Best Toll Poems

I SAW the death creep three hooves and a beat!
A pregnant silence above violins stressed
strings--||dancing frets ~~~~~~~
A gnome drunk-walk scattering blackbirds
and neon-lit billboards ;a humid Mother Earth
(with no protection)
vaginal-air of sleepy fatigued wooden scents
Post-rain meltdown exhaustion sleeps
in hungry-soil love.
But the gnome cries, "I've no reflection
to...

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Maverick(Vers libre)

Life for me was vain, trying to get gain
In Peterbilt truck, I’ve had the worst luck

Driving in deep snow, bad tempers do show
Praying the roads clear, very hard to steer

Having a tire low,  over heats will  blows
Many trips are lame, and bosses...

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Age’s toll

The soul screams – cries out in silence –
in age, without dreams – never comes a chance
for souls, it seems – to experience another dance
under moon beams – have life’s moment enhance

the hours of one’s day, or better one’s ways,
no matter how they pray,...

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Evil That Always Takes Its Toll

Remember where hot lightning bolts flash down,
Its sun-fire heat burning in a tragic strike!
There perished mother and her little tyke;
Tragedy there, where the angels cry and frown,
And sing their saddest songs upon the waves:
Doom and gloom a sad fruit to...

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Once pierced by Cupid's arrow,
love's the only thing you feel.
For Hope banishes all pain
to the fringes of real.

As euphoria floods in,
sparks spontaneously start.
And a warm sensation stirs;
in the cockles of your heart.

Forged upon desire's anvil;
fantasies burn hot as coal.
And tides of hope surge and ebb;
in...

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We have hurled to heaven
a polished golden disk
inscribed with symbols of our race.
And night and day we beam
a stream of radio waves to space.
We broadcast diffuse and scattered signals
from here to where(?).
We also listen long and hard
for whatever we may hear.
In our attempts to span...

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I will still be here waiting

Long after time is called

And every opportunity has been spurned

Because at this moment

I am so endlessly tired

Find myself craving sleep

And in need of a break

Some precious rest

Or merely a change

And if that doesn't come anytime soon

I am eventually going to...

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Should I thank lightning for its fire,
or praise the wind when it's blowing?
For without fire, we'd all expire,
and the wind keeps the air flowing.

Fire demolishes all with ease
and when winds wail, ships oft get tossed.
And nothing can ever appease
the grief felt for a loved one...

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Time’s Toll


Bargaining with fate
a “now” bartered for a “then”
plans made – debts incurred
a future becomes a past 
sliding through tight clenched fingers.


John G. Lawless
12/7/2015

submitted to – Time is of the essence – Tanka – Poetry Contest
sponsor – C. T....

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The church bell is tolled –
A child,  a spouse or no one 
is shedding a tear. 

7/20/14...

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Your piercing eyes warp my soul
These callous games seem coldly unjust
Time is up…now pay the toll

Your intense stare and polished stroll
Littering your path with futile dust
Your piercing eyes warp my soul

Your arduous antics temper my parole 
A petite portion of fleeting lust 
Time is up…now...

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When the bombs fell, the death toll rose ...
smell of burnt flesh tortured the nose
Body parts laying in the street,
dogs eating hands, cats eating feet
Nuclear winter, hope has froze

Empty church pew, rows upon rows ...
the doors of compassion are closed
Their technology god was asleep
when the...

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You are told there is no pandemic.
You are told it’s all a hoax.
You are told it’s a deep state conspiracy.
Three thousand deaths here, 
               three thousand deaths there,
pretty soon you’re talking...

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===============================
Be warned, who goes there at his helm!
This corner of Poseidon's realm
belongs to ME.

From shiny crest to briny floor,
horizons ledge to edge of shore, 
I OWN this sea!

Herein, a vessel named as thine
shall be reclaimed and hence be mine - 
as will it's BANK

But fear...

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*** ENDURING ***

(A Part Two about my recent illness, following “Lunacy Loo Flies.”

Fear
Stepped into the holes of my weakness
To impede my pace to recovery, 
Absorbing the basic radiant light —

My going forth walk had previously always carried
Since early childhood when chronic illness first struck, but
Good...

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