Best Vertebrates Poems
The Dune on the Rock
where fine grains of time
gradually slip
revealing footprints
of lost vertebrates:
an archaic
human being -
Neanderthal;
red deer, aurochs
elephants
and ibex…
crumbling sand
unveils
extinct
past
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Contest: Pick a Title Vol 12
Diminished Hexaverse
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title: Gibraltar Crumbling
19th December 2019
an emptiness and coolness just
in the midst of the chest, unease
my corgi terrier, black and white
watches me and stares with her dark black eyes
she paces back and forth to my bedroom and
to the sofa, back and forth looking at me
trying to herd me to my bedroom down the hall nothing new from this disease that I feel of
just a stiffened neck, vertebrates that ache
sharp electrical wires stinging - nothing new
but the emptiness and icy aching heart
with the feeling of dread and fatigue
no time to create something wondrous
a legacy — no famous name to be left behind
no children, no good works
my quiet husband my quiet emptiness
I am weary of this futile fight
my dreams gone into the clouds
Zebras are stripy I’m sure you can see,
Yaks chewing cud as slow as can be,
X-ray tetra in the aquarium are seen,
Warthogs with curly, white tusks that gleam,
Vertebrates aplenty, some invertebrates too,
Usually are seen at a visit to a zoo.
Tapirs with their long funny noses,
Slithering snakes in glass fronted enclosures,
Roaring tigers with camouflage stripe,
Quizzical otters eat eggs that they like,
Puma black prowls through the bush,
Orange orangutans needing a brush.
Never one to refuse a tasty dish
Macaroni penguins smell of fish,
Lions in the sunlight all day sleeping,
Komodo dragons quietly creeping,
Javan Rhinoceros with skin like armour,
Indian elephants size makes such drama,
Hippos with their mouths open wide,
Galapagos tortoise, oh what a prize!
Fennec fox with really long ears,
Endangered animals that people fear,
Dangerous animals taking a nap,
Caiman and crocodile waiting to snap,
Bold zoo keepers picking up poo,
All able to be seen at a trip to the zoo.
10/4/19
"A Better Person"
Long ago I learned it
Nobody on this Earth is
Perfect
That's for certain
I'm determined
To be a better person
As I continue workin'
Ready to handle any burden
Not yet affirmative
We're still not so sure of it
If elsewhere life stirs and exists
A solar system full of curses and gifts
All these strange occurences
In a world that can be merciless
Below and above all surfaces
People being wasteful and others conservative
Food sold with and without preservatives
The first to quit
Far too often people see no way out, instead of the alternative
Stop doing yourself disservices
And making foolish purchases
Focus on virtousness
Considering that nothing remains in a state of permanence
Do you know who Tyler Durden is?
Are you familiar with Copernicus?
Sometimes disasters could've been averted if
People came together instead of trying to worship myths
Anything against the church, king or queen got discouragement
A sudden current shift
During a storm, waves continued to turn and flip
Nearby a ship was about to swerve and tip
So many serpents
Others being impertinent
And then there's those that want to put you in the dirt quick
Yet another work shift
Involving vertebrates
At times, limbs in dire need of a tourniquet
Planes in mid flight, occasionally hit with turbulence
Violent crimes causing mass hysteria and disturbances
Ever occuring festivals and tournaments
Homes with or without trees and ornaments
The greedy take it all, while others get nothing
Even though they earned a bit
At least a third of it
Some of which is interpretative
All these true stories and even more myths
Shout out to a select few herbalists
And journalists
I haven't yet discovered what my purpose is
But, it's all good, I'm still looking with earnestness
Prosper
Appreciate what this globe has to offer
Goodbye, I'm now six feet under where the surface is
Now you know, if you haven't yet heard of it
By: Dalton Ogletree
These creatures begin life as tadpoles in a lake.
What a radical change in morphology they take!
They lose their tails, and grow rather long legs.
Age makes a big difference from fertilized eggs.
They usually come out with the vanishing of the sunlight.
Do you hear their croaking sounds at night?
These amphibian vertebrates are known as an “anuran”.
Frogs have existed on the earth longer than man.
