Gouging Poems | Examples

Make It Stop

I'm beating my heart against a barbed wire fence.
Pain from all directions.
I don't know what to do..
It's killing me.

I just want this pain to stop,
It's ripping me up inside.
Tearing, gouging, blood letting.
It's killing me.

My lungs are filling with blood,
I can't breathe.
My heart still beats,
But it's losing the fight.

Make it stop!
I don't want to feel any more,
It's killing me.

Anxiety

Little insects burrowing into my skull
A burning under my skin
An insatiable itch i cant scratch 
So all i do is tear my skin apart 
My skin is no longer mine
Like needles 
Repeatedly gouging into my palms to remind me of my desperation
And the only thing that can calm it is gone 
Its gone and I’m alone in the dark
Left to embark on this journey alone 
Anxiety 
I squeeze every muscle in my body
In hope
But it wont 
push out any hurt
It stays
It’s the only thing that really ever means forever.

Anxiety

Anxiety 
Little insects burrowing into my skull
A burning under my skin
An insatiable itch i cant scratch 
So all i do is tear my skin apart 
My skin is no longer mine
Like needles 
Repeatedly gouging into my palms to remind me of my desperation
And the only thing that can calm it is gone 
Its gone and I’m alone in the dark
Left to embark on this journey alone 
Anxiety 
I squeeze every muscle in my body
In hope
But it wont 
push out any hurt
It stays
It’s the only thing that really ever means forever.

I Caught Covid In Spite of My Vaccinations

New York state is paying 20 cents for gloves that normally cost less than five cents, $7.50 for masks that normally go for 50 cents, $2,795 for infusion pumps that normally cost half that, $248,841 for a portable X-ray machine that typically sells for $30,000 to $80,000.

Who's pocketing all this? An array of producers, importers, wholesalers and speculators. State laws against price gouging usually don't apply to government purchases.

Some of it may be finding its way into this fall's election campaigns. The veteran Republican fundraiser Mike Gula and Republican political operative John Thomas just started a company selling coronavirus testing kits, personal protective equipment and other "hard to find medical supplies to beat the outbreak". They call themselves "the largest global network of Covid-19 medical suppliers".

Asked how he'd found such equipment, Gula explained: "I have relationships with a lot of people."

Thomas added: "In politics - especially if you're at a high enough level - you are one phone call away from anybody in the world."

Just Bee-Have

Well, darn--I wish bushes grew faster.
That might help me avoid a disaster.
What is a buzz-maestro supposed to do
when a Hummer takes nectar from you?

I've buzzed by all my usual haunts.
They're out of stock--what about MY wants?
When nectar comes in, price is sky-high.
(I think it's price gouging, between you and I.)

What can a bee drink and hold his head high?
Something else I'm now bein' forced to try.
Say--here's a glass prettied up like snow.
I'm calling Buzz and Sting--we'll give it a go.
                          * * *
Now Buzz is dive-bombin' and then crashin'.
He's pretty funny but could get a thrashin'.
Sting's gone crazy, flies around upside down.
That witch's brew made them come unwound.

We're flying off before it becomes night.
Man, if they aren't a pitiful sight!
Guess I'd better start actin' all grown.
Maybe even talk that Hummer into a loan!

May 25, 2022
for Bee Creative Poetry Contest
by Matt Caliri

The Sky Smiles

Water cascades down the falls
untethered from protocols.
And gouging out river beds
deposits silt as it spreads.
The sky smiles with a rainbow
and in the mist far below,
water cascades down the falls.


(Elemental)


7/09/2021

Calm As a Duck

twin city-house shakes
gouging to prepare for new road
         shovel lifts the earth -
         in a row with their mother
ducklings waddle past window

Killing a Gemini Idea Is Not Easy

Gemini's ideas cannot be squelched.
They are not easily bruised or injured.
Even if you put a dent in them, they do not go quietly 

There is squirming,  kicking
Biting, scratching, screaming, stabbing
Gouging, pinching, hitting, and slicing

Even psychopaths and sociopaths 
eventually learn to leave Gemini's ideas alone
Usually agreeing it is easier to go after another birth sign's ideas.

