Long Blue collar Poems

Au revoir oh perilous freedom...

Since pledging my troth
to the missus July 25th, 1996
after the comma error
punctuated mein kampf with disequilibrium.

Ever since the notions
of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness
coalesced within the mindscape
attributed to one
or more...

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In 1962, I was a caseworker, not a social worker, in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project in Chicago. In that era, the difference between a caseworker and a social worker was simple. A social worker had...

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I.

The Fish Crow is an outcast amongst the seagulls
Standing on the hot Miami sand
At the end
Of our rose-colored beach towel

Nodding and blabbing half-heartedly
Nuh-uh nuh-uh
To the lack of crumbs

From us
The stingy blue collar visitors
From freezing old...

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Jolly Polly Sue Conner was her name, and she came
from the grand old town found just outside of Harvest Oak,               ...

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We got to the Hotel and settled in. I had bought a Cannon 
 35 mm camera with a 100/300 lense. I figure that would be
enough to capture any images that we would see. With...

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Pallets, Jacks, and the Soft Sounds of the 70's
OR
My Summer Summed Up Summarily for a Small Sum
A constant beeping chirp echoes through the warehouse, strangely comforting the workers who walk these aisles and habitually straighten...

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            In this world, where chaos reigns supreme,
I am the voice of the people, the one who leads the dream.
My heart beats with a...

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LEAVING BOYHOOD BEHIND


White shirt 'n' school tie to blue-collar, dress-code is changing with age
From schooldays to pay-days, from homework to hard work 
School bells and game playing to work's whistle and wage earning
With new mates,...

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Herons fragment the mist,
appear and disappear while remaining motionless.
The skiff rocks as a coal barge trundles past.
A dewy sky shivers.

Nowadays he just sits in a boat looking at Ohio.
This morning the sun reached the top...

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I start my uncertain day with coffee, reading both The New York Post and the Daily News;
sharing this destiny with most of Mankind:  struggling and paying with sweat my dues!


After a good night sleep,...

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Erasure Poem 
So many fake Indians these days
Elizabeth Warren is one
And according to my DNA results
I am too

But my grand-parents spoke Cherokee my mom claims
And they disappeared into the hills 
She claims

Is the DNA test...

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An a show! Bravo we applauded. We
see past the befores' and look toward 
the nextes': we thought it was one of
 those nights. Durning the main attraction
most who were interested stopped and
went out and became...

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M y brother turned his back to a flaming sky

said, "If ya seen one sunset you seen em all."

I was slowly losing my tiny empire

It was so upsetting to watch it fall

Every night before we'd...

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In an old Victorian building live two cats and a lady,
The girl cat is Patches and the boy cat is called Peanut;
And the lady is called mother, they all live in harmony.
One day, mother decided...

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To All Mothers Everywhere
To all mothers
everywhere
Why do you part your legs
toward
the 21st Centaury
Didn’t you know
That the future is our final station
Where the monkey sits and waits
To collect
For a debt that has long been owed?
And he...

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yeah yeah so here I am at the voting booth
the voting booth
if we only had some tabloids I'd know what to do
one devoted to digging up the dirt, the perks, and the poop
on this gal...

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The little servant upon the motley colored stead riding the ironic militant donkey           
Lowering the wit a marotte lance raising the shield a stone of...

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Dave Percell

Dave Percell was many men,
Many of them were meaningless.
Five faces we will talk of here,
Some of kindness, some of fear.

The first I will attest to
Rises with the morning dew:
With ruffled hair and smiling fun,
Dave...

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The Prodigal Son

Why do babies leave home at such a young age? Like premature hatchlings falling from the nest before their wings are even capable of flight, only to succumb to the wildness of nature....

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Some say there's nothing poetic about blue-collar work.
I'm here to prove them wrong.

What is a poem?
For one, it has rhythm.
"Well, where's the rhythm
in a discordant jumble of a thousand tools
all clamoring for dominance over my...

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I'm a blue collar worker who works outdoors 
and I'm also required to wear a hard hat all day. 
My exposed skin and face tan at a very fast pace, 
but beneath that hard hat,...

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I come from a small town,
Nine thousand in all.
There’s nothing really fancy here.
Just a couple of strip malls.
We like our Tim Hortons coffee,
Hockey’s the sport of choice where we get loud.
It’s really all we got...

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Complaining of his marriage for thirty-odd years
He highballed his eyeballs, comforting his tears
The barkeep asked, what's troubling you son?
He poured out his life; I'm finished! I'm done!
The woman I married has turned into a nag
What...

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You marketing types love us.
Blue all over, fear of nothing a man can throw,
Quick to bow down when the boss come by...
not the one paying me...., 
but the one who rules my roost. 

Day breaks...

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Ever wonder why we fight to survive 
Is it all worth it to live then die 
No given power to take a life
one minute here
then gone in a blink of an eye
Names fade away with...

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