My SOS calls hit icebergs,
hopeful messages go unheard;
they chip away and erode time,
defeathering an already flightless bird.
Signals bounce and echo,
rebound and lose their meaning;
an elevator without cable or buttons,
a premiere that lacks a screening.
My ones and zeros add to a minus,
I don’t adapt, cannot charge, have no port;
thumbs doomscroll past my expression,
a post office bereft of letters to sort.
A broken antenna might collect waves unique,
hear words spoken unusual and phrases bold;
my crumpled spine picks up no frequency,
a landfill for a bed, electric dreams untold.
Squarely unfairly unsung young flung across the ditch flee
Happy for me to be the snitch as the rich get off scot free
Property toffs scoff as our nation’s next generation f*ck off
Another bung at the trough child’s play while we all pay GST
Fast lanes or in chains those with the reins no capital gains
No refrain from more cranes poor poured down the drains
Got wonga join the conga to Rarontonga on private planes
Our saviour.. greedy behaviour giving trees to Scandinavia
Relax those with the max keep their stacks with tax so lax
Life givers charming rivers harming for lairy dairy farming
Have observed scary what we’ve heard's absurd have a word
Got to roam can't afford a home blame Luxon's chrome dome
Uncle Fester a Stooge for every corporate Scrooge does pester
We've all been had unless you go to the bank of Mum & Dad
Undeserved the herd as endangered as our sad flightless bird
Blurred after all that has occurred society stirred then slurred..
Mad everything pricey everything dicey plea to free every KIWI
WILE E. COYOTE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With ACME’s ludicrous gadgets galore, in the desert Wile E. Coyote plots
Builds rockets and traps that his nemesis, the Roadrunner, inevitably spots.
*“Beep! Beep!” Road Runner zips past with a dare, and with a tumble and crash
Wile onto the desert does splat; undaunted, he sends ACME more cash.
Poem written for and submitted to Cartoon Characters Clerihew Poetry Contest, Tania Kitchen, sponsor, August 11, 2025
*Note:“Beep! Beep!” This onomatopoeia is commonly associated with the Road Runner in Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the speedy-yet-flightless bird and his constant pursuer, Wile E. Coyote.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beep,_beep_(sound))
I gave myself the body
of a secretary bird—
long legs like accusations,
a face too sharp for comfort.
But wings? I borrowed
from a taxidermied dodo:
soft, irrelevant,
stitched to the wrong century.
In the background,
a sky I did not earn.
In the foreground,
a foot poised to crush a snake
that looks suspiciously like me.
I walk
I walked the earth
with dark and heavy steps
I walked the earth in search of something
I walked the earth until my feet turned black.
There were times of great plenty
there were times of great need
there were times when the spirit withered
I confused what I wanted with what was needed.
I walk
I walked the earth
in an eternal, desperate circle.
Where nothing was seen nor heard
except for the shadow of a lonely step
and the scream of a flightless bird.
At times the walk was profound
at times it was quite mundane
at times I walked in a cleansing drought
at times I walked in a parched-out rain.
I once walked in the ego of darkness.
I once walked the path of self-deception.
Something always brought me back into the light
Into the realm of grace and divine perfection.
I walked
I walked this earth.
Right
If Heaven’s gates are all that wait,
Then let that fate which I await,
Take me in; I can no longer stay.
This fool for love hopes for judgment day.
This life I lived, to all I give,
Take it from me, I beg you please,
For if I cannot be in love and truly happy,
Then why would I live a life without? Do you get me?
A blind man cannot see the beauty,
That is forever out of sight.
Why can I not be right for her as she for me is so right?
My plight is that of a flightless bird,
Head down in the dirt.
This light that can never to be seen by her;
The cries forlorn, which are never heard.
(C)2022 Aa Harvey. All Rights Reserved.
Maybe I seek meaning in the press of sympathetic eyes
Maybe within me resides a cancerous longing to shatter into a million tiny pieces
Maybe I will finally matter once tragedy razes the last vestiges of normalcy
Maybe I am a broken creature in a broken world, desperate to feel anything
I am an insomniac in the moonless night, plotting the end of my universe
I am a flightless bird careening from the top of a skyscraper
I am a suicidal survival guide to the purgatory of my own mind
I am what I've been made, a pale, pathetic being stillborn from the ashes of society
If I but had the courage to run eastward toward the dawn
If I could whitewash the blackened, soot-stained edges of my soul
If I had a blind man's courage, a dancer's grace, a mourner's strength
If sunrise brought resurrection from the death in darkness
So I wait, watching the wolves that prowl on the edges of my consciousness
So I dream, of flame and pain, of death and doom, of rain and sorrow
So I watch as life brushes past me, a stranger in the parkinglot
So I live, awaiting the devastation I know will befall me
Sometimes he writes to her
upon a white paper moon.
