Garnish Poems

BY THE STREETLAMP

I gorge on black ink shadows
and gulp down silver moon beams
delectable, saporous
by the streetlamp marinade
me hallucinating art
on a diet of glow world 
hue imbued hungry brushstrokes 
dream garnish o'er starlit feast

The Intervention

Chicken on dry sliced rye,
at his neat
office workstation,
no garnish.

Suddenly she was there,
her chair roller wheels
squeaking.

Next time get a 'footlong' sub
with Mayo and all the fixings.
We could share it.

Messy he murmured,
studying his monitor.

A sigh,
as the office angel rose upward
on chubby wings.

Fella Meatus

Disturbed by the interruptions 
He would be disrupted by my
Skill
Thrill of collaboration 
When ones partners are
Determined and real
In that self satisfaction 
If achieving a goal
What's in it for me
Ain't gonna work cause
We are not in control
Tallow shall disguise the
Earthy taste of the ostrich
and garlic and onions
Shall compliment it's already
beefy taste
the mushrooms and wines shall
Subdue the gameness
and crumbled bacon shall
Enhance it's taste
Cerleies and salts
With sun-dried peppers and
Sun-dried tomato's shall
Crust the external show'd 
Display
We shall cheer with wines that
are appropriate and garnish
Shall accompany the display!

An anchovies and lemon sweet 
caper sauce was an alternative 
To the cowboy gravy show
I adored them both
But wanted the
Wagyu burger
I longed and lusted for it
One of the lady body guards
Bought six burgers
Up to the room after

The ice cream and cake show
I knew her Friend from Canada
He had been a Bouncer at my
Club in lobster town Maine!
Hollywood thumped with disco
I danced to a
Slutty Opera Tune
I love my wife
Aria Concerto
She make love just
Likes she dances

Black Sextant

Another family gathering
the place is packed with deep blue sadness
for the passing of yet another friend.
Faces are strained to the edge of recognition.
pretty bouquets garnish a garish metal basket
holy man staggers to capture the soul of a stranger
ancient chants spraying salt over those that remain.

Like a game of she loves me she loves me not
life is plucking off sweet petals one by one
Next time we gather there'll be one less
this puddle of infinite blackness
reaching the beat of the heart's sextant
Tossed off course, losing all sense of direction
and will continue to do so until I'm unblessed.

Burma-Shave

They stood like rhymes
on fencepost spines
with wisdom scrawled
in shaving thymes—
a roadside gospel,
terse and sweet
that preached with
meter, grit, and heat.

Rosemary likes
a clean-shaved man,
if wooing her
is in your plan.
She’ll linger near
and take your hand
and proudly wear
your golden band.

Parsley hides
beside the plate—
the garnish mocked
by those who ate.
But lean in close—
she knows the names
of all who passed
and played their games.

Sage recalls
those roadside lines—
poetry caught
between the pines.
Sometimes sly
and sometimes wise,
a fleeting truth
before my eyes.

They’re all gone now
fenceposts bare—
but I still see
those rhymes out there.
Burma-Shave.

Penelope's Tea Party

Sounds a little bourgeoisie
to put on a formal sit-down tea
all dressed up with a bumblebee

As she sets up under the willow tree
it's the perfect antidote to a bout of ennui
for sweet little adorable Penelope

A couple of cookies fresh from the bakery
a french custard that's sublimely velvety
topped with a garnish of floral scented potpourri

Oh how charming and delightful to be
blessed with a child's spontaneity
and find pleasure in such simplicity



AP: 2nd place 2025

SMASH POTATOES-

Culinary creativity  
and experimentation
"Smashed potatoes...
I garnish them basil 
Partially douse in salt"
Sensory delight
 and pleasure
"Boredom in the water...
Popped and butter 
What a tasty substance"
Joy and satisfaction
 "Numb, numb yum mashed 
Creative and playful 
Expression of culinary delight 
And the joy of cooking

3/22/25
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.2024 


Scriptural reinforcement

- 1 Corinthians 10:31: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
- Deuteronomy 8:10: "When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you."
- Acts 2:46: "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."

