Your hands would bleed from endless days,
Scrubbing floors to hide the stains.
Three kids hungry, three kids cold —
You broke yourself to keep us whole.
The cupboards echoed, barely fed,
But somehow we still had a bed.
He drank the money, smashed the walls,
Turned our nights to drunken brawls.
I heard you cry, I heard him yell,
I lived with you inside that hell.
You stood between his fists and me —
A shield I never thought I’d see.
No medals hang, no one applauds,
For nights you faced down all his flaws.
You took the blows so we’d survive,
The quiet war that saved our lives.
We’re grown now, Mum — and we are good,
Just like you prayed we always would.
Your hands still shake from what they’ve known —
But Mum, you never fought alone.
The Black Box
They came to the house
for the wrong reason.
In the end…
They didn’t care,
any address would do,
as long as the reports were made,
and the numbers taken down
before the beginning of the next shift.
They came,
and they tested
and then they required adherence to the law.
What law?
The one law they painted into place for us…
from our lost imaginings,
and faith spent wrongly.
Together, trapped in the moment,
a single instance in time
that refused to pass to the next.
Nice words…
are echoed,
as if sung loudly in a cave,
dark with shadow,
and then immediately swallowed up…
in silence.
Fights, lessons in public places.
Brawls and beatings to show control,
where there is none…
and never will be.
Scuffs at first,
then real marks are ground onto
and then into the surface.
Marred deeply…
Becoming part of solid stone,
which will show
again with each days passing,
into forever.
“Ask yourself..., Who are the speaking about?”
I’m racing round the NASCAR scene,
With bugs and grit upon my gleam.
The rubber flies, the dust goes wild,
Screen’s smeared, rip it off, I cried.
Tear it Off, Rip it Off!
Shatter My Veil,
to Crystal Clear, Please!
Got no time to wipe, stop or weep,
My tear-offs are stacked ten deep!
Snatch and rip my world to clear,
Let's end the pit-stop clutch gear.
I weaved through fumes and bumper brawls,
Blasted like bullets off the walls.
My screen is chipped by flying rocks.
Ripp'n the socks off track-worn crocks.
Tear it Off, Rip it Off!
Shatter My Veil
to Crystal Clear, Please!
I'd love to see my tear-off fly.
My flimsy film sent screaming high.
Maybe I'll see Vegas, before I die.
Take me to where I'd rather lie.
I’d trade this helmet, car, and game,
For brighter lights and louder fame.
Ditch the garlands, trade the shows,
If this screaming screen just goes!
Tear it Off, Rip it Off!
Shatter My Veil
to Crystal Clear, Please!
Pug-nosed pugnacious Polly loved to fight
She started brawls every Saturday night
Snapping, snarling, punching, sneak pinching too
I don’t want to go to bars with her. Do you?
A broken heart
Shattered dreams
Leads to a life full of pain and misery
A lost soul
Forever forgotten
Drifting Away
Spun like cotton
Experiences learned
New process begins
As the world turns
The hot sun
The cool moon
Rise and fall
Leaving afternoon burns with night brawls
Knowing the trauma from it all
Feeling the emotions of past bad memories
Drifting quickly through my eyes
Glycerin heavily
Forms an ocean cry
When will the pain pass on by?
Until the orange blossom
Rises again with a blue sky
Lies sprang from your fountains like a stream.
I saw them flowing through every ear.
Like the midday sun's bright rainbow beam
I saw it lighting each nook and sphere
You're joyous. Your face shone like a moon.
I knew that you knew too the brawls fought.
Times too taught you a lesson so soon.
In webs of muteness, your tong got caught.
You struggled to speak even the truth.
Your tongue failed even to feel your food.
Thus, in lies, having wasted your youth
Could you say life has done you no good?
When life in the city becomes too much to bear
When I am overwhelmed by a sense
of hopelessness and unrelenting stress—
The cacophony of city streets,
A mish mash of jarring sounds
cars whizzing by, horns blaring,
Ambulance wails in a distance
Buses moan and screech
Clickety-Clack of the overhead
“L” trains rumbling by
The din, the clamor, the ruckus,
the racket, rattle and roar
The street musicians
Dogs barking furiously down the lane
The chatter at the roadside vendors,
Oh, the babel of voices, the drunken brawls,
I retreat into the arms of nature.
Away from this chaotic world,
Alone, just by myself,
in the serene solitude of seclusion,
Wrapped up in a swath of silence
in this solemn dusk
I am at peace with myself
Among towering trees and splendorous falls
With its gushing streams and magnificent mountains,
The verdant fields and emerald green valleys
with rivers meandering down through
rolling hills and lush plains…
Soothe my insatiable craving for quietude.
none of the McCormicks knew which insect had made the crying sounds
odd since usually every McCormick is an expert about thirty-nine things
I know because my mother and her sixty-two sisters are all McCormicks
Some of the McCormicks do not bother to marry, cannot find ample fodder.
Is this ample enough? Cousin Lewt asked, dragging a McCormick home.
Isn’t he your cousin? Asked sixteen McCormicks. I sat quietly for once.
Wanting to see another beat down or put down at a McCormick reunion.
Daddy, who was a Stone gave me a wink; he was feeling smug too.
The Stone reunion is famous for brawls, fights, and police reports.
PS spoiler alert, the crying sounds were noises from a long-horned beetle.
Played on the accordion located between her front and back legs.
