Where is this? Are we on Mars?
America – just count the stores,
capitalist carnivores.
That so-familiar movie score,
the swish of passing cars.
The city built on Brotherly Love
(Wells Fargo, Fitch and Abercrombie)
at the mercy of Pam Bondi
- was that a person, or a zombie? –
What was Madison thinking of?
Car’s no use: no place to park it.
Arrested at a funeral home.
No gravel pits, no air, no loam
- eat your heart out, Kristi Noem
(Checks Cashed Here, Medina Market)
Can this be noon? It feels like night.
What are these groupings? Hangouts? Dives?
They’re ganglions? They’re human hives?
Squandered talent, wasted lives.
Subway line blocks out the light.
Sidewalk garbage. Mostly men.
That hokey old verbal agility,
“insure domestic tranquillity”
correctional facility
for the heirs of William Penn.
Human beings are detritus
(Lifetime Nails, Olympic Sports):
To clean it up, we use the courts
Perhaps we ought to build more forts
- and thus our id comes back to bite us.
Eat your heart out I know you see
how I beam when I am in love;
You could have worn me like a glove,
or had the sweetest taste of me;
Your feelings always absentee,
what feeds my soul was disposed of;
Eat your heart out;
I found a man who will not flee
unless he pulls me high above;
Making sure I know I’m enough,
THAT’s what you never did baby;
Eat your heart out.
Every day he'd sit and pout,
The Ambassador of Doubt.
Come dine with Melancholy Smith,
Was born to eat your heart out.
He was raised a single child,
His emotions were defiled.
Both parents saw a mental flaw,
That made sure he never smiled.
No one saw him as a friend,
And the girls would all pretend.
Cast from the crowd, they'd laugh out loud;
And berate him to the end.
On a broken course he'd follow,
The self-pity that he'd wallow.
A sad affair with no repair,
Only left his spirit hollow.
Till one fateful day it's said,
Moist tears in a lonely bed.
Still aching, with hands shaking,
Put a bullet in his head.
Not a soul was there to wave,
Since no soul was left to save.
Without a sound, tucked in the ground,
Now lies in an unmarked grave.
This could not be 'cat and mouse'.
But it was indeed, cat and squirrel.
Cat on ground; squirrel up the tree.
Cat said, "If you come down, I will
eat your heart out". Squirrel said,
"Mama taught me better than that".
072021PSCtest, Bite Size Poem No 14,
Line Gauthier. 6 lines max.
My name is Midnight,
a cool cat on the ground.
I'm looking up, observing
a squirrel up a tree, and he's
watching me. He's rather high,
as if I'm about to come after him.
You see, he knows that I am the master
of the grounds around here, and he's afraid
to face me toe to toe, because that would
be his fatal woe and worst nightmare.
I don't know his name, but if giving him a name was my job,
I'd name him 'Wiggle'. Anyway, I yelled to Wiggle, "Come down
and I will eat your heart out", to which he replied in taunting tones,
"My heart would taste better if you ate it on a limb". I stared at
him angrily, realizing that he was in a bragging mood, knowing
full well that I could not climb that tree. So I walked away.
052021PSCtest, Personification Poem 150, Caren Krutsinger
Eat your heart out, and what is left
The lips that pout, the soul bereft
The loss of love, the lack of heart
The stress of life, in whole or part
The sweeter side, of love and bliss
May not confide, a tender kiss
But on your side, a single hope
Of joy inside, by how you cope
The peace within, may start anew
For how you win, is what you do
The more you give, the more you save
The will to live, by what you gave.
Self consuming
the tender bits you
overlooked
Here I am
Sating myself again
03/19/2019
ZEN DOG DAY
DOG:
A’m jest trucking on down the road
Hangin loose got no heavy load
[Stops in middle of road and proceeds to scratch every part known to man or dog]
Motorist behind blows horn]
DOG:
Now I hear a horn playin Hey! Hey!
Well Zippety doo dah dey!
I can feel some cool music hatchin
Just as soon as I finish my scratchin
MOTORIST:
That was my motor horn you heard play
To ask you just get out of the way
I’ve an important meeting with top brass
So kindly move your canine ass
DOG:
Well I got some important itchin
That can’t wait for my position switching
My doggy ass is in its proper station
For sedation of my irritation
MOTORIST:
Now listen you son of a *****
My meetings more important than your itch
DOG:
Wow! Now don’t you talk about my old lady.
[After final scratch]
You can pass now, so go in peace baby
MOTORIST:
If you’d moved sooner I’d have saved time - near ten minute
DOG:
And with that time, what would you then have done with it?
[Aside]
That’s my philosophy for today just to start out
Jean Paul Sartre you can eat your heart out
So long ago and far away.
I lost the love I thought would stay.
Now looking back seems too unreal.
And leaves me not knowing what to feel.
The days went by and turned to years.
That's what happens when love disappears.
And youth get's lost and grows too old.
When you can't believe what your heart's been told.
You see her picture now and then.
And eat your heart out again and again.
It just makes you want to die.
Because you can't afford what you cannot buy.
You're left to wonder what is it worth.
When all hope's lost here on this earth.
The mirror of time know's only truth.
It shows discretion and uncouth.
You ask yourself just what is love.
For you're disconnected from above.
And all your blessing's have gone away.
When true love came, but did not stay.
I always told you that I loved you more,
But you never believed me did you?
Well tell me, have you looked at me lately?
Do you see the hurt and scorn written down,
Down the salty tears from my moist eyelids,
Cursive words of sadness sliding downward.
I hope you eat your heart out because mine,
Well believe me mine is withering.
I long to hate you, but I love you so.
I'm still haunted by your ghost, the white sheet.
Lonely and dreaming of a good time please,
Please just understand what you've done to me.
I'm not as crazy as you make me seem.
I am a woman in an asylum
That gnashing visions have locked me into.
I bang my tin cup along window bars,
Hoping you or someone will notice me.
Save me from the black hole inside outer space.
I float in thin air without oxygen
Because you sucked the life out of my world.
Give it back before I'm forced to kill you.
Trust me I will and I have reason to.
Not much longer before my breaking point.
So hang up the white sheet and fade to black.
The shadows are your only protection.
Watch your back because I'm coming for you.
I am coming to save myself from you....
Julie Andrews
Eat your heart out
My sound of music
Owns these hills
The pretty painted trees and all
The freedom sloped on every side
The Hudson hovering beyond
These psychedelic theaters that nature cooks by itself
Auf wiedersehen, frauline
These hills are alive with me.
(10/18/14, Poet's Park, Red Hook NY)
To All The Women Named Ruby -- Shine On!!
People talk about their diamonds,
their emeralds and their pearls.
They each have their possessions
that bring pleasure to their worlds.
Of all the prizes in this world
that I can now call mine –
I’m proudest of my Ruby
cause she can really shine.
Whenever we go dancing –
As she walks through that door
she’s such a perfect vision
no man could ask for more.
Some things just turn out perfect –
like grapes to vintage wine.
But nothing beats my Ruby
when she begins to shine.
So, watch my Ruby shine!
Catch her if you can.
She’s dazzled and nearly blinded
many a helpless man.
And when I am beside her
she makes me feel so fine.
So, you just eat your heart out
and watch my Ruby shine.
Author's Comments:
"This lyric was put to music by a friend of mine who lived in Lake Charles. He and I spent one Sunday afternoon with a couple of his band members playing around and he finally hit on a lilting little melody that really brought Ruby to life
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.