Sonnets Before Surrender and The Building That Follows

The war refuses the head, below wasting in dead
Rearing the front as storms fell the timbers rot
Upheavals breast, shorn and filled in neglect
Lay useless she had cried, allow dimple and deny

Tis only folly we are joined from, seasons blurry
Contemptuous fury, theatrical brevity, lifeless
Burning misery, hasn’t all gone and come
Just so fiddle and spun, as garnish and lathe
Without soured breads fortune, and curled ears late

Forever they attend, a hearts creative bend
And rule they must, alas at lose in unbreakable crust
He in hand created this land, in tales of ferried rows
Gentled slave we musn’t hate, crucible’s labors as knave

In there buildings, craving and fighting, loud and obscene
Fruitful as flies, multiplying night skies
Crying babes of violence, unruly and brutal
Off again we should shout as they, steam filled hovels in suet

205 Je chilo amar swapanachareenee - Tagoreweb

205. She was my dreamer weave, roaming grace in my dreamland
                      Unbridled a mystic riddle, puzzling befuddling kind
                                Days are gone by to seek , to beseech, they were
A tide met the will, and we met as wills met beyond verses, unsay-able
To garnish the scar, borrowing Scarborough next to Tucson
Then they foretold they all, the roll the call, all became a clear water in assimilation


Unsung, they sang my song
Unlearned they preached my heart song, in near and far intertwining chime
An invaluable hymn alone, sings there in a croon, nursing clues in my gone a noon, nap time
Eternally the stanza is returning back to the first my soul sings to overcome skeptic a critic
Only you dwell there to hue the twilight clouds, discernible.

More LetterKu

Gregarious Giles gladly gathers garnish greens gentle Greta grows.

Haggard Harriet hardly has half her hoppity hare’s health habits.

"Injun" invective incenses indigenous individual.

find another place to live

Sam is improverished and alone
destitute, deprived, depressed,
an alley rat who does not garnish sympathy or empathy

his family turned him out thirty-six years ago
at fifteen he was told to “find another place to live”
his parents chased him out when he told them he was gay

his lifestyle went against their religious beliefs
their lack of compassion and spirituality killed his spirit
cruel callousness changed their loving son into a stranger
a lonely sad alley rat

They Said

They said I was lost;
they needed to take me to therapy to find me sitting in a rocking chair hating the beauteous stretch of miles of God's cotton fields white waiting for me to break my back.

They said I was too quiet,
that even when the peoples were dying of thirst and ran to the gate to cry for freedom,
I stood where my roots were strewn to the earth and dug deep,
down down deep until I reached the face of their fear staring straight at me.

They called it saboteur, that my eyes were too deep, that what interested me to look beyond what the herd could see?

They said I was not loyal.

I have been at your feet since before the coming of the pale devils who gave you salt to garnish your brothers’ death.
I have held the glory of your name in my index finger, when I squeezed the trigger that fired blood towards our continuity.

I killed and died for you, thou fool.
I died like the hopelessness of an impotent man.

They said I was a good man when I died.
They finally spoke a truth. But I am not satisfied.
I want justice for my brothers who might die like I did.

Neither Cricket Nor Croquet

   Discriminating palates
      garnish salads with shallots
    
   But when eating croquettes
      avoid mallets

Vagueness inherits the Pond

Everyone has a favorite pond
where they come to put garnish upon...
Some bring koi and water lily
singing stones- the scent of mint
wading birds dressed in paradise
cattails waltzing with the wind.

Envy arrives at your pond
with treble hooks and buckshot eyes
turning tranquility into graves
plastic bags dancing in the shade.
Serenity forever pocked
a fifth of envy clanging off the rocks
As a vague gray scans the quiet-quiet frons.

be creative the professor said

be creative the professor said
I thought I was
what did I do wrong?
I did not mean THAT creative, he told me.
In a stern, mean condescending way.
The trouble is,
I do not know how to be less creative.
And why would I want to?
Albert Einstein said, "Creativity is Intelligence having fun."
If there is anyone who wants to garnish more fun
You are looking at her.

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