Even I with my magnificent imagination, cannot make this crap up.
Cat style slow blink,
relaxed into infatuated reflexes;
‘Lick between the lines…’
a message conveyed;
The purr is burning the air
dripping between each crevice;
Prowling into foreplay
cat style is all knowing;
With a slow blink cat style
hunger thickens a dry throat;
Hissing into the harshest moan
this fight is full of unbridled passion;
Sand paper is so coarse yet tender;
Exfoliating strokes give birth
to a new bond overflowing with peace;
Cat style is an all knowing purr;
Rumbling louder we grow closer
to the most intimate of brawls;
Tasting, biting and clawing the walls;
Taking in side to side
reading those lips;
‘Lick and fill up my empty space..’
Dive intoxicated head first into
a cat style slow blink.
Toils and brawls hit hard herebelow
Till poetry and its bliss are forgotten;
Till the joys of rhyme totter battered
By thrusts of a world foul and rotten.
But when the last of blows
The versifier's nose all wet
Has left in crimson sutures,
This quill shall scribble yet.
Trapped under the debris
Of fallen crumbled mass,
Where once stood grand structures
Upon my mighty lands.
I built painstakingly
Over time, patiently,
With monumental hopes
And glamorous daydreams,
To see them get shattered
By those violent brawls,
Cursed on my sacred grounds,
Secretive and sudden.
Engulfed in solid blocks,
Covered in scary wounds,
At last, my fears turn true,
The pain, dread, and despair.
As I am feeling weak,
The fatigue creeps inside
And shuts down my conscience,
Unleashing that monster,
One who perceives no sense,
But held tremendous strength
That pushes away those chunks
And pull me through this plight.
Rising from this ordeal
And welcomed by chaos
That spread across my lands,
Fully masked in shambles,
Like ancient ruined sites,
Lay my efforts worthless
And unable to mend.
So I have to rebuild,
Everything from the start,
Relying on my strength,
Building sturdy empires,
Resilient to all blows.
Of what essence it is
To fiercely assert a formalised choice
In the name of political honour
That produces terror?
I fight for my party to win
Yet us our country is between
The leaders and the led
Any need to fight?
Because her we have to as one ameliorate.
As simple as peaceful to vote
Just speak to the ballot box
Instead I've always caused things that box
My task of getting my boss there
At the height of prestige
In formulation of gangs of my fellow young dudes
To contend by physical exertion.
So funny!
It's now I realise
That the sons of those influencers are always absent
In our brawls and thugs
And in our forces;
For their fathers’ failing fates;
Like they have none,
Or ain't they our peers?
But they all do.
I see!
Ergo, I'll no more to vote fight
In rote we'll vote.
Elections are opinions, not dominions.
Life Weary, So Hungry I Could Eat A Dry Bone
Trekking through fire breathing desert, yes all alone
Mouth full of sand, shattered heart so heavy too
Life weary, so hungry I could eat a dry bone
Looking back at this life, where were the breaks my due
I recall all hellacious bad times that came
The motorcycle wreck when I was but fifteen!
All those shots that should have given me greater fame
Those barroom brawls, man that one dude was so damn mean
I laughed, I ran full amok, a bit crazy
I cried like a baby when they shot down Dean
I raised hell doing farmwork but was not lazy
School was a blast but math work I wasnt too keen.
Trekking through fire breathing desert, yes all alone.
Life weary, so hungry I could eat a dry bone one.
Mouth full of sand, shattered heart so heavy too
Looking back at this life, where were the breaks my due.
Robert J. Lindley, 6-08-2023
16 VERSE SONNET , WITH 12 SYLLABLES
EACH VERSE
Note_
My life in my youth was anything but dull.
I worked as a club bouncer, farmhand, factory working manager 4 times, carpenter, roofer, bricklayer, metal fabricator, even worked at a car repair once.
For days now, nay, weeks cocooned in a cave,
Away from hands that could drag each to grave,
One of them, Seth, all the time craving sex;
He'd had brawls with Dickson this did much vex:
Dickson's giant fear: it could expose the gang;
On fate's set day, on their door hear a bang
Either from cops' hard knuckles or their gunshot;
And from then things would always be red hot!
Dickson might have made a cited prophet,
But for last-minute long look at poor profit...
Seth was to nail their group through his girlfriend,
Her last careless visit, that was the end!
A swift attack that tested Gang's mettle:
Nine in all, in minutes, Black kettle!
Ballet Unanwsered.........
(Ruaumoko Remix)
Had the nerve to wear this
yes I grunt cause
I'm amazed
got me striking up conversations
leaving me wondering
Like I'm in a daze
makes me think bout
what her man
was thinking
Letting moozy round
dressed that way
aint no shame in
what I'm
Thinking
try to get that woman
to look my way
you my everything
my all and all
got her phone number
waited for her to call
we making plans
to get it on
told me to
download
all my favorite songs
got sum New edition
some Marvin Gaye
let "live rock us away
aint no sunshine when she gone
she's Insacable
she the Only One
Woman I wonder
where your Man
could be
just tonight
you'll be with me
try to get it
so we can part as friends
cause when other find out
where and wiff who I'd
been
they'll start that comparsion Sh$t
say I can get that
if he could get it
than we be
in brawls and spats
learned to let it go
keep it where it's at
I aint jivein on this
said I...
I aint Jivin on this!
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