A poem inspired by “Involuntary Spies” by Marion Strobel:
Without a Shadow of a Doubt
Soldiers, Spies, Brute Strength, Intelligence
Without a shadow of doubt, there is a difference
The latter exists in a position of negligence
Yet they stand strong and courageous
Without a shadow of a doubt, their loyalty is contagious
Ready to die for their country for a cause unknown
Knowing, Showing, that they are alone
Without a shadow of doubt, they stand on the true front lines
Ahead of all the rest
Ready to do the bidding of those they test
Sometimes they switch sides, showing their captors they can be rotten
Double Agents, Infidels, Soldiers forgotten
Just like Mussolini, Franco, and Stalin
But without a shadow of a doubt, they become lower and worse
Hungry for power and money
Using tactics that end up with them in a hearse
Without a shadow of a doubt, without a single shadow of doubt
As I went for my drive today I saw a man along the way
On a lamppost he was he was lent head down
And his back was bent.
I stopped to help as he was alone and he ask me toI
Take him home
So on our journey we had a talk and he told me why
He couldn't walk.
He told me a thing that had no answer you see this kind
Man has got cancer.
I spoke to him and I hope I did right by telling him he had
To fight.
We arrived at his house and knocked on the door
And met his wonderful wife who told me more.
You see this man's name is Franco a husband and dad
And the best friend a person can have.
I listened then said my goodbyes trying to hide
The tears in my eyes.
Live is so cruel and sometimes so wrong but you be like
Franco fight and be strong.
All day Franco-American spaghetti-suckers
do not make connoisseurs' lips pucker
Neither do grilled spiders and a side of beans
appeal to kings or to queens
When looking to make a culinary splash
never serve reheated corned-beef hash
And even if you're in a real time jam
fuggetabout cold pizza topped-off with spam
Just stick to the basics, you'll surely succeed
~ A dozen raw eggs afloat in seaweed
J-eopardy
O-f
S-ilent
H-orror
U-ses
A-trocious
F-lu's
R-isk
A-s
N-ecessary
C-leanliness
O-f
H-umanity
E-liminates
R-abidity
R-ightfully
E-rasing
R-aging
A-ilment
Topic: Birthday of Joshua Franco M. Herrera (April 29)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
So here is the corona virus
Its changed our lives for sure
It affects all types of people
The famous the rich and the poor
In Spain they have a lockdown
Not like the farce in the uk
The Spanish lived through Franco
So they know how to stay and obey
So please, can you all just stay at home
Its not so bloody hard
life is much too precious,than a credit card
Enjoy every minute with all your family
Some people dont have the chance
To have so much fun and glee
Spare a thought for all the people
That have suffered,and then died
And all the loved ones that are left
Who cant be by their side
There's a lesson for us all in this turmoil we are receiving
Think of all the pain and miisery of those that are grieving
Sometimes life can be so very hard
So just remember this ,
life is not just a credit card,
life is just a kiss
It is hard to walk in the sand especially with boots and a heavy rifle.
Manuel and I would sit on a rock and watch the moon give birth to
a distant blue Africa.
Franco's Guardia Civil were not all thugs. A few were poets.
Manuel's father had worshiped the general and had blessed
the day Guernica 'that Marxist nest' had been flattened.
That was decades before he was born, yet Manuel still patrolled
the beach, weaving between sunbathing tourist seeking nonexistent saboteurs.
On his rounds the young conscript fell in love - often, but in winter
(when his sneering corporal was away), he would sit in the bar,
tongue curled like a snail shell, dedicating lurid hyperbole
to every female foreigner that had smiled at him, and to all
the Catalan girls that never did.
That night the moon seemed to translate for us.
He asked me earnestly:
if I thought Franco would ever lift the ban on bikini's?
"Never!" I replied, "The Pope and the Rightists are against it."
Manuel rose and shuffled sadly away, his rifle dragging on the sand.
That night the moon came close, to bask on Manuel’s beach,
and she without a stitch of cloud-cover over her matronly form.
