
Mount Kilimanjaro can be unkind
now she reads reclined in the boudoir
fact fiction fantasy and mysterious lore
Hawaiian tropic neath pajamas on cutis
sun shades and bedsores on gluteus
and wonders what else reading has in store
should she try with fins snorkel and mask
but corals sting and sharks have a blast
a most unappealing notion
why not apply sun lotion
and make misconception a thing of the past
14th June 2020
a true story and part of the family legend
sunglasses protect deep green eyes
an Aer Lingus cap protects a fair, Irish nose
SPF 50, slathered generously, protects my skin
from the sun’s bright, harmful rays
my heart, protected by the strong bones of the chest wall,
layers of dermis, and by my swimsuit top
blisters with a third degree burn
The Lord command a little
Higher degree of conscious
In us
-------
To heed the word insistently
And Amen to the Cross
To service his need
What ever the cost
-----
To live for-ever
To receive everlasting life
Forbidding stench and strief
Ths is a gift from Jesus
He paid the price
To profess the word
------
Enter into a covenant
To bless a new land
With a new government
------
The land of a new government
The government of the Lord
The land for which We stand
This is the way is was ordained
From the start
GF
(This is a fictional poem)
When I syphoned some gas out of my brother's car, part of it went on my shirt.
He set me on fire with his lighter and it really hurt.
The gas on my shirt made me light up like a Christmas tree.
If you look up the word pain in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of me.
My brother is losing patience and he keeps getting meaner.
I have third degree burns all over myself, even on my wiener.
I have some advice that will save your ___.
Never steal any of my brother's gas.