Haughtily Poems | Examples

do you care if he said it

what if perchance he said it? She asked me.
This was an odd woman
sharing personal information with me at a party
I had just met her.

Why don’t you ask him? I suggested.
We are not speaking, she told me haughtily.
Do you care if he said it?
Not really.

Why spend time thinking about it then?
She stared at me for a second
Then rushed away.
To speak to another party-goer.

As I walked past them I heard her say
“What if he said it?”
I walked a little bit faster

What Price For Glory

On stage he struts in sequined costume,
a plume of feathers cocked high on head
A thespian poet of no account is ranting
though his troupe boasts of his skill and talent
But the look of a charlatan paints his face
when he's alone.  Heartache he embraces
for he's aware that he's been misleading
himself and his bleeding heart followers,
the extras he casts to applaud his show. 

"Bravo!  Bravo!"
He paid them to sit in the audience shouting,
and boasting on him while standing in ovation. 
They whistle for more, for his unearned encore.

He promises, "I'll support you all one day."
Foolish would-be, presume without a doubt
that he's a man of his word, but that's absurd
for actors such as he never share the limelight
once the spotlight shines on a narcissist's face.

What price does he pay for his moment of glory?
The highest toll is the loss of a soul.
Each bow he takes should give cause for worry
that one day the bird catcher will collect his due.
He'll barter with Satan for being haughtily boastful
for being puffed up with pride, and for his crime
the foolish one must relinquish his soul.

Flock Plus One

Flock Plus One
Crouching among a gaggle of
dabbling Canadian geese,
a brown skinned child pushes back
long black hair,
intent on building a tidal pool
of which he can be King.
Extending a ridiculously long neck,
a goose wades gingerly into the water,
snapping his wings forward in a fluster,
indignant with the cold.
Another approaches the boy curiously,
black eyes assessing the construction;
haughtily disinterested, it continues ambling
along the inlet.
The sporadic hiss and honking of a gander
whose life mate is being wooed by another
doesn’t faze the child,
methodically tapping his palms
along the outskirts of his pond.
Another goose watches him,
unconcerned,
from her nest on a muskrat mound,
tiny hatchlings in yellow down
chirp soundlessly.
Spittles of rain dust the child’s
ebony hair
and the gaggle’s black feathers.
The cluster huddles around the boy,
having seemingly accepted him

as one of their own.

Brooding River

Brooding River

This winter saw a lot of rain in the river near the houses, still running clear and lucid, giving its soul
to the ocean
On the old Roman bridge, I asked the river to stop wasting its precious sweet water on the salty sea
One cannot let thirsty horses drink brackish water
having hauled a cart full of dead sheep up to the mountain top as offering by an idiot savant, a gift
to a god that only exists in feverish minds
The river hears me not, its job is to run dry during the summer for at fall be reborn.
Beware of a river that has no fish!
Those who haughtily laugh will be turned into frogs banks, are full of them, petrified seeing nothing.
Only a princess can make them human again, but they will still retain the souls of frogs.
Alas, due to hard times, the princess is a dancer in a Spanish nightclub, knows nothing about emails, and is not on Facebook.

Teenagehood

Knick-knacks, bottle caps, pop tabs, and acid
The reflux of my mind of many memories redacted
Connections don't elucidate the fuzzy things that happen
Only emphasize the vacuity of brains fried and flattened

I wouldn't deign to age another decade with this habit
But self-control's a feeble virtue in youthful years uncounted 
Demote me to a lesser life where everything is vapid
My rancor for the world only grows as time elapses

I press on indulgently into the sugared gasses
The romance of it influence next generations addicts
For boys discover empathy and girls affirm their status
They haughtily plod to the tracks as the sully train passes

Four Cafes - Nfc

Outside the four cafes, four dogs awaited their caffeine crazed owners.  Sniffing different street signs, taking inventory of who’d already been there.  Four dog “owners” exited the cafés.  A tall blonde, possibly bleached, retrieved the dog and haughtily gazed at the “other” cafes and dogs. A slightly rumpled donut muncher hurriedly hustled away with a slightly rumpled mutt. A lithe and limber, skin tight yoga panted Latte carrier, glided away.  The dog, nose high, sniffed nothing.  A rather large flannel shirt exited café number four, the dog nuzzled its owner.  It’s reward, a hearty greeting and vigorous petting.
	Shortly thereafter they all met at the dog park, the dogs that is.  The owners took their places.  One sat silently engrossed in a book.  One talked loudly into a cell phone.  One primped and posed while taking “selfies”.  One watched and laughed at the antics of the dogs.
	As they left the dog park the cups told a story.  One was left on a bench, one tossed on the ground, one rinsed and filled with water so the dog might have a drink, and one placed in the recycle barrel.  

John G. Lawless
©3/3/2023

My Satisfying Revenge Dream

I grabbed my steel machete and chopped off her head.
She is dead now, she is dead now, she is cement dead.
My first husband slept through it, I can hear him snore.
I got my boss, I can get you too, I say, my imagination full of gore.

My hazel eyes pop open and I realize I have done it again.
I kill my boss nightly, in my dream world, surely this is a sin.
But she deserves it, I think. My latest review was mean.
She is haughty and stuck up, fancies herself a queen.

During the day at work I pretend I like this arrogant woman a lot.
I fawn and grovel, pretending she is not Kansas City's biggest snot.
Today she was talking college words way above my head again.
I visualized myself cutting her measly throat, surely this is a sin.

Are you with me? She haughtily asked as she graphed.
I saw the ornamental sword on the wall and I laughed.
Seeing her head rolling around on the floor helped me a lot.
I cannot wait to see what I do in my dream tonight to the snot.