The ink of his thoughts
dries to invisibility
as he folds the love-letter
into an origami model
of a flightless bird,
a creature now extinct.
He imagines her putting on her face,
dressing up
getting ready to take a taxi
to his Bayswater, London apartment.
At such times
he waits like Noel Coward
for his China dream girl
in some long forgotten play.
He picks up
a cut glass whiskey decanter
swirls the last inch of Irish around
smiles as she appears once more
at his door.
Unsupported website…
wingless flightless bird
Distant echo of keystrokes past
—lost abandoned words
(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)
I saw a songbird sing
Joyful she was with her song of hope
No tears in her eyes
Just the sunshine and the baby blue skies
I heard her sing her song of admiration
Her song filled with the sweet sounds of incarceration
A songbird shackled by her freedom
Behind her sweet voice she’s battling with her demon
Oh! I heard a song bird sing happily in her cage.
I saw a flightless bird soar
He was kissed by an angel and begged for more
Filled with despair because he left her behind
An angel like that he believed he wouldn’t find
His mind racing… pacing
Fearful because he could feel his memories erasing
Lost in the land of eternal isolations
Excluded from the people of his nation
As he looked down, frozen
Cold his body lies without motion
Oh the beauty of see a flightless bird soar.
The Gift, The Truth, Hope And Its Sweet Promise
Your hope- you have gifted unto me
unto me, a vagabond shifting sand
a flightless bird lost in its plumage
under a great and mighty oak tree
above the sun beams
its illumination forbidding night
vanquishing darkness, its blacken strokes
In your hope rests a truth
that this vessel surrounding my soul
is but a temporary hindrance
a shell, a decaying fortress
bearing the hits from cannon shots
empty now- awaiting reinforcement
from a cavalry that vanished long ago
Youth-
alas! was it ever real
a maddening rush into the waiting trap
I remember-those sweet summer days
barefoot, soft grass between my toes
Youth-
a man-less ship
sailing upon uncharted seas
decorating blue skies and watery echoes
I now stand-aged, looking back
amazed at the speed of flight
how life gave no care of time
no respect of defiant reality
Your hope- you have gifted unto me
knowledge, inspiration- a new goal
to die without dire regrets
to depart a man
accepting truth, light, love
and the immense vanity born into mortal flesh.
Robert J. Lindley, 3-06-2021
Free verse, ( Eternity, Seen Beyond The Purple Veil )
A shimmering sun
Illuminating rays of fun
Sparkling ocean
A universe's devotion
It could be tragic
To capture the magic
Let the colors free
For exuberant eyes to see
A dazzling dance
If taken the chance
Music is my messiah
Perhaps why I'm a pariah
Painting pictures
Manic mixtures
With wily words
Here come the herds
Hide your heart
From a deviant's dart
I'm just a silly flightless bird
Painting pictures with words
a flightless bird too sore to soar,
for i’m a raven wearing pain-
fear begins a tragical war,
whispers from sated stars remain
i kept secrets until you died,
for you are the one i adore-
i tried to love you as you lied,
cried some more full of life’s abhor
my heart harrowing like before,
it leaks lament and doleful gloom-
torment on the bare forest floor;
for this enigma does consume
i need not weep for what is lost,
but learn the flight to heal much more-
i save no wealth- for there’s no cost…
restore what ravens can't ignore
1.13.20
Distant Refrains Poetry Contest
Sponsor - Joseph May
For want of full virtuous zeal oligarchs thrive
Against deserving clamor for brighter ideals;
And perennially trampled commoners groan
Under weight no inured villain distantly feels.
Bereft of real fighting energy better humans
Give in to the more determined aims to slay
Life's fairer side and reward villainy's titans;
Enabling winds that fuel evil's choking sway.
Vice is a flightless bird cast in wingless youth;
And his bold victims must know this total truth:
Kind men unwilling to act knit wing and plume
That latently promote all enemy gall and fume.
And culpable crime's not by commission alone,
But by hesitations to clip his spiraling webs too;
They're held to have fired with the outlaw’s gun,
Quiet eyes that see the victim thus cruelly gone.
Even much more to blame is the idle watcher,
Than cold-blooded hands that steal or torture.
it’s off the beaten path
this adventure she’s living
her courage and imagination
an effervescent passion
her mom can’t fathom
and follows her
accomplishments
with pure delight
and silently wishes
she could somehow
grow wings on her own
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
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