"Strawberry Kisses"
temptation
covert operatives
brush contact 99
coquettish Smart near misses
flirtatious crispness
in the velvet time sliding
softly persuasive
dead dropping
hungry ghosting gumshoes hubristic
dangling dripping words delicious
on tongue twisters
birdwatching the blowback
poiesis ripe
for swallows and ravens
chasing bell ringing
black buried au courant bluebirds out
better than late
Merry Christmas
lips for speaking
freshly plucked
smiles
succulent kisses
cool spooning
for the slightly touched
(LadyLabyrinth / 2021)
Categories:
hubristic, fun, kiss,
Form: Free verse
The collapse
They built an edifice
On a shining hill and
A sandcastle
Here the truth was
Spoken hubristic
One can say
However, they believed in
In the illusion
A man came and stepped
On the castle, it crumbled
Lies and shenanigans
Toppled out for all to see
It was just sand.
The hatred turned to
The truth-teller
He was called a traitor
Rots in a tiny prison cell.
Categories:
hubristic, age, blue, corruption, courage,
Form: Blank verse
How Absurd it Seemed
Ah, those memories, so well refined, reworked, revised to meet the failings of memory – or the shame of remembrance. Tinged now with humor’s hubristic insolence, fleece covered shards of broken lives reassembled in a grotesque collection of stained glass pleading with the moment for forgiveness. Time, imprisoned for aiding and abetting the fugitives, providing refuge for the tattered transgressors, disguising the thoughts, denying the actions, suffering the consequences of eternities amnesia.
how absurd it seemed….
…in a family of black sheep
…to be the black sheep
John G. Lawless
©7/16/2019
Categories:
hubristic, confusion, family, life,
Form: Haibun
thus,
like snow,
cold ashes fall
charred history’s
hubristic gales
truth’s torment
tucked into howling
acquiescent innocence.
Empty men
line the banks
fishless rivers
sit idle
barbless hooks
impugn the air
ivy strangled
rowboats sigh
With age color fades
into the weariness
wonder wanders
among the weeds
joy darts through
day lit darkness
hides hope’s
vacant sunshine
time taints
tomorrow’s tomorrow
the calendar’s lie
tri-colored ink charade
mocking the idleness
of one so busy
last call
nightcap dosage
John G. Lawless
©6/8/2019
Categories:
hubristic, age, america, life, youth,
Form: Free verse
At night, I often roam around
the so-called shady side of town.
As I blend in, the people flow
in places decent folk don't go.
I've come to know a face or two
and sure some recognize me, too.
I fantasize about their lives,
detecting some hubristic vibes.
I ponder how they came to dwell
in such a place, akin to Hell.
I wonder if they're here to stay.
For surely they weren't born this way.
Perhaps some came intentionally,
escaping lives of misery.
Too grim was their reality,
so here they found serenity.
They'd rather deal with snotty glares
from folks who don't know why they're there,
than parch in various degrees
of social thoughts and tendencies
to view a dog better than thee,
simply because they're
black,
like me.
Categories:
hubristic, social,
Form: Rhyme
You're bracing for
the hubristic lecture
it's not here
The crux:
unvarnished understanding
of how blacks see
their outlook for life
Only narrow options:
they can give in, go through
or go around - a predicate path
Try to feel what it's like
to be born black today
soul-deadening suppression
systemically smothers patience
Crime, drugs, gangs,
rebellious pride seem
viable options for those
who may not see thirty
four thousand lynchings in
Jim Crow South till now
do lives matter
Blacks feel the constant fight
Blacks feel identity loss
Blacks feel crime gives cover
Blacks feel numbing is okay
Blacks feel tribal is safe
Blacks feel whites are asleep
Anthropologists say humanity
has Nubian origins
from the beginning we are one
Gandhi, Mandela, King
were proponents of
compassion, forgiveness, love
some whites reciprocate with
ignoring, masking, denial
too few understand
Blacks feel trapped
Categories:
hubristic, discrimination, drug, forgiveness, judgement,
Form: Free verse
Sisyphus
He rolled the boulder with his burdened shoulder up that treacherous summit
Tricked in hubristic self-righteousness again and again he thought he had done it
We engage in similar madness regardless of whether Gods punished us somehow
or we simply can’t fathom another journey on the path to inner enlightenment
miss the signs and the signposts when or ways fail when stones refuse to relent
but can be split into fragments when we grant us permission for change and allow
release alternative solutions of metaphorical splinters from arrogant highbrow
where peaks of peace result from shattered acceptance and humble atonement
Once we’re forgiven
and forgive our delusion
that we know and are certain
hold truth when we don’t
stones can roll all by themselves
and moss rests at the cliff face
Categories:
hubristic, peace,
Form: Verse
(A) brown skin girl from Kosciusko
now from the world of Harpo (is)
hubristic in determination.