Inspired by another member's poem
Its Hidden Messages in my Texts
worth Examining
you can see the Chosen from The Strangling
beatens an chains
all linked to a prophecy ordained
I've looked through documents for the Author of this Manuscript
Which is me the Key the King to a degree only the oppressors see who exists
science defying the recessive diamond genes to manifest a seed to triumph
We Athletes the Giants
with Might an Speed
Born Supreme a Diamond
still we shine through out all the famine
genocidal manaics
with prideful hatred attached
Forces of evil who masquerades as the Men In Black
with the Neuralizer with a Brain zapped
With a body frame detached to tell fables of raps
i disconnected from the Cable an a fatal impact
rewired my cells so it's able to react to the tornadoes they craft
another dispatch
a brother in the pavement with no pulse to graft
wonder now how savage insane we act
we goin mad is there a way to get back
being the Power Circle
but they mixed pink lemonade in at
generator operator destroyer
i made a general observation to be a detourer
be a general overstating his Order
so they can see his illuminated Aura
we can be Kings we dont got to be gangsters
Gangster is King with the Glory given from the Creator
thats why im letting this Red Pill Orbit
you can see through all our misfortunes through our history Courses of History Horror
we are Glorious
Victorious
I Am Morpheus
who went through a Metamorphosis
who Orbited a Solar Eclipse
an Burned the Moon so the Sun can be Lit
the One in the Matrix close to the Oracle
Zion
im a Lion
who knows the Architect who designed the prints
this supreme mathematics abstracted of the Creators Calculus of my birthday to be in this present state
so you see these prime birthdate numbers is ordinal
Im the Ultimate Warrior
Against Jake the Snake
I Put Snakeskin on my Mocassins
an make chains out of they Vertebrates
an made a Vest out the Lizard Scales
My face shine with the Melanin so now you know why my Pigment isn't Pale
Soul Summoned out the Book of the Dead to Lead Nations out this Wizardry Spell
Into the Body of Israel
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-921599710/beneath-the-sea
Through the journey, life arrives
Underwater – start their lives
Stable neither hot nor cold
Soft tiny eggs there to behold
Of such a time, lay vulnerable
For many eggs is tactical
Protection of the animal
Camouflaged with gravel
Frogs and toad, amphibian class
Eggs that float in jelly mass
From tadpole to a metamorph
The stages of which to transform
The brooding pouch of the seahorse
Protection from an outside force
Hatch of species, tiny fry
Plankton their to multiply
Yolk sac feed, young fish growing
Strengthened muscles for swimming
Insect eggs and prawn relish
Hunting groups for bigger fish
Gliding through in forward motion
Darker depths of the ocean
Water wonders plentiful
Such vertebrates are wonderful
Written by Geraldine Taylor ©
spin the lamp all the way down,
lay low the polio eradic skyline.
down to where beds exit through
lime hollow eyelids.
saint isotope on a pillowcase full
of bright neurons.
the mineral vertebrates standing
upright in the name of science shuffle
like ghost in florescent gowns.
a quick flutter of the eyelash and the
spirit returns to liquid.
microwave membranes lying on soft satin,
buzzing radon hewn pixels.
they float like tangerine slices in orange jellow.
strange apron grandmother for a god.
chernobol piety.... long robed orthodox priest
wandering through octane green forest nights.
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-921599710/due-season
Vertebrates with feathers and tails
Reptiles with their shiny scales
Birds of which that range in size
Returning cycles that comprise
Solid seal, protective shell
Danger near, seek to repel
Contained therein with varied roles
Porous eggs of tiny holes
Nest of twigs, eggs to hide
Incubate the birds inside
Predators across the land
Hiding place beneath the sand
Born to hunt, equipped with age
Acquired mate, there to engage
Age’s grand of which to reach
Return journey to their beach
Storks upon the solid sticks
Within the nest of feeding chicks
Frozen wasteland of no nest
Penguin pouches, eggs to rest
Giant fans attract a mate
Tail feathers, peacocks shake
Birds of tropics, colours bright
Such a ray of sheer delight
Written by Geraldine Taylor ©
*Inspired by Cheryl Hoffman’s “The Skin We’re In” — Go read it!
