Long Chafes Poems

Monday, 5-1
Housekeeping:  I checked in early today for a long, business-related stay.  Now, I wish to relay that I brought two blue, hypoallergenic towels of my own, from my home.  Please remove...

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Adventitious existence birthed introverted spiritual outlier i.e. me

Speculative fictitious flirtation imagined
courtesy grown old male offspring (me)
begat when mine late mother and father met
former named, a popular Arthur Murray
ballroom dance studio instructor.

Subtle social cues (nonverbal or...

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Sri Lal
Crows

i.
I come from nowhere,
and I have nowhere to go,
I tell the crow perched 
on a low neem branch 
beyond the Periyar River.

He agrees.

He and I are free.
We speak the same language.

You know who I...

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Inside worn and weathered walls,
Nobles and commoners
Gather and share 
In the field of rosiness.
Together, they are
Composed, well organized.
Each one partaking in blind optimism.
Knowing truly, that
The odds prevail.

Uneasy
My eyes penetrate
The bleached and waxen folds
Of my buttoned-up,...

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I drifted to this place	 
When might I drift away?			
Am lost in time and space		
Cold feet encased in clay		

Afraid.  I am offbeat			
Next year I will as well		
Shamefully repeat			
Tucked inside my shell			

Are false masks better...

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Endless curse, my love for you
A dirty life, my ritual of solitude
Quiet days and empty nights
Foggy mornings and everything that comes with lack of sleep

And silence abound
My lover, the ground

Shaking off the morning shakes
Pop a...

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Make me smile and feel as if I am the only one.
 Turn around and leave me bitter and forsaken.

Hold me close and kiss my lips, make me feel falsely safe.
 Run to her, with...

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Slow drawn, steeping tea bags, in an etched glass pitcher,
Lazily infuse its Oriental musk into the sun warmed brew.
 My ice crackles along with the thunder over the great Mississippi
As the ewers’ spout releases the...

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ON  PREDICTIONS
        ( by  S.Jagathsimhan  Nair)
What  paths and brambled brooks I passed to halt
In this corny beat, to question my salt
What transcends this sum...

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He chafes the prayer beads against his wrist
	Has died lesser deaths of exasperated rage
		It’s not forgiveness he seeks but purifying anger

To feel the rawness of emotion he focusses
	On undefeatable loss and zealous slaughter
		Of cross fires...

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And I am now to be contented and go to sleep
In your global village
Am I to believe your village can raise my child
Better than the old one
Where mortars pestle corn
And white cassava flour inthe sun
Lays...

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I quit
I throw my hands down
and sit, sometimes

they called for reconciliation without
 justice
They called for justice without 
truth
Now they ask for prayer without
confession, umpteenth,
it chafes

 Has dishonesty made you inadequate  
to let go the...

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As blue waters of March quiver a chime, 
Near the paling ledge of Triste's harbor 
Where so many stars flicker, quite sublime 
On fallen crest…it hurts a whole lot more. 

Near the paling ledge of...

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Written: November 17, 2023 For Charles Messina Contest
           ___________________________________________

In peace of mind and unwavering pride
Draw out your inner disgruntled callow
Expunge ailing masks and set them...

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Clouds loom drifting, passing by,
The west wind gently tempts them on
Though no one knows what cause them cry
And no one hears their pleading voice
As all their acid tears well dry.


Snowy white, in rank and file,
The...

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A swing, propelled by laughter and giggles,
arcs into the air, reaching for the sky.
And its rope chafes the bark of an old oak,
as flashes of my youth go streaming by.

Junipers create an emerald hedge
that bestows...

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Whatever turns your crank

Whatever tickles your pickle

Whatever dunks your donut

Whatever waxes your dolphin

Whatever buffs your Buddha

Whatever pops your cork

Whatever pets your monkey

Whatever frosts your cookies

Whatever spills your pills

Whatever trips your trigger

Whatever humps your camel

Whatever melts...

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The dentist and Reflections 

Up there in the continuous darkness of the universe 
I saw a streak of light... a dying comets last hurrah.
Bedroom very dark couldn’t sleep too much death 
for one night. Got...

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Naked in the moon
My heart throbs
For canters of wine
On lips of passion
Am I a lover too?

It is the old delusion
Poets drunken with words
Muting love's confession
To the coldness
Of the winds

Her white skin
The alabaster of my dreams
Web...

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Meaning is over there,
beyond the burnt paddocks
and blackened hills, 
the crumpled, flattened ruins
of houses. It is further out
than that nothingness glazed
upon the distances 
of a vacant stare.

A powdery dust now coates
the walls of a terrible...

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How do we continue? 

When etched indelibly upon our being, 

are the scars  from love that has been abandoned. 

When the loss chafes the heart? 

With cold iron hands that leave us raw, 

as...

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Whatever turns your crank
Whatever tickles your pickle
Whatever dunks your donut
Whatever waxes your dolphin
Whatever buffs your buddha
Whatever pops your cork
