Long Arthritic Poems

How unparticular the day had particularly been,

On March the third of two-thousand and eighteen,

For the caretaker at an historic Adirondack Inn,

Had lacked company, and therefore, dopamine.

 

‘Twas Sunday when all the guests had fled,

From either...

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Impossible mission to captcha infinitesimal moment

alternately titled: tick tock runneth amuck
seconds elapse imperceptibly 
leaving me dumbstruck,
how quickly fleeting tempus fugit; 
ofttimes imagined as time thief.

Hence following vignette: quiet as a mouse lurks the time thief...

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Sneaking into the museum to avoid the sudden rain
Raisin said, “I don’t want to get soaked right through again,
It was bad enough when that truck through that puddle dashed
And you and me - but mainly...

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This is the Second Part of the Translation from Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel-Laureate Philosopher Poet from India. 





Father only smiled; thought, "women
are emotionally heated balloons! 
Life is a difficult  salvation, they don't have that knowledge", 
After...

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You are now about to witness my lack of street knowledge
Straight outta lockdown,
lazy brother named THE DUDE
Formed a gang called diggers With Altitudes
Work is called off, I got a paid off
Strains getting quicker, and bodies...

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Our bank accounts nearly emptied so we could afford a vacation; two young working girls who'd never been far from home. We were looking forward to finding love on a romantic tropical island. Maybe someone...

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Wrinkled forehead creases as he looks at me
From the burgundy sofa where he lives most days
Free of things like water bills and car payments
He lies down to eat and drag slowly on a cigarette

The smoke...

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After the Vietnams and the Me Leis
Steel skull
Stone eye
Blooming jungle rot
Itching on the crotch
Jack scratches the trigger of his M14
Kisses the golden egg
And throws like the Babe.
Jack is now back from hell and trying to...

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Past unconcerned hens that distractedly 
Scratch
Under frowning protestations from the
Sheltered Lee;
Into the cloaked shadows lain across the 
Cobbled courtyard,
Behind which squats the twisted form of
The old brooding, arthritic apple tree.
Past the neat little cow-byre 
Hosed...

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Callum is an old-fashioned man on the verge of becoming history’s memory

Ancient even in that he holds only one job but that is for privation of another 

Sort of a whiz kid at what he...

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SAPPHO TRANSLATIONS

Eros harrows my heart:
wild winds whipping desolate mountains,
uprooting oaks.
—Sappho, fragment 42, translation by Michael R. Burch



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

No droning bee,
nor even the bearer of honey
for me!



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation...

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My eyes grow weary with the days.
Ebbed of youthful looks, I dare not despair.
    I live my life alone now, surrounded by the loneliness.
      Time was all...

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When I met the tall and amiable Vietnam War veteran,
my shyness showed,
yet, my throat dried and tightened when he softly
spoke the words, "The war never goes away."
All these humanity destroying wars never cease,
soldier's names, faces,...

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Enea's Pope!  (2)

I suppose it’s common knowledge
(and not tedious, I hope!)
that two-thirds of the Sacred College
must concur to elect a pope.        

With eighteen cardinals gathered,
twelve was the...

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You ask me now to sum the beauty in sun's eyes
And make of love the distinction that love despise
And all figures come only to my praise of the gift
God gave to Adam, when he unreplenished,...

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Old man Carter lived all alone, quietly nestled in his quaint little home. 
Arthritis kept him crippled, writhing in excruciating pain, his wife long 
since departed, leaving him nothing more to gain. His children made...

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In blackness,
 I hear forked tongues 
whisper wicked witchery,
hope within arthritic 
  ink slowly f a d e s
as darkness descends  
upon snow-speckled heart, 
and a murder of 
   crows can...

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Who is that man staring back at me in the mirror?
I keep looking and searching, analyzing that mans
reflection, and he keeps doing the same thing.

Who he is is a mystery to me, it's a little...

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Arthritic Vision Ponders Dementia's Dreams of Love's Future!

I’m a fool for you, dear one, if weakness, my choice,
As a man, though redundant, a poetic voice!
I’ll rain showers of kindness (won’t blitz your parade),
And have umbrella...

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It takes many days walking the path God has given,
limping with arthritic stagger, aching unrelentlessly.

Any matter that this condition came on as I retire,
nearly psychosomatic! I must look old age in the face

and laugh. I...

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We approach the house, to trick-or-treat, but wonder if we dare
The porch is dark, no light or spark, to help us find the way
We peek inside, ........does the old man hide?  We see no...

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BIRDS    I    JUST      COULDN’T      BE
 
 
I couldn’t be a pigeon walking and prancing,
Like black American dancing -
Neck thrusting...

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I have grown old and twisted with all my living;
my limbs gnarled and arthritic,
my skin rough, sometimes peeling,
turning dark beneath the sun.
Bunions and corns decorate my feet.
What a life I have lived!

In my youth, young...

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Upside Down World

The great man and conjurer of poetic license sat behind
                       ...

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A fleeting moment in time,
Is all I need for this rhyme,
Perhaps 10 minutes, no more
Sit in your armchair, close your eyes,
And to your utmost surprise,
Your life flashes past like an express train,
Happy moments with unimaginable...

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