Long Bootstraps Poems

Unitarian Church returnee

After a hiatus of countless years
plus an additional 
almost three months 
since a major makeover,
(I experienced the magic
wrought courtesy
a bonafide big hearted 
beautician at Salon Nova
located in beautiful 
downtown Limerick, Pennsylvania

to render my...

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Doubting Thomas luxuriates under Dylanesque milkweed

made fibrous threads...constituting heavy blanket
(crocheted by the missus)
on a cool Autumn like morning...

to stave off experiencing getting
chilblains, goosebumps,
or subjected to the blast of cold air
wafting thru the opened bedroom window
on...

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A problem for more successful Nazi leaders
during the early exterminating 1940s
was what would they be
should they no longer have any reason to war against
the soon to be extinct Jews.

Yes, they were a nation of Aryan...

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When your idols are fragile
Is it any wonder kids lack style
Perhaps if we walked a mile
In the shoes of the soldier we'd attain guile

Look at the newspaper
The government is a caper
And everything will taper
Due to...

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It might be said of adolescence,
This is a stage demanding economic authority,
autonomous freedom to invest and disinvest,
without yet accepting concomitant political responsibilities,
to family
to community
to children
to grandchildren
to disenfranchised populations
to Elders' wiser investments, in their permacultural time,
to...

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Have you ever met those kind of blokes who get upon your nerve,
when they quote continual references that most think should deserve
a threatening confrontation that if they make that quote again, 
then the punishment that’s...

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I didn’t know George was an amorous lad,
causing chat on the bush telegraph.
I’d never heard George had done nothing bad,
‘cept splitting one marriage in half.

George never delved into breaking the law,
so there’s never a day...

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Paternal grandmother's headstone - Beth David, Elmont, Long Island

Shaindel (Sadie), variant of Shana Harris
died May 13th, 1959 exquisitely chiseled
alphanumeric characters legibly engraved
sepulchral casket entombing lovely bones
deoxyribonucleic acid repurposed into me
Matthew Scott Harris patronymic protector,
when I...

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lest ye seek alms
with outfaced palms
just imagine
how the lantern shone  
against the knees of Archelaus, 
and lit up the check-board pattern 
of the eleemosynary trousers

Fatigued civilian attires reasonable rhyme
challenging readers to dare themselves
question yours...

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Gold is the color in the veins of that ore
and red is the color in the veins of war.
Bankers have bested alchemists of old
and found a way to turn blood into gold.

With a false flag...

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Thanksgiving gobbledygook

The following anecdote baste
upon overactive imagination of mine
in sync with being married
and monogamously living socially chaste
life as a scrupulous anchorite,
whose weather beaten corporeal flesh
plus sabotaged, riddled,
and tuckered psyche effaced
after becoming adequately stuffed,
this turkey (in...

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                        If I ruled the world,
      ...

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I like immigrants, immigration. Legal immigration,
Jane passionately corrects. Actually my goal is a borderless world.
That's a new idea to her.
Gathering the neighborhood like family.
The men discuss sterilizing welfare mothers. I say You're working
  ...

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Assailed and held prisoner in my bedroom, I fret
Wondering why mad blood seized my head
Inserting an undue threat
Concealed in the seal of the thread

Running through a bevy of thoughts
Silly at best, folly at worst
Waltzing in...

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I saw her the other day with  large bags at a coffee store                     ...

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I've come to the conclusion
That my life's a wreak
Poetry strewn all about
My house the biggest mess

So here I am in the middle of the den
In a pile of poetry on the floor
A desperate man with...

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You fueled the anger in my heart.
I never thought I could ever feel this way.
One fleeting moment in history,
That is all it took.
One ripple in the massive ocean created a tsunami.
One glimpse in time,
That is...

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 BE MERRY

be merry, not blue.
blow your nose, no boo hoos,
dot your eyes.
i’ve provided an embroidered,
lacy handkerchief —
the old-fashioned kind,
that pulls up your bootstraps,
tickles your fancy,
almost too pretty, kind,
leaves no red streaks
creates smiles, not weak
and...

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Oh, don’t flatter me with presents from the Ghost of Christmas Past. 
Tis the season for nostalgia, but those feelings never last. 
It’s a gift-wrapped empty promise not worth tuppence on the street, 
Or a...

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I wish I had...
      the power to change
      a broken man's circumstances. 
      I'd flip his dim world 
 ...

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Dad could roll a cigarette
with just two fingers
and the tip of his tongue.
I saw him do this once
in a wind storm.

Magically
he would shave just close enough
to keep his grizzled face
blue by the light of a...

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By jessier44 on 02/17/2007	Viewed: 611
Reviews: 2
Rating: 
No scarcity of mediocrity
victimless crimes
that claim nonetheless
Trying with honor yet flailing,
failing
Questions asked
answers known
Twisted spine from backward looking
gaining, gaining

The light seems distant
teasing glow
its servants an audience
clamouring its attention
Higher frequencies tuned...

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http://www.poetrysoup.com/poets/top_100_poets_most_poems_all_time.aspx

By Own Bootstraps

I had never been handed anything
By my own bootstraps up did bring
With seldom a father figure in sight
Was out at sea both day and night.

College managed to work way through
With my personal GI...

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http://www.poetrysoup.com/poets/top_100_poets_most_poems_all_time.aspx

By Own Bootstraps

I had never been handed anything
By my own bootstraps up did bring
With seldom a father figure in sight
Was out at sea both day and night.

College managed to work way through
With my personal GI...

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What lies waiting
at the end of a self-made
independently empowered
self-invested
"pulled my own economic-political bootstraps"
life?

A unilateral
linear life,
like any passionate journey,
requires an end point
for returning in the opposite direction;

In this lifeline
ego/eco-systemic case,
from regenerative
to degenerating autonomous powers.

What happens
at the...

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