THE HEAVYWEIGHT AND THE FEATHERWEIGHT
Poem written for Ridiculous Comparisons Poetry Contest, Miranda Hawley, sponsor, July 23, 2025
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There’s the elephant, a lumbering titan,
a true heavy weight with a heart that beats like thunder,
each footfall a seismic event,
a gentle giant, who with the grace of a ballet dancer
could crush a car if ballet were performed in slow motion
and involved a lot of mud.
Then there’s the hummingbird—a blur of iridescence,
a caffeine- sugar- fueled acrobat, a featherweight warrior
who sips nectar like a drunken poet,
lost in a world of fleeting moments.
It’s a tiny, feathered daredevil,
with the attention span of a gnat.
R43 QUITE TRIVAL WHEN HEAVYWEIGHT BOXER BOB SATTERFIELD SERVED IN THE ARMY FROM 1942 TO 1945 WHERE HE BEGAN BOXING AFTER RETURNING FROM WAR 1945 AMAZING R 43 DID YOU MEAN MY MOM BIRTH WARM MEMORIES OF UNCLE BOBBY LIFE GOES ON GOD BLESS AMERICA
hawk flies over my head
he is traveling low
I glance up and see him land on a tree limb
he is a beauty, tan and white
gone before I can snap a photo
I am glad I am a heavyweight
can you imagine being picked up by those talons?
"Yeah, Tolstoy,
the guy could write like he was carving his name
into a mountain.
A real heavyweight.
He saw the whole circus of life and didn’t blink.
Kings and peasants, love and death, all rolled into one.
Maybe too serious for his own good,
but that’s what made him real.
The man had guts,
a vision too big for most people to stomach.
When you ou read him, you felt it deep."
finances, romances and other current events..a trilogy, burying my beloved niece what a tragedy..overwhelmed but I refuse anything pharmaceutical,what else can go wrong..um spent!
put ah lil' sugar in it.
took a part-time job to help things out fell asleep on the highway last night,heck, I was tired. you holler it will make you resilient and strong..I holler for what I'm not an athlete, I'm not ah heavyweight um about to "pull my hair out"I can't even do that cause um baldheaded.
put ah lil' sugar in it.
there are those who gloat in my diabolical predicament,
put ah lil' sugar..
My mind is clear
open to new ideas
heavyweight lifted off shoulders
my thinking
is going in the right direction
Ocular hypertension and
A couple of jabs here
I read the letters on the chart and
Threw in the towel
But she was adamant
The connotations
Pay-per-view Las Vegas
Ears bitten
Jubba-jubba-jib-jab and
A bathroom meteorologist
I got the receptionist
In a headlock
I didn't kill Davey Moore
But I made another appointment and
Promised her the next time I was in
I would be the heavyweight champion of the world
A steady hand lifts the glass mug of the next regret.
He twirled me on the dance floor, left stained by blue collar shoeprints and leaky pints.
In the corner, the referee refuses to let there be a fair fight,
favoring the heavyweight champion of the pool table and
fatty knuckles sever the ego of a cheeky, toothy grin.
The coins jumping in his pocket show off their boogie moves,
and we dance, and dance and dance until the sun returns sanity to the humble joint.
At the dive bar on Westchester Street, the rules are blurred, and happiness is disguised.
To nature's norms have I complied -
I laughed, I cried, I lived. I tried.
I'd like to think in aftermath
There's more to my existence path.
I paid the procreation dues,
Dear offspring and their offspring too.
My children opened up my eyes
Far beyond me, myself and I.
The grandkids taught me quite a bit -
There's more to golden age than knit.
No shutters to wondering mind,
Just open it and you will find -
In brighter hue the greener grass
Is on our side in front of us.
Power is not how much but how
To stay aboard the flight of now.
Retired bliss converts the course -
Discretionary time to pause.
Smelling the roses is a must
As flower fanfare fading fast.
Hunger for knowledge, free to sate,
But wisdom's pride is heavyweight.
(No known tip-off to neutralize -
To shed the weights and keep the wise).
The all time norm by which I vow -
Not there nor then but here and now.
To nature's norms have I complied -
Once upon a time lived I!
February 27, 2023
An applecart of half-eaten ideas
pushed into sight by heavyweight ghosts.
Wormwood and cider
the aroma of root beer in a lit-up air.
The poet pauses….judges the hunger
of his next line
to fulfill the wishes of finger-following gods.
Orchard trees separate, bow out of the crowd
to stand alone in the spaces between the words.
Sandalwood is harvested for the coming cremation,
the fire tongs are white hot
as they pluck burning fruit
out of the furnace of an Archean Ur
where the charred apples find grazing mouths
Nature mulches in the churning
now the apple is in the maggot
ready to sour or delight.
Wool gathering shepherds guide their flocks
from the pulverizing organs
of creation
into valleys of dark and light.
The young man was tough
and got his job done.
A heavyweight Champ
at just twenty some.
Most of those men
who gave it a run.
Were flat on the canvas
from a right uppercut.
Iron Mike was a Bad Man
and tough as they come.
A World Champion,
He, Retains the only one.
An Airline International KLM,
Heavily landed
With heavyweight dead body
Belongs to Professor KLM,
Before it was off loaded
Into his Black Mercedes Off-road
In a rush
To the bush
To be buried in the village
Where he left since his teenage,
To be buried by same relatives,
Whom he treated as slaves
And same villagers,
Whom he treated as beggars.
This Professor of Mathematics
And Economics
Who wrote several proposals
For his villagers
To be poorer
Is buried near his leaning roof
Which is ten times and half,
Worse
Than the village chairman’s house.
Which plant
Do you think we would plant?
On top of his grave
While he doesn’t deserve
To rest under the shade of plants
For sweet fruits!
To hell!
standing firm with the shoulders of giants ~ Klitschko bro’s remain defiant
World heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali klitschko
remain in Kyiv to fight the Russian invaders, they could have
left and lived like kings anywhere in the world, as they share
great wealth, from their boxing careers
Both these giants stand about 6ft7” tall,
Putin has apparently put bounties on their heads
and are major targets for the Russian army
“Be emboldened every day”
By David Kavanagh
Handsomely heroic
Half human heavyweight
Hera hates, harries him
Hacks hideous hydras
Hunts horrid Hades hound
Hippolyta heister
Hitches honey, Hebe
—————
For the “Greek mythology” Poetry Contest”
Sponsored by Joseph May
Syllables checked with HowManySyllables.com
Written on 02/25/2022
There’s a speak your weight machine in Leeds
It’s instructions for use are a breeze
I thought it was neat
Got on in bare feet
It said one at a time if you please
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