On a turkey it's called a wattle
on a moose, "the bell," (not “the bottle”)
Those batlike things?
(too small - see wings)
dewlaps*, odd appendages we coddle
We're prisoners of the skin we’re in
some have it thick, some have it real thin
It may seem quite brittle,
when splatted with spittle,
it sloughs right off, again and again
So gobble some buffalo wings
fluffle up your wattle and sing,
“Don’t be obtuse.
I’m not a moose!
I’m a turkey, you big ding-a-ling!"
(*A dewlap is a longitudinal flap of skin that hangs beneath the lower jaw or neck of many vertebrates. While the term is usually used in this specific context, it can also be used to include other structures occurring in the same body area with a similar aspect, such as those caused by a double chin or the submandibular vocal sac of a frog. Source: Wikipedia)
The mind reposed
in the muck
of the ocean floor,
waiting to be born.
The riddle of life
came out of the mud.
The ghosts
inhabit us all.
The origins,
the bloom of verdant fields,
the vertebrates:
They crawled;
they stood;
seeing in a clear pool
an image
they knew.
They drank the salt water,
lifted the cup,
knew joy in the sunrise,
found life was sweet
and death was
the turbulence
of the water.
Blue kangaroos, azure primates,
cobalt cats and dogs, bright navy
vertebrates for heaven's sake,
perception is a fine and fickle sense!
it's usually true to form, but when it fluctuates
you may wonder whether you are still awake!
If function is king, then there aren’t any Types,
but the living show us that’s simply not true.
The class tree is ordered according to forms
and not by the functions a critter can do.
So here’s a conundrum you might find odd:
a superclass known by the name Tetrapod.
Vertebrates these, the four-legged animals:
reptiles, amphibians, and also mammals.
Dinosaurs found here and therefore the birds;
The scope of this superclass: rather absurd.
A feature that all of these share in common:
Four pentadactyl limbs, from the top to the bottom.
Think humerus, radius/ulna, phalanges,
or femur, tibia/fibula, toesies.
All of these critters, extinct and alive
share a limb bone pattern of one, two, and five.
I know that you’re thinking I’m proving the point:
With all that evolving, we must Darwin anoint!
The fittest survive, “Change or Die!” what they say
So why does that one-two-five get in the way?
Are you telling me that to swim, run, or fly
that the one-two-five pattern is the best of all tries?
In bats, five fingers prominent, birds show just two,
But during development, all five are in view.
If you look at a horse or a pig, it’s a ruse!
But in the embryo, those bones will fuse.
No matter the adapting it takes to survive,
They always start out with the one, two, and five.
Three hundred sixty-five million years past:
that’s when the pentadactyl pattern was cast.
What in the world caused this weird isolation?
Such fixation defies Darwin’s explanation.
The limb is just one of the numerous features
that uniquely identify classes of creatures.
An a-functional body plan resisting change…
Even Gould veered from Darwin, finding this rather strange.
Worried Water Vertebrates
And the sun keeps on shining a bit warmer now in Mars.
But rain keeps away and fish in the cisterna are worried.
Is this the end of their world? Tiny fishes lives on what?
Planned cannibalism every two, three months, perhaps?
Small and translucent I see their quickening heart beats.
Open the cisterna’s lid so they can see the blue clear sky.
Since they may take me for the creator must show them
They are not forsaken and I cannot be blamed for this.
And the sun keeps on shining, a bit warmer now in Mars,
But Louis, the farmer, and I know this can lead to calamity.
Cisterna... a place to store rainwater (Portuguese)
Triassic, Cretaceous
Vertebrates of old
We, the winged lizards
As fossils have told
Membrane of skin
Legs to forth finger
Soaring on thermals
Gliding of linger
Genius of the sky
Us, winged creations
Master of the clouds
Its our airborne nation
Over green peaked mountains
Rifts and glens
Will the world witness
My ancestors again
Our latter species
Toothless and short tailed
But our incredible wings
Ensured that we sailed
Me the Pterosauros
Pterodactyl to you all
Extinction wiped us
But did we all fall
http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/nature4.php