grifters and grafters,
hang like bats in the rafters,
feasting on the moths—
they charm while skimming their schemes,
build loophole ladders of graft
Categories:
grifters, corruption,
Form: Tanka
They do not spend their time at home
the way most families do
Talking of the day’s events
and dreams they will pursue
Oh no, this family’s different
they’re led by dirty Don
Steeped in lifetime swindle
a master of the con
Bit coins, crypto, real estate
corrupt in every way
Saudi secret deals are how
these grubby grifters play
Now they have a new account
they’ll siphon from each day
It’s called the U.S. treasury
no doubt, their greatest prey
Categories:
grifters, corruption, family,
Form: Rhyme
Right and wrong are human concepts, and like
night and day, it's clear what sets them apart.
Fight or flight, warps my outlook and clouds my
Sight, for I stop listening to my heart.
My world is changing so negatively,
I now fear what tomorrow may bring.
Sky-high prices fuel inflation while
sly grifters promote bitcoins, memes, and bling.
Folks are tethered to smartphones that feel like
yokes around their necks, keeping them online.
Hoax or not, climate change is happening,
oak and elm are being replaced by pine.
Crime and anxiety are starting to
climb, and everyone's filled with dread and fear.
I'm afraid that the world is primed for war,
time is fast running out; that much seems clear.
Categories:
grifters, america, angst, anxiety, bullying,
Form: Lento
There’s a demon on my shoulder,
clipping toenails into my ear
An angel on the other,
nibbles wax so I can hear
He makes balm for my lips,
lights candles once a year
Both play devil’s advocate;
God knows they’re insincere?
Their words are quite pointed,
but sharper when being blunt?
My ears burn like hell
as rumours exchange every month
This tug-of-war’s relentless,
pulling strings to win my soul
If i’m nothing special;
why fight tooth and nail for control?
Lately they’ve switched shoulders,
maybe it’s to explore
Candles burn less often,
not on birthdays like before
Toenails fall unchecked,
my balm-less lips crack and swell
One day I’m living in heaven;
the next feels like bloody hell
This war is wearing me down
I can’t do wrong for right
My hair feels thinner,
no surprise from this endless fight
Searching for bald spots in the mirror
sheds light on their attack:
Those grifters do Brazilians
and pedicures behind my back.
By
David Kavanagh
Categories:
grifters, allusion, perspective,
Form: Rhyme
gigantic girlish ghouls gathered at Gate’s gazebo
glabrous ghouls glistening grotesque globs of gloom
gothic goldbricking good-for-nothing gossips on the go
green-eyed grandstanding grifters, guests of green groom.
Categories:
grifters, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form: Alliteration
Faith's journey of exploration,
helps us to see life's suspension
as its completion, not its end,
creation, includes ascension.
Learn how to distinguish a friend
from grifters who only pretend.
And let love fill your heart with hope,
for Faith avows that souls ascend.
Experience life; don't just cope,
balance anxiety's tightrope;
and let trust keep you in control;
even on a slippery slope.
Forget the church's rigamarole,
there is no shortcut, no loophole.
Life's a cacophony of sounds;
hear them within both heart and soul.
Categories:
grifters, anxiety, encouraging, how i
Form: Rubaiyat
Out with infighting and lack of general respect,
Let’s restore our Congressional reputation
Rank partisanship and grandstanding
While padding their own coffers, I expect!
Let’s rid ourselves of all the current trolls
“Let’s throw the bums out,” it has been said,
Not a one of them worth saving, I suspect.
Better off with zombies at the controls.
Let’s start by ditching Mitch; Pelosi, too,
Right down to the bottom of the barrel
Grifters, the shysters, and arrogant fools
Send McCarthy and Schumer to Timbuktu.
Greene, and Gaetz, and dummy Gohmert
Publicity hounds and holier-than-thous
Let’s start with a clean slate this year
Out with Cruz, Cotton, and Lauren Boebert.
Repubs and Dems—all those fat cats alike,
We need to start with a clean slate now
Hire those who will make government run
Let’s tell Madison Cawthorn to take a hike.
