Long Bacall Poems

The Edges of Rhyme 

I wrote the playbook, watching what they took 
While the earth shook I could not look 
In the direction of the Big Book 
Like a fish caught on a nasty hook...

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Everybody got a Hollywood life story
to tell
More meat on the bone
give juicier bites 
to sell
Nobody ever turns in a tarnished silver screenplay
Those warts and mistakes
get Photoshop casting couch edited away
Baby Jane rude attitude don’t make...

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Don Pardo: Born: 1918-02-22 - Died: 2014-08-18
He’s been gone from SNL
We heard he wasn’t feeling all that well
Don Pardo’s number came around
The Lord was calling “Come on down”

Lauren Bacall: Born: 1924-09-16 - Died: 2014-08-12
Finally the...

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Protective Lyricism for the Ages Part Two 

Martin Luther King creating a path to dessimate discrimination 
An angel earning his wings from an epiphany of prophetic elation 
Listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing while learning a litany of...

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A room filled with sadness 

Standing alone in a room filled with sadness
Photograph smiles in a frame on the shelf
Ashtrays are filled with a death wish still breathing
Lighting another in spite of myself 

A hand...

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She jiggled like pink jello into the store
with platinum blonde hair and red rouge on her face
the shoe clerk mumbled it must be 1950's day
watching her strut around with a hanky made out of lace

She...

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The weekend is here again
And if I have my way
I'm going to spend my spare time
Watching films starring Doris Day

In nineteen forty nine
Ten years before I was born
Doris starred with Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall
In...

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Two Words – Redux Two
 
Push
Pull

Donut
Hole

Toilet
Bowl

Laundry
Fold

Sing
Song

Ping
Pong

Mao
Zedong

Fly
Eater

Cloud
Nine

Moon
Shine

Vinegar
Brine

Wild
One

No
Pun

Arm
Leg

Black
Plague

Circle
Square

Head
Hair

Sonic
Whistle

Broom
Thistle

Pretty
Face

Human
Race

Alien
Space

Mountain 
Road

Horned
Toad

Meteor 
Rock

Mister
Spock

Start
Dart

Go
Flow

Pol
Pot

Hope
Not

Green
Brown

Smile
Frown

City
Town

River
Creak

Circus
Freak

Stuffy
Nose

Big
Toes

Bogart
Bacall

Free
Fall

Standing
Tall

Music
Note

Castle
Moat

Witch
Hag

Laundry
Bag

Robber
Rubber

Space
Discover

Race
Car

Bucket
Tar

Fruit
Jar

Phrenology
Psychology

Logo
Pogo

Wine
Beer

Whine
Jeer

Weather
Clear

Beach
Chair

People
Stare

Garden
Hose

Bloody
Rose

Genius
Knows

Alaskan
Snow

Car
Far

Road
Tar

Proud
Hound

Ground
Round

Upside
Downside

Aladdin
Jafar 

Genie
Wish

Table
Fish

Wash
Dish

Slobber
Swish

Babble
Gabble

Clark
Gable

Atlantic
Cable

Stool
Pool

Fad
Lad

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
September 3, 2018 (Short-Form Free Verse)...

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Jasper J. Jigglebottom was stuck in the sixties, and proud of the fact.
He was on a movie set, admired by many for he could certainly act.
His job was to be available to stand in until...

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The TCM channel caught my eye
playing movies termed "film noir"
intriguing movies where someone lies
and theres a body lying on the floor,

The old black and white movie draws me in
with Bogie and Bacall or Stanwyck and...

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This was 1952, when men were too manly to like cats.
Anyway, we were told this often by old ugly bats.
But one day I was stopped dead in my tracks.
By the loveliest woman I’d seen; her...

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One more Day

Life is pointless, let’s end it all.
I'm not Brad Pitt and you’re not Lauren Bacall.
I drive a forklift and you stack shelves.
We’re only two inches, taller than elves.
End this misery, let’s call it...

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I walk the path of life today
   and think on days gone by.
When we were young, and bold
   and free, and oh so very spry.

We knew so very little,
  ...

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Rain sweeps reckless, outside wind does roar
scattering debris on water soaked lawn;
in beam of streetlight the rain does pour
from midnight till the break of dawn,
until swollen black cloud is gone.

He flung open the door to...

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She as empty pockets but she  as the biggest   heart 
As all the words and the biggest smile
This is the girl I want as my sweet heart 
Just one look and I...

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"You two are a match made in heaven. Or somewhere." - Richelle Mead



                      ...

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Late the music played in the smoky air
  in our noir Bogey and Bacall vignette,
and hands that stroked your silky chestnut hair
  held a red wine and lit a cigarette.
Your soft skin smelt...

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I wake up screaming
Max the Axe has just chopped me into bits
It is not the first time
but this time I felt it.
I glare at my husband who is still clicking buttons.
Can you give that a...

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I think about what could have been
but it wasn't, was it, Ben?
We were the best, the real test....
a delusion, an illusion
Maybe I need a transfusion?

My dream you
and your real you have come loose
they are two...

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Humongous Egos
Miracle Man
3/18/2023

We all know someone so full of themselves,
they think their opinion is all that counts.
That the last word spoken is always theirs,
And every conversation the friction mounts.

Many think having money, position, or fame,
means...

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