Button Down Poems | Examples

Clothes

Some clothes I don’t wear anymore. 
Some weird patterns all over. 
Or just a stain from a cursed coffee mug. 
The clothes which bring me to life?
Are:
My favorite florals. 
Colorful. 
I don’t even like green, but still…
Something about this type of green looks good on me. 
Well worn yet still soft. 
When I wear that lovely jean jacket?
My eyebrows unfurl. 
Frilly headband. 
Button down, striped shirt. 
Orange pants with a purple belt. 
I have everything I need-
Except those yellow shoes from the store…
So maybe I’ll get those and donate something else…
Anything else. 
Someday. 
But for now, I am open to new clothes. 
Dear Old T-Shirts:
You’re still nice sometimes.

Hound in a Button-Down

There come those moments when men cease to be men
	And turn into dogs.
Dogs that bite and dogs that whine;
Dogs that lay
Panting
On top of you 
And infect you with their spilling saliva
	Dulled eyes full of starving thoughts of violence.
	
		They’re all so charming until you see the rabies in their mouths
	And their lips,
Docked by their hunger
Grinning like you can’t see the intentions in their bared gums
Or the savagery in their rolling tongue.
“You know what they say about dogs,” your mother’s voice echoes
“They’ll tell you that they love you, 
       But they’ll eat you when you’re dead.”

Life’s Repetition of rinse and repeat:

Life’s Repetition of rinse and repeat:
Saga, the odyssey
 lies 
And deceit.
Juliet’s drowning upon daggers blade in
Response to a Romeo’s lethal swallow. 
The need be not the chasing down of serpentine sleuthing out the whys they bit you..
But the how so to heal oneself from poisons onset.
Cause the effect.
Effect the cause.
Alterations of souls allegiances.
Whom wages the war upon one’s self 
Loses all in either outcome. 
Close the gate,
Button down the hatches 
Night draws near.
Light the lamps for shadows creep.
Let illumination run deep..
Burn out yesterday’s fabled ways. 
Upon pages of white begin anew.
“Lord what fools these mortals be”
This said by Shakespeare and not by me.
Instead mirror thought of phrase as “idiocracy pains the existence of man”.
Overcome..undone
Underwhelmed..overburdened.
Buried in minds sea
Drowning in muddy thoughts.

Retirement and Bird

A bird in a button-down shirt and a vest
joined me for coffee, and sadly confessed, 
pecking distractedly at a cinnamon roll,
his manner affectingly droll.

What he said, as I sat on my park bench,
was (and I quote), "if you pardon my French",
(he then carefully searched for a term),
and said, "how I do despise worm."

I'm All That and an Appreciative Hat

I'm just an old-fashioned, flannel lumberjack shirt.
My father was some overalls, a farmer of dirt.
I'm a worn out and holey pair of cotton socks,
An unwanted sweater, packed away in a box.

My son's a fancy ascot living in New York City.
He can't be cut from the same cloth, he's too pretty -
A button down shirt, a jacket of fine leather,
A whole different sort of men's wear, altogether.

I'm aged pair of wing-tips, no longer employed, 
Split along the sides, by overwork, nearly destroyed,
Living in the shiny black dress shoe memories of
Backless gowns, diamonds, stilettos and satin gloves.
 
I'm a quiet and unassuming pair of jeans,
A t-shirt with a picture of natural scenes,
A pair of rubber sandals, and a worn out straw hat,
A beachcomber, escaping the race of the rat.

I'm shorts on the way to the laundry in a sack,
An old hat that's traveled around the world and back.
Though I may have a loose thread that needs a snip,
Still, this hat gives life an appreciative tip.

Off the Button

Within the hurricane report,
Of which I just heard snatches,
A person on the radio said,
“Button down the hatches!”

So many people get things wrong
When idioms are used
And it is understandable 
For folks to be confused.

But “buttoning the hatches”
Wouldn’t help one to protect
Either property or relatives,
At least last time I checked.

The Button Down Shirt

the button down shirt
crisply pressed and impressive -
backwards, inside-out

Lasting Forever

Lasting Forever
David J Walker 

On the first morning 
After a lifetime of making a living
I can only think of leaving 
         the Army
And how empty 
	I felt left and on my own at 21

The days of OD Green or Khaki’s and
	Especially Class A’s 
Were all done
	I remember thinking three years
 would last forever

Now
The Blue Blazer- Red Tie uniform hung
By my gray pants over the shiny black Oxfords
That were worn  …  uniformly	
		With a starched white button-down shirt
For forty years 
		Are a source of silent memories 

It appears
 I am no longer authorized 
To wear the disguise 
Of an educated worker

I remember thinking forty years
 would last forever

You Dress You

The society has dictated us enough.
What a man should wear and what a woman can
How to dress and how one can’t
“That is not how girls dress!”
Is the society’s favourite stand.

“Boys don’t wear nail paint!”
Well tell that to Harry Styles
The world is finally changing for the better
But we still have to cover miles.

