Best Tux Poems
I do not fly but waddle far.
For fun I slide on my tummy.
And if I have my eye on a mate
I'll feed them fishes so yummy!
Singing a love song is common for me.
To attract a mate I'll croon.
And if I leave the colony sometime
I'll surely be back soon.
Under the water I really can't breathe.
But can hold my breath a short while.
I spend my time mostly at sea.
But when on shore I make humans smile.
You'll point at me and giggle out loud.
I know you think I'm cute!
But don't try to capture me I plead.
Just admire my black and white suit.
A little bit like you humans I am.
Sometimes I mate for life.
Yet other times I play the field.
Perhaps even cheat on my "wife"!
So here I go to dive and plunge
where the water is deep and cold.
Just some things you should know about me.
I'm amazing-if I may be so bold!
for Archaic Poet's animal personification contest
Penguins are hilarious, they dress in tux
Waddle so funny but shluff it off with a shrug
The sight is a hoot
In their slick B&W suit
If one's on my lawn I'll give him a hug
It was just this morning. That it was.
At the table there sat only three.
There was Tux, the foam Linux penguin.
The others were my oatmeal and me.
I never do tire of oatmeal.
But the penguin was growing old.
I stared at its unmoving face
As my oatmeal began to get cold.
The face on this penguin companion,
Which ten years on my table had been,
Speaks with remarkable eloquence
Despite its immovable grin.
I found my thoughts drifting to boyhood
To my grandmother’s green backyard
Where I gathered and ate fallen walnuts,
Eating insides, the shells to discard.
From that walnut tree, a rope swing hung
That could lift you to clouds in the sky.
From the world below, it made you free.
Like an eagle, it helped you to fly.
To sky I’d climb from wine grapes below.
The magic swing would descend and rise.
To its rocking reeling rhythm and rhyme,
Plans and dreams would emerge and arise.
As that swing left the orbit of earth
Making people the size of small fleas,
So, too, I would leave for strange lands afar
And sail away across distant seas.
One day, I would be a brave hero -
And defeat villains, nefarious,
And with help from my trusty sword, I’d be
Extricated from jams, precarious.
When I could, I’d refrain from violence,
And peacefully take Billy the Kid.
Then, I’d be off to the world’s other side
To the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid.
I’d go to London and Paris
And see artworks of beauty and grace
And resplendent castles of kings and queens
And one day marry a princess named Grace.
“Wait a second”, interrupted the penguin.
“You never did that or any such thing,
Before or after that conference
From whence me to this table you’d bring”.
This penguin had the nerve to tell me,
“It’s junk heap time for you and your sword”.
So, I tossed him in the recycling bin
Along with my flattened cardboard.
Military coif
high and tight
not a hare out of place
John G. Lawless
4/30/2020
Do they only get dressed
for those formal affairs
Are your words clothed in rags
when no one else seems to care
Awaiting an invitation,
do the hours seem long
Your verse patent leather
set to dance to a song
Are the verbs sharp as linen,
is your meaning like silk
Is delayed expectation
and the silence your ilk
Do your words hang in limbo
like that tux in the dark
In a closet unspoken
—where the verses take heart
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)