bobcat awakened
complaisant bystander
confrontation
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • September 7–13, 2026)
badmouth me ? she is always vitriolically cuckoo ! I find her confrontation detestably fiendish .
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • September 7–13, 2026)
The folds of arrogance loosen and spill,
Though draped upon the shade of restraint.
?
Relentless flare of crimson defiance,
Met with the cool stubbornness of blue.
?
Tomorrow tangles like wild vines,
Today wields a blade of bitter resolve.
Did you cry for me
when none but the crows
was both black and free
in them cotton rows?
When you saw me hung
did you cry for me
as my body swung
from the lynchin tree?
Such prosperity
must taste mighty sweet
Did you cry for me
when I didn't eat?
Heard you gone some years,
died in poverty
and I cried no tears...
did you cry for me?
Bing the turtle was taking a
Slow walk, until he was
Encountered by a hungry jaguar
Who was ready to eat and kill
So, he knocks the lil turtle
Around and around
He even knocks him
Up-side down
He flipped the turtle over
And over again and then
Tosses him from side to side but
The lil turtle finally had enough
When the jaguar sticks his
Nose in the turtle’s shell
Bing grabs it and holds on tight
The jaguar hollers in pain
Then takes off running while
Shaking his head trying to
Release the turtle’s grip
But the turtle holds on until
The cat gives up, then he
Let’s go and the jaguar runs away
With his tail tuck between his legs
I'm okay, you're okay is a mask in the land of pretend.
Being cool as a cucumber is okay for cowards.
Pollens cannot always hide themselves within soft flowers.
Breaking from established norms is sometimes necessary.
Why should minds be wrapped by a pacification airy?
Compromises and negotiations do not last long.
How long shall we, like logs on river water, shift along?
Shouldn't we, first and foremost, to our very selves, belong?
Why should our voice always sound like a challenge-less birdsong?
Humility, though a virtue, demands questioning too.
Within smiles of appeasement, feelings of grudge must not brew.
I need not feel I am okay, but you are not okay.
I needn't, yet, forget that each one has his or her say...
I must adjust when needed; I need not be a doormat.
Why should tigers feel as though they're negotiable cats?
Confrontations and encounters enable us to bloom.
Mere mollification will finally bring one's self-doom...
GOING TO DEFEAT THE DILEMMA
heaving sighs I grip my walker tighter facing the tightrope ahead
(c) sally young eslinger 1/15/23
Zero is nothing
And so we came here with nothing
And we'll leave here with nothing too
Life is a confrontation
We live to build up wealth from zero
From nothing to something
A trillion has a number combines with 12 zero
We leave without all the wealth
That it returns to zero
From zero goes back to zero
Maybe this is God's formula
To create man's belongings
And so don't turn to evils to attain your wealth
It shouldn't be God's will
As rain puddles the ground,
tatter-tatter falls the sound.
It climbs up railings
and flows through the streets.
And here we are in the rain.
Side by side and alone,
almost like we would be blown.
The wind howls,
louder than owls,
and we're forced to look each other in the eye
barely about to cry.
I ask you what you want again,
but I feel so drained.
You tell me that you're in pain,
but only because you want the gain,
of using your powers to put me in wane.
I scream and yell,
wailing like hell,
and leave you in the rain,
as rain puddles the ground.
I ddddddd don’t like….con….fronnnnnntations
This is how I feel about them too
But it is funny to see myself on film
Biggest wimp ever
Which shocked and horrified Marty
That is his dad after all!
It is not attractive.
I see that for myself now, yet I still
I ddddddd don’t like….con….fronnnnnntations
Money
That cannot be surpassed
That cannot be abandoned
Has broken the structure of the society
And even the bond of a family
And even the same originity
And even the structures of the blood cells, the senses, the heart and the mind
Resulting in the arise of
A turbulent unrest in the body
A new epidermic
Called a close confrontation
My other man was birthed on the back of my son.
My other man was broken in mouth, thought and dream.
My other man was built from torn jigsaw puzzle pieces and self-loathing.
My other man roamed disused houses of neglect.
My other man distorted my face, back, legs and arms.
My other man intended harm.
My other man wanted to crawl inside you.
My other man was my Father.
My other man was my Grandmother.
My other man was my fears inverted.
My other man made others bored.
My other man made others laugh.
My other man made others cry.
My other man made others faint.
My other man made others vomit.
My other man wanted to lead you up the garden path and leave you there.
My other man hated you.
Hated you.
Absolutely.
The flesh screams
its tired...!
the sleepless mind
Hear nothing... !
every day this
immense struggle agony:
The body desires to sleep,
the soul wishes to do
poetry... !
My cowardly self, said to my bravest version:
Be not too much,
Be not too less of me.
His eyes were darkly silted ponds,
His hands worn thin,
By the clutch of a shrinking skin.
My courage rose up
Dragon fisted; eagle hammered in the
Shuddering air.
‘Dare me’ it cried
‘Dare this dust to be light,
This feathering of small gods
To step forward and take the terror’.
My cowardly image
Shivered, hid its face
But stayed there quaking
As the bravest version it could be.
Confrontation is something other people do
I will lie my way into a corner and beyond the veil
So I do not have to have an altercation with anyone
I cannot fathom bickering or arguing
My parents taught me the value of silent disapproval
Wearing a pasted weirdo Cheshire Cat smile
You would rather lie than tell the truth, my husbands have said.
I have had six of them, and they were not wrong.
Why can’t you just say it like it happened?
Truthfully, I have been fabricating so long, I do not know the truth.
Truth could jump up and bite a giant hole in my cheek.
Yes, that cheek, and I would still lie.
Because I knew that lying might be a way out of a belt whipping.
There is a book called “Why Children Lie.”
We learn to lie if the punishments are too severe,
And we know telling the truth will be painful.
Spoiler alert. I have only had one husband, but I lie.
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