Not all fashionable men are gay
And not every girl who wears a button-down have to be a lesbian
And even if they are, it is not the society’s place to express dismay.

I don’t know if you are aware
But this is a new wave of change
You can no longer put us into boxes and tell us what to wear
Androgynous clothing has taken the world by storm
And the youth has been liberated
Defied all your norms.

Your brother can flaunt a skirt
And your sister can daunt a power suit and a checkered shirt
The gender-based clothing was a social construct
We have finally changed the rules
And the society no longer has authority to instruct.

Dwn Git N Down At the Dance

DWN GIT n DOWN at the DANCE -

Button down, 
Boogie down.
Velvet lime green bell bottom pants, lookN mean;
Jackson 5, singing Dancing Machine;
~
Eddie Kendrick’s Boogie down man
Dancing to the beat of the rock;
Rhythm of your soul on top;
Bounding, spinning, twirling around;
~
Just you and yo group
Jest get N down;
Spiral lights music in it
Rainbow colors supericfic
~
Plat form shoes go toe to toe
Getting down all we know
Cats spinning on their backs
Couples doin the Bump do the
~
Bump, do the Bump git back I'm leadin
Yet this was a boogie fever
Dancin all night ...
can hardly believe it?
this is how we git down at the dance?



2/29/20
“Kim Rodrigues’ DWM Contest”


DANCE WITH ME Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Kim Rodrigues

No Need To Shout

No Need to shout – As I have Ears

Up and down
In and out
Is the place to have a shout

So just make sure
You point your mouth
Before you let it, all spout out

But it’s no good shouting if no one hears
You’re much better off opening their ears

So just turn the volume button down
And never ever wear a frown

Go for a walk
Have a talk
But never ever do you stalk

As kind words mean more than a shout out 
It shows you can let it all hang out

As ears are for hearing 
What others say
So, it is a much better way

To get your point across
Even if you are very cross

Listen to the words you say
Then maybe find another way

I have ears as do you,
Maybe that is the clue

That there is no need to shout
Because I can also listen to

Or just shout out the same as you!

DAMO xx

My Sunshine

Only the heavens know what she was crafted from
but right here right now it did not matter
She is the only thing I see
it is as if I am really seeing her for the first time in all her beauty
Her lips crooked with a drop of whiskey on her tongue
Her eyes gentle and content but that devilish grin reveals just a hint of sin
Her strong shoulders lower as she lets herself go
I can almost see the weight of the world roll down her back and onto the floor
Nothing has ever sounded sweeter than her soft breath of relief and with that
She was free
I have never seen a smile so pure and so wholesome
She stands there in the kitchen wearing nothing but my button down shirt
She tilts her head and shoulders back opening up like a flower
the sun seeps into her copper skin
filling her with its warmth and light
She is finally whole
It was as almost she was originally crafted from the sun

To Wake Me Up

To wake me up
Is easier said than done.
It begins with a sweet song
Played on the small speaker
Of my iPhone.

I shut it off and roll over.
Still asleep.

Ten minutes later,
My digital alarm clock
Begins to beep a most
Aggravating sound.

I smash the button down.
Still asleep.

Five minutes pass and then
My analog alarm clock 
Viciously shakes a small ball
Back and forth between bells.

The clock falls off my nightstand
And I’m forced to get up and grab it
To shut it off but, I get back into bed.
Still asleep.

Finally, my love kisses my forehead.
“Honey, it’s time to wake up.” 

I open my eyes and 
They are glazed over.
We kiss.
Awake.

Pressing the Button

Don’t press the wrong trigger,
or you’ll get hit by a truth bullet
Peep sound advice:  Don’t pull it ...
caliber of proof gon get bigger

Press your luck, if you want to —  
false bravado can only cover so much
Twitchy touch get shaky in the clutch,
‘nother slinger paid: No can do

Poster child ain’t cash on the barrel head,
the hired guns come and they go
Some draw fast, and others slow
Can’t get the Judas reward if you’re dead

Chase the rope ... life last longer that way
Swing the holster over the saddle,
stone hands can’t spur skedaddle
Press the panic button,  then start to pray
				
Red buttons on a Simba cat white coat,
stained reputation gotta go get dirt buried
Guns & Roses:   Cold viols getting married 
Press E button down as last blues note

The Full Moon Behavior

When the children are off the chain, off the wall, over the moon with behaviors all crazy,
The teachers all look toward The Farmer’s Almanac and say, quick and don’t be lazy.
Barricade the doors, lock the windows, button down the hatches, a full moon is coming our way.
Yes, it is easy to see that tomorrow is going to be one of those “Oh my God”kind of days. 
If you think this is silly, then you have never had the honor of being stuck in a school with twenty-two.
They can get you so riled, so worked up, so frustrated, that you will turn all kinds of blue.
Not every day, because the full moon is not out every night, but on the days that it is clear,
Teachers can tell you they go home early, exhausted, wiped out, and have the biggest kind of beer.

Entered Kevin Shaw's Poetry Contest  MOON

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