Vitality is her achievement in Black America.
Patois she explores as she shares her vision that is
Apparent to listening to her OWN intuition.
Futuristic characteristic she deploys.
A mason jar of lighting bugs to bring forth
to revolutionize via innovation.
Ultramodern in her political activism.
Argots as she speaks.
She’s a trailblazer of ideas.
_______________________________________________|
Written February 20, 2016!
Categories:
hubristic, black african american, history,
Form: Free verse
Comin’ Through
They stand there
monuments to stupidity
blocking progress,
denying access
or egress
to the doorways
corridors
checkout lines
coffee pots
of life
JUST STANDING THERE
totally enamored of themselves -
the urgency of their idle chit-chat.
Suffering from auricular atrophy
unable to hear anything but their own voices,
immune to common courtesy
looking at me as if “I HAVE A NERVE”
disrupting their insensitivity by requesting
“PERMISSION TO PASS THROUGH”
this huddle of hubristic pomposity.
They are masters of the “HARRUMPHHH” face
a look designed to make the dog pee,
the cat bristle and slink away,
me know that I have offended
the sensitivities of the insensitive
ruffled the feathers of the featherless
dared to insert a comma into their run on existence.
John G. Lawless
8/1/2015
Categories:
hubristic, people, rude,
Form: Free verse
Embellish My Day
Embellish my day into a full life worthy to be lived in your presence.
Erase my nonchalance and hubristic thoughts before the fiery declivity
consumes this life and body. The bird's song is gibberish in my thoughts;
matching my heart and life. Seeing a happy family reminds me of my sadness.
Dry tears sting my eyes and laughter is removed far from my being.
Renew and enhance my spirit. Mold me for your purposes.
Categories:
hubristic, depressionlife, me,
Form: Narrative
What need have we of arches?
What need have we of domes?
What need have we of Churches?
What need have we of Romes?
Let's look beyond our crippling cultures
To perceive all that is truly real.
Haughty temples,homes to cold sculptures,
Grind and crush what the spirit does feel.
Look upon one flower to see nature's beauty rare,
There is nought of human making with it can compare.
Our frozen works of art,beautiful as they seem,
Are more hubristic nightmare than any pleasant dream.
As we cower in our caves of shadows dim,
Above us ,arches our bright blue all embracing dome.
We skulk in our world ,so shrunken and so grim,
Eyes too weak to gaze upon the light of our true home.
Look at all the beauty the revolving seasons bring,
No pride infects their humble ,yet glorious display.
'Tis of life's joy and sorrow that they serenely sing
While they present their passing show on their brief day.
No need have we of arches,
No need have we of domes,
No need have we of Churches,
No need have we of Romes!
Categories:
hubristic, faith, inspirational, nature, visionary,
Form: Rhyme
Around me loom awesome skyscrapers
that slice the skyline into smoggy
strips of vertical horizons.
Closing in on me, they gleam as colossal,
hubristic trophies blotting out the last
piece of the afternoon sky.
Benumbed by the din of this throbbing
city, I sway to the commotion
of motion in a sea of strangers.
In this hurrying horde of humanity, it seems
to me each one seems so alone
among so many, so like me.
But I joyfully get by, thanks to memories
of the hushed swishing at the shoal
back home by the shore,
The grassy edge of the lush foliage,
the scent of the earth's warm breath
after a drenching downpour,
The tranquility borne by the sunlit
mist that is warmly waking up
the still dreaming morn,
All these cool and coo and caress
my savaged, sagging soul, and
though alone, I'm not really lonely!
Categories:
hubristic, introspection, nature, nostalgia, places,
Form: Blank verse