Titanic Plates

Light bursts
Ignite in the sky
Gouging cracks and
Holes through
The darkness
Now a nagging goading
In my ear
Noom-Kaboom
Titanic sky plates grind

Digital Translation

Ten fingers
left and right palm pig squeezing a thief’s prayer merry

One finger
covetously dipped in the pie hole green apple gouging

Nine fingers
raven cloaked in vulture reaper robes condor circling

Two fingers 
giving the universal sign of double cross peace

Eight fingers 
talking black market side deal shogun spidery

Three fingers
got a pirate hook grip anchored in the purse sea

Seven fingers
be flagpole nose lying king Nero pose wannabes

Four fingers
preying mantis quotes holding the predator smile idoly

Six fingers
covered in silver serpentine tongue saliva oozing sticky

Five fingers
richly shaking down poor nations through debt slavery

Zero thumbs up
sell those Judas war coin lovers on the submarine ferry

Anxiety

On the surface everything is fine
But if you look behind my eyes
Everything is slowly crumbling
As the panic takes root

Thoughts come in disjointed fragments
And everything should make sense
But everything is a puzzle piece
That no longer fits into place

Common sense was abandoned
Logic was thrown out the window
And all that's left is irrationality
And the idea everything is wrong

The problem was a scratch on the wall
That I made worse by gouging with a nail
Heartbeat frantic, thoughts frenetic
Eyes wide, sweat rolling

Seconds pass like minutes
Words refuse to process properly
Everything seems so dark
Alongside a crushing weight

But on the surface everything is fine
But if you look behind my eyes
Everything has crumbled
And my mind is blank

Me, Myself and I

I forged my dreams in the mire of regret
The past had not passed me for long
The angel of Death awaits my plea of ignorance
While the sands of time bury my aspiration

I acknowledge my mistakes
Yet, do not learn from them--
Walking backward with Epimetheus off the cliff
My disdain surmounts my discerning heart's integrity

Between me, myself, and I
We produce the same Lie
Gouging out my eyes to spite my mind
I am solely affixed to its lack of fervor

My descent into dissent imprisons me
This island is no longer a paradise
I cannot run from my own mind
But, I can turn down the volume, just for tonight...

Bedtime Story

The depths of my depravity sink
My cruel and careless mind is aligned
With eyes affixed on all I've solely lost:
I dance with my scapegoating ghosts

Yearning to turn the page:
My hands are cut off by Hammurabi--
To keep from gouging Oedipus' eyes:
I am written out of the story

Ambition does not lust after me
I am forgotten in Dante's Inferno
My hands have denied any involvement--
They cite my brain for a lack-of-character(s)

Volition is cemented in the mire of Regret
Yet, She still screams to me:
"'Out damn'd spot! Out, I say!'"
So, we bury my tell-tale heart under the floor...

The Hiding Place

I remember those lazy days of summer
when we rode away on horseback
down dusty, deserted country roads;
took our shoes and socks off;
neared the trail to the river;
walked so free and easy;
gouging out that red Alabama loam
with our toes.

When we got to our fishing hole,
you took worms and baited my hook;
then, served me your specialty,
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
We ate while I listened to the whippoorwills
imitating other birds miles down stream;
echoing back their strange, haunting melodies.
I fell asleep there, still holding on to my fishing pole.

You never listened to those country sounds.
I now wish they'd return,
those free and easy days of summer
when the wind blew all our problems away
like crumpled up pieces of paper
and saved them for us
another year in its hiding place
stashed behind the thicket.

Janet Marie Bingham

Sole Survivor

Tremulous soil plays host to fleeing frightened fauna as
cacophonic outpourings shatter my serenity.

Whilst my delicate limbs shake in symphonic sympathy,
spluttering engines of destruction belch caustic black plumes,
burnished blades gouging vicious fissures in Mother's carpet.

Horrified, I bear witness, as immemorial kin
are butchered and unceremoniously hauled away;
their dessicated carcasses destined to line pockets.

Now I stand alone: sole survivor of this massacre.
Left to contemplate my fate, I muse: when will my time come...?

--------------------------------------------------

(14 syllables per line - checked with howmanysyllables.com)

16 September 2017

For the "Personification of Plant" Premiere Contest, sponsored by Kim Rodrigues.
(4th Place)

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