The wave of Democrat Socialism
Sweeping America today
Is no different than China’s Cultural Revolution
The DSA want to abolish (not reform)
Police, prisons, borders, the Senate,
The presidency, and Supreme Court
Because they are all remnants of an old order.
So just like the Red Guard youth
They seek to destroy “The Four Olds”
To usher in a New Wave of chaos
A tsunami of Hope and Change
To make way for the shining Utopia
That will of course naturally arise.
It didn’t work in China,
But that’s just because they didn’t do it right…
Get ready America,
Here comes some righteous change.
Don’t hold your breath, just hunker down,
Pull your family close
And keep your powder dry.
(8/8/26)
("On the Edge of Time", 2026, original encaustic)
It’s easy to think all things
Will eventually wind down
Because that is the path
We see all things are on,
Especially us as we grow old
And all the parts begin to fail
And take forever to heal
As we hunker down
In slow decline.
Without risk, there is no change
And without change, there is no growth.
Eventually entropy will win
And the universe will go cold,
Or so we tell ourselves
As if it’s some consolation
In a world without us.
But looking into the void like this
Forgets where we came from.
We did arise after all,
And that simple, inexplicable miracle
Trumps entropy every time.
Entropy is the known,
The obvious, the given.
Life on the other hand
Is the mystery.
Will entropy ultimately triumph?
Not on your Life!
(6/5/26)
Whither now hunker-shins?
You have a sweet countenance,
a squat grace,
always middle-aged
on the still edge of a speeding sun.
Another swift day has begun
yet here you sit among the traffic
unflinching, a bold
bladder quelling gravity
with low-sprung shanks.
You deep-seated recliner,
standing-pat over upholstered hams.
A lumpy Mona Lisa,
with your come-hither girth
and just a thin membrane
between you and chaos.
Your skin an alien chiaroscuro,
a candle-lit atlas,
and in the cockle and crimp
of your glistening skin
a truculent contrarian gleams
beneath your world-dismissing
Buddha smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
redux
Little midnight bunny
Hid in deepest umbra
Cunning coyotes prowl
A spotted owl searches
Wherever can you go?
A rattler reached your hole
A wily weasel roams
Inky shadows shrinking
As the moon is rising
Wherever can you go?
A striped skunk skulks your way
Hunker down, let him stay
terms and phrases with
wordds that amazes
sparkling and shining bright
what a marvelous site
what a beautiful day
In love is a
joyous way to be
in love
we're in love
I'm in love with you
Everyday is our specail day
everyway is our specail way
the details are never confussed
In love I'm the winner
how many guys come home
and say whats for dinner
I don't feel exploited
or misused
I'm in love with you
Even when folks try to trick us
we stand stong nothing
comes between us
when it's humorous
we say we're amused
but when i's time to stick together
we hunker down
hey we're clever
look around
and I got you
SCARY TIME
It’s an earthquake tremor
Could it be that the world is coming to an end
Dilemma
The forecast lied
Hunker down in safety, my friend
Inside
Oh Wow
Is this a trend
Now
It’s an earthquake tremor
Hunker down in safety, my friend
Now
An advent of raptors loiters over mall roofs.
hooded eyes scope the neon-lit spaces,
the concreted waste lands.
We wake to their screams as if this were High Sierra,
not Ohio where parent’s try-out or manage children,
open party stores, hunker through the coming
and going of baby Jesus; de-ice puffer jackets.
Gloom is plowed behind snow dunes.
The red-tails roam in loose federations,
their young, mob-handed and loutish,
the mature work alone,
scything through small birds,
the weakened and walking.
The hawks wing-dance proclaiming their time,
a time of frost-bitten electric barricades,
of bobble hats and mittens,
while unseen, a wind-rattled thorny brier,
recites its litany of seasonal prayers.
PASSING
Never knew pain like this pain
Never hurt so bad as now
Never cried out in the dark
Just grit my teeth and hunker down
It’ll pass, it’ll pass
Never knew my mind could go there
Never hurt down to my core
Never felt alone so much
Just shut my eyes tight (so tight so)
This’ll pass, this’ll pass
When all the what-ifs are probably true
When there’s no more string to hold onto
You face yourself, your sorry self
Sorry for all the did-nots
Sorry for all the “shoulds”
(Everybody knows i hate that word)
Should have dot dot dot
Should not have dot dot dot
Never knew I’d be so frightened
Never knew hurt world single me out
Never has my soul cried out
Just left me bereft on the floor
One hand holding my phone,
The other a bottle of vodka.