Manipulation

Draw the curtains
Dim the light
Get settled down
For this long winter night
Almost dozing In my chair
A sleeping cat on my knee
Feeling warm and content
A pleasant place to be.
A fire in the grate
A red hot ember bed
Before which my lady sits
Toasting crusty bread

An old fashioned fork
Holds the speared slices down
Which the embers very quickly
Turn a shade of golden brown
A buttered toast and coffee supper
The toast spread with marmalade 
One of those special snacks
Hot, tasty,simple, homemade. 
The cat stretches and grumbles
As I reach for my treats
Not the sort of thing any
Self respecting  cat eats.

With a disdainful air
She leaps to,the floor
Haughtily strides away
Knee not needed anymore
When I’ve grovelled sufficiently
I’ll in time be forgiven and then
I’m sure she’ll condescend
To occupy my knee again
Its a scene repeated nightly
And I’m getting used to that
It’s hell being appointed human
To the disdainful resident cat.

The Image

Door slightly ajar
Pushed far
It's the second storey
Hosting a romantic story
Furniture spartan and simple,
Not stately like her, but dull
The whirring fan, overweening 
Haughtily saying, 'I can'
The heat, still unrelenting
Source, the sizzling thing
Negligibly clad
She crazy & he going mad
Raising the mercury further
Between him & her
Her statue-like pose
There his heart goes
Slightly raised knee
The yoga posture of a tree?
He hugs the trunks
With her love, punch drunk
And the image stays
All nights, all days.

Chicago Med

Chicago Med is my main jam.
My favorite is when Dr. Sam
Haughtily consults
And others insults
While acts like not giving a damn.

4.25.22

Abecedarian Alliteration

An abecedarian Australian animal activist
Bagged bodacious big bucks
Caustically criticizing crocodiles,
Driving darling dragons
Essentially extinct. Eschewing
Fact, fabricating fanciful fiction,
Grifting gloriously,
He haughtily held hostage
Important, instructive information,
Juxtaposed jaundiced, junk
Kangaroo kills,
Leveling large lizard libel,
Manufacturing marsupial misinformation malevolently.
On other ominous occasions,
Preferring pernicious propaganda,
Quickly, querulously, quashed
Real, rational reports, rather,
Substituted several substantially
Tarnished technical travesties,
Undermining unified understanding.
Very vociferously, viciously
Wrote works without warrant,
Xenophobic xenotypic
yarns, yammering yellow-bellied yawps,
Zombie-like, zealously.

London

London
Past meets present meets future,
Smoothed pavement meets uneven cobblestone, water filtering through the divots accumulated from consistently dull weather days,
Tall buildings, cathedrals, skyscrapers, each holding different people, stories,
Short buildings, flats, pubs, filled with red-faced arguments over the classification of ‘chips’ in fish and chips,
Bumbling tourists getting pickpocketed on the Tube, an expat know-it-all watching from a cafe, a local haughtily observing it all as they speed-walk past,
The ferry putters by, the captain repeating his script and jokes he probably now hears in his sleep from the repetition, repetition, repetition,
“How can you tell the tourists from the locals? Wave and see who bothers responding,”
 The people on board cackle because it’s their first time hearing it, and “Oh, Mark, dear, can we please tip him a little extra? He was just too kind,”
The London Eye keeps turning, blinking as the days pass, blinded by the cherry red buses that shock against the gray concrete,
The cars keep left, the people who have left are replaced on the next flight over,
London

Band Aid Please

Give me a band aid please! He said.
He is three and loves them.
Star Wars band aids, Darth Vader band aids, 
Roblox band aids, Power Ranger band aids,
Barbie band aids, puppy band aids.
He is wearing six of them on his legs already.
I give him a box and he adds to his collection.
Pleased to be entertained.
Mommy does not let me do this! He informs me haughtily.
Mommies can’t, grandma’s can, I reply.

Changes

confused,lonely;
sad and a bit mad.
a myriad of emotions flooding inside of me.

disrupting the tranquility that once wielded the sceptre of my mind;
destroying the seclusion, 
my only pride and joy;
ripping me off my solitude i once haughtily wore like a crown.

you hit me like a storm hits the serene blue sea;
but how oh how does my soul,
just a dilapidated old boat ,
brave the thus raging waters?

how oh how do i drift through
the whirlpool of sentiments swirling inside?

do tell me,
how oh how do i escape this turbulence
doomed to bring me my end?

for you have broken me down to a mere nothing.
i am nothing at all.

Of Poetic Verse, a Heavenly Illumination

Of Poetic Verse, A Heavenly Illumination 


As Seen By Heaven's True Light

Vanity of shallow purple robe kings
Dismissive of Heaven's true saving light
Brutish and naked in darkness they sing
Haughtily shouting of their shallow might.

Robert J. Lindley,  70-?
Quatrain

*******

As Seen By Heaven's Soft Glow

Glittering stars illuminating night
As titans that vanished so long ago
We imagine them in eternal flight
And in distance merely a short stone's throw.

Robert J. Lindley,  70-?
Quatrain

*******

As Seen By Heaven's Beauty

Be softly calm and so quietly still
Let the soft flowing winds hear no sad cries
Tis love that eager heart so truly fills
And Heaven's beauty that graces night skies.

Robert J. Lindley,  70-?
Quatrain

Note: Three quatrains that were born back in the late 70's.
I do so regret whenever  I find my old poems
with either no notes or else incomplete notes.

• Short Haughtily Poems
• Famous Haughtily Poems
• Best Haughtily Poems
• Read Haughtily Poems
• Long Haughtily Poems
• Haughtily Quotes