Betsy Ross sewed the US flag with ease
Fellow countrymen were more or less pleased
A Scotsman stole her design
His wife sewed something so fine
Flags doubling as kilts ~ Waving in the breeze
Flames swallow oxygen,
duplicitous in their deeds,
circumventing steel barriers—
steel barriers doubling over.
Ashen soot cakes the walls;
walls crumble, interlacing with soot.
Pyres of fire lick the night sky;
crimson smoke suffuses the air.
Breathing in microparticles,
microparticles sticking
to fibrous membranes—
breathing collapses.
Lit match—ignition,
cinders glow.
Above a beached bleached paperback, "The Doors of Perception",
a pent-up penchant for greed is flung wide open:
The esophagus of a seagull sky grows narrow
until one seagull stomachs trash with zero
tolerance for sharing. Squeaky double doors apprise
descending gulls this bird has wings doubling in size.
Squishy moist sand, footprint-ridged into pouty lips,
chased-away seagulls waddle toward crushed crumbs.
Captains trudge farther ashore or return to ships.
"She reassured me with an unfamiliar line."
Love is a mystery school, yearning for sages
well able to reckon sixes from nines.
True wits should elect sin's disbursements
rather than reflect on love's scenes of rushing bunglers.
Love is sick, blind, unkind. Aren't we cruel?
She chided: brush your flapper, dying blue
between that pair of cheese crackers.
Remove the Devil's Pitchfork from your hair.
Doubling as Dracula, your zeal repealed
by loving an unpersuaded other.
Stay not inconsolable, my weaning one!
She knelt beside me, interpolating my orations.
Entreat for veritable blindness to take better blame.
Apathetic to any flame, resisting even sipping sunshine
interred in the long night of voluminous drapes,
pray for cardiac arrest to efface 1700 hours of shadows.
Perhaps, pray you would love me, and I shall say something of it.
with dusk approaching
the radiance of the day
melts in the rain
streetlights smear
the autumn colours
across the footpaths
doubling the display
of chromatic foliage
autumn gloats
AP: Honorable Mention 2025, Honorable Mention 2025
there was a young man named Price
who always took risks without advice
till one day he was peeved
when a letter he received
from his insurance saying your policy is doubling in price
We, the Children of the Atom:
Whose quantum physics master the balance of past and future.
We remember before and after; to aim them both with hands still enslaved by petty policy and impractical allegiance to the thieves who multiply yet still.
We say now to them: Imagine what we shall do in the autonomy of freedom by your inevitable decomposition, and fear it so.
The world vomited into our trapped laps is to be gone.
The path is lain by the doubling and tripling of the excessive selfishness from the age of lack of humanity born from the latter half of the twentieth-century.
We say now to ye who crafted the failed vestiges of such: Cling lightly to the burnt remains of this trash you left us.
We’ll finish it off, or tear it from your grasp with a wrath of mind, memory, and momentum never before known to this godless rock of unknown origin.
And after, you’ll learn to thank us for casting away the false symbols and idols from the idiocy that is your pitiless ongoing past; and yours only.
Remembered only by those of us to warn the future:
Of how not to be.
Dealing with the death of my friend
As well as a long held dream
doubling down on pain Auspiciously it seems
The two for one it aint much fun however
one serves to blunt the other
the slightest bit but never ever cover
The depth of these losses without bottem
Pain till now inconceivable
To lose you both unbelievable
Reality strikes again a hammer ringing on steel
Pendulum swinging from keening pain
to survival mode unable to feal
it will get better one day I'll find
the sky is once more blue and this waterfall
replaced with smiles when I lovingly think of you
Damn the nor’easter
hold the wheel steady
Waves from the Kraken
over the bow
Darkness ahead
charts plot the demon
Into the fury
—doubling down
(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)
Siblant esses slyly sneaking
doubling your portion size
turning singular to plural
as you order beer and pies
so don't become at every meal
fat, like a snake that ate a wagon wheel
Could it be love when shadows overlap
Their beings blending, doubling to dark
Embracing tiled or terra cotta floor
Sliding silently as silhouettes of shame
Clinging to the still forbidden touch
Relishing the fevered heat of light
Cast upon this desperate aching need
To meld - a two so lonely - into one
I used to be alone,
nobody to talk to.
Kept everything to myself.
Had a lot to work through.
then I got some friends,
they helped me for a while.
but eventually they stop to care.
They take away your smile.
I spoke to my parents once,
told them I was struggling.
But they said its all inside my head,
I can feel my troubles doubling.
I had to talk to a counselor,
it was hard to open up,
but when you work to get doors open,
its hard for them to shut.
the counselor told me to be patient,
"things get better over time"
even she said I was broken
I've gone way past my prime.
The priest said I was a kind young girl,
my parents sat and cried,
my friends said they should've noticed
the counselor said I should've tried.
Even when there's people there,
its hard for us to realize,
because when your in your darkest place,
you see through lonely eyes.
p.s. If you are struggling, please reach out. And if you know anyone that struggling, make sure they know you're there for them.
Decades ago, a severe drought took its toll
And many parts of the U.S. became a dust bowl
To control the erosion of the soil
The Kudzu plant was introduced amid the turmoil
It grows at a rate of a foot per day
Smothering other plants in its way
In all directions it will go
With no indication it will ever slow
It cycles nitrogen through the soil at a high rate
Doubling nitric oxide emissions with no sign it will abate
Though a plant that was once in need
In the 1970's it was demoted to a weed!
---
It seemed to me, at the outset, an abacus,
Of nursery kids; and, lo, looked less glamorous;
It had scales fixed on a piano skeleton,
While an abacus shone like beads in gelatin...!
It has an Asian origin, someone told me,
(Does it mean continent chauvinism sets me free?)
I listened to it once, as a snake its charmer,
After all, can any music be a harmer...?
Rough, razor-sharp, clattering, bubbling, and doubling,
Shrill, hollow, ticking, transparent, and less troubling;
Odd rough ringing, clanging, and gonging pulled my soul,
I felt, in xylophonic tune, I had a role...!
Harmony, as that of the other rhythmic tools,
In xylophone too, like deep freshwater lakes, pools;
Tunes and tones, like echoes from mountains and hills filled,
My heart, with its melodic mood, got wildly thrilled...!!!
28 April 2023
Rhymes Checked At: Rhyme Zone
Syllables Checked At: How Many Syllables
iridescent rainbow clouds you simply defy description
reflected in the sea as easily as I am reflected in my mirror
doubling the joy of the day; taking my breath away
Related Poems