It’s gonna pass, it’s gonna pass.
Suz.
STANFORD MEDICAL CENTER
Tue Feb. 21, 2023
Palo Alto, California
Subtle, very subtle, yet the promise whispers in the trees.
The zinnias struggle with a push one last bud to sky unfurl,
While the neighbor's cat goes on the prowl for one more kill to squeeze.
Late September days will end and the unprepared imperil.
The strident cries heard in the sky are the sounds of birds going south.
Though crammed and touching wings at times, they fly with great effusion.
A squirrel hordes some nuts he's found by stuffing them in his mouth,
While looking for a ready den, the mice run in confusion.
The slowly, shortening days are the sun's bowing to appease
The tired flora/fauna pact that's desperate for a long rest,
But a softened whisper in the wind has changed to a cold breeze,
And ice and snow begin to form on the tallest mountain crest.
In this age of post-civility
not to mention post-amiability
I find most posts I read
full of hostility...
It's the era of post-biology
as well as post-ideology
'TBD Birth Certificates'
without apology...
In this, the dawn of pre-disintegration
along with burgeoning segregation
The most-maligned phrase in our nation
'merit-based evaluation' ...
So, into my bunker I prepare to hunker
and since I'm no spelunker
'A Century of Automotive Progress' I write -
from gas-powered clunkers
~ to EV junkers
Taking No Prisoners
Miracle Man
2/20/2023
In my early days, if you were my friend,
I didn’t question things done or said,
and rules I may have allowed to bend.
But If my enemy, my thoughts were,
don’t bother running up the white flag.
Just hunker down like some cur.
I could be as merciful as allowed to be,
which was always my preferred way,
or as merciless as I felt forced to be.
The long dark months of winter soon give way
to signs of life renewed again in spring.
Migrating from the south to come and play,
the songbirds have returned: a cause to sing.
The days grow ever longer, draw us out;
the snows recede, uncovering the earth.
The landscape greens as shoots begin to sprout:
a joyful time of freedom and new birth.
The flowers beckon; likewise do the trees.
we hunker down instead in fitful throes.
The pollen blooms into the grandest sneeze;
oh Lord, why did You thus create our nose?
And now I must bid you a fond adieu
before I launch my germs again… atchoo!
————-
for the Spring Is Not All Poetry Contest
sponsored by Michelle Faulkner
written on 02/07/23
When in the deep wild woods
you suspect someone or thing
up ahead
or some thing or someone
is behind you
then
the hairy ghosts will enter your heart,
then you will smell
the thick blood of fear.
What if that crow is not a pterodactyl
for now,
it could shape shift at any moment.
What if, on a scant track,
a killer awaits up ahead
already aware of you stalking it,
will it turn to attack
or lay a trap?
Should you hunker down,
hide?
Nature is a trickster,
all the beasts are well camouflaged -
you are not,
The hairy ghosts know
if you are in trouble,
but they don't speak, they only tremble
with fear or anticipation.
The balcony bows like a bridge unmaintained.
Song birds are silent, their hearts uninspired.
Grape vines hunker down as if never trained.
Scarlet petals fall, their fragrance expired.
Shattered is the night sky like sharp glass shards.
Sparks, once in our eyes, liquify the ground.
Minstrels are mute in abandoned courtyards.
Pitter-patter is the refraining sound.
Masquerade faces can no longer hide
from the truth that beauty departs with death.
A dagger divides a young groom and bride;
lamenting cries consume their final breath.
The script is flipped over like clover in mud.
Misconstrued love poisons life-giving blood.
8-15-2022
wind rushing through the trees
an invisible river roaring in the ears
swaying back-and-forth
dancing to an undiscerned beat
birds hunker down
wait for a more opportune time
to frolic in the sun
grasses bent
powerless to resist
hanging on until they can strain upward again
what drives the wind?
what is its intent today?
what will it accomplish?
what is its purpose?
only God knows
lift your face, the corners of your mouth
inhale deeply
embrace the coming change
for He who put snakes in the grass
made you as well
and has the eyes
to see the very good in all
----------
for the Free Verse - Old or New Poetry Contest
sponsored by Joseph May
written 04/20/2022
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.