It broke her heart
when Franco died
he’d been her soul mate
wed over fifty years
he’d been her life
For her Franco
she had a ritual
lit a candle every night
so he would know
how much she missed him
Today would be a special day
she felt it when she closed her eyes
wouldn’t be lighting any candle
she took her one last breath
set down the path to join her Franco
AP: 2nd place 2021, Honorable Mention 2021
J-ust
O-pen
S-omeone's
H-eart
U-sing
A-crostic
F-orm's
R-ighteousness
A-s
N-ice
C-omment
O-f
H-appy
E-xcited
R-eader
R-ightfully
E-mploys
R-emarkable
A-im
Topic: Birthday of Joshua Franco M. Herrera (April 29)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
Você sabia que a palavra “sincera” foi inventada pelos romanos?
Eles fabricavam certos vasos com uma cera especial tão pura e perfeita que os vasos se tornavam transparentes. Em alguns casos era possível distinguir os objetos guardados no interior do vaso.
Para um vaso assim, fino e límpido, diziam os romanos: Como é lindo! Parece até que não tem cera! “Sine cera” queria dizer “sem cera”, uma qualidade de vaso perfeito, finíssimo, delicado, que deixava ver através de suas paredes.
Com o tempo, o vocábulo “sine cera” se transformou em sincero e passou a ter um significado relativo ao caráter humano.
Sincero é aquele que é franco, leal, verdadeiro, que não oculta, que não usa disfarces, malícias ou dissimulações.
A pessoa sincera, à semelhança do vaso, deixa ver através de suas palavras os nobres sentimentos de seu coração.
Puro poder no mundo!
O mais puro poder no mundo
é o sorriso sincero
e a transparência
que liberta as mentes
e
persuade para sempre.
Falsidade e mentiras
mesmo com palavras de poder persuasivos
quanto mais tenta se mostrar,
mais embaralha e prende.
http://bit.ly/2019_Poder_do_Sorriso
C-oolness
H-as
R-emained
I-n
S-ublime
T-ime
E-agerly
E-rasing
N-ight's
F-oggy
R-ain
A-s
N-ew
C-larity
O-pens
Topic: Birthday of Christeen Franco (September 17)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
Flatulent Franco from France frequently farts
Fetid foul fetor fumes fill French foyers
Francophile females feign fainting
Fanning flatus from frowning faces!
Alliteration Contest
Sponsored by Barry Stebbings
11-27-17
Fragments of African patriotism
Lie scattered all over Africa and yonder
There are specialists in grabbing the pieces
With no one interested in knitting together
The Arab -phones are picked, cooked, eaten
By the swords of Saladin
Anglo-phones are picked, cooked, eaten
By the Lions of the Sea
The Franco-phones are picked, cooked and eaten
By the axes of liberty, fraternity and equality
The Christian-phones are picked and massaged
By hidden and revered powers of the soul
The rest of the broken pieces hard to put together
Are picked, minced and eaten raw within
Ethnicity, self-interests, ignorance and greed are
The armors of destruction and betrayal
These fragments of Africa patriotism and unity
Make African continent good for sorrows
The question that pinches my heart is this:
Who will knit African patriotism into one piece?
Gravitational waves
some have put down to Kimbrel, his multiple saves
but Oso el Blanco
achieved much the same when he took out John Franco.
While I watch her, an adored jewel,
Flinging on with my old pal
She crashes from the pedestal,
Like a burst of glass
As love etches death on the alley.
Contest:Fallen in 25-30 Words, nette onclaud
from Franco Gonza
2 December 2015
- my past girlfriend
30 words
A truant blizzard's hurl allowed shadows hide
when the night was pale. And all the dark ravens yelled
as I buried my cat, last year, frozen and dead. That all
the lilies of in between, wailed of my Christmas eulogy.
For the contest, A Christmas Memory,
Sponsor, Broken Wings
Nov 21, 2015
From Franco Gonza
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