All of them! – I’ve just named a very few
But I can’t think of a single one I’d keep,
Clear out the entire House and the Senate
We need to clean up this despicable zoo!
HONORABLE MENTION
"Religion or Politics No. 7" Poetry Contest
All Poetry.com
April 24, 2022
Written April 9, 2022
Categories:
grifters, america, goodbye, perspective, political,
Form: Quatrain
Did I learn a worthy trade? Study war as a warrior?
Was I a helper, a first responder,
nurse, nanny, priest, pumpkin farmer,
a horny handed laborer,
did I lecture nitwit’s on the liberal arts or economics?
None of the above.
Yet I claim the kinship of all these,
my esteemed traveling companion:
Master Walt Whitman agrees.
I extol all of you America! All scoundrels,
wasters, longshoremen, coopers, sail makers,
beef butchers, mechanics, farriers, truckers,
tech analysts, grocers, grifters and daytime hookers.
I offer all of you my theoretical talents
and apply them generously to you,
the heaving throngs, and huddled masses.
Praise be and glory to all impractical scribblers,
liars, disgraced philosophers, tricksters, and drunks.
We poets celebrate ourselves,
save the world for ourselves alone,
warn of the terrible dire in the good,
the terrible good in the dire, while distrusting both,
yet still and all, disliking our own works
even more.
Categories:
grifters, poetry,
Form: Free verse
The blonde went down
with not must resistance
shunning off a stressful afternoon
the scene played of society, high
as I peered at all the pretense
and pretend of an I want to be
better than you and me
old men with young jewelry
cradling arms and new cufflinks
with crosses that will never be blessed
but undressed with tightly shut eyes
Cubans smoked, killing air
drifting from an aging beat
chords crafted with ease
toes tapped on the edge of my seat
the moon peeks and says goodnight
the chair nods off unaccompanied
the grifters scrounge for a dollar
I stand up, it's time to go eat
Categories:
grifters, people,
Form: Free verse
Your vote's not a privilege, it's a right;
earned through the sacrifice of blood and tears.
And cast in private, it's the only light
you have to highlight your concerns and fears.
It gives you an equal voice with your peers;
utilize it, before it disappears.
Look at what is occurring around you;
politicians in cahoots with cutthroats.
By spreading lies, till no one knows what's true,
the wealthy are manipulating votes.
Using smug smiles and charming anecdotes:
grifters have us pay for their jets and boats.
Your ballot is cast in a voting booth,
where only you see the choices you make.
Political ploys impact today's youth
for it's their future and freedoms at stake.
There are no guarantees in a handshake,
and billionaires don't rate a tax break.
Before you have no rights, get out and vote;
power poisons; your vote's the antidote.
Categories:
grifters, 12th grade, america, angst,
Form: Sonnet
Freelance wanderer carefully navigating the vast expanse
Shadow warrior doth stealthily advance without
remonstrance
With bartered lance, pawned knife; abridged parlance
Shuffling in tantric harmony o'er unforgiving terrain;
nuanced eccentric
Camel cavalcade, entrancing spectacle across glistening
sands prancing
Shrouded by the frantic wind; each, cloaked itinerant a
tenured mantic
Trading the rationed provenance of open spaces for
gratuitous providence of flowering oases
Prudently forming each tribal alliance; deviously skirting
terms of compliance
Hearth covering from servile herd exacted; animistic
seams redacted
Burdened traveler in psychosomatic trance; by warming
flame, pyromantic
Each tenement provisioned by industrious wives; lofty
presentiment
Hospitality granted to imploring drifters; enmity shown
to extorting grifters
Categories:
grifters, people
Form: Enclosed Rhyme
The City
Brazen horns protest each others presence
Steam rises from beneath the tarnished streets
Taxis tease with flags that say "off duty'
And in the shadows grifters ply their trade
A cacophony of smells assault the senses
Windows dressed up to seduce the eye
Breezes brush against you with a stale breath
Cracked sidewalks yielding to your tread
Isolation in a sea of people
Buildings clinging tightly to each other
Sirens scream the news of unknown victims
The city owns your soul, it lives inside
Categories:
grifters, places,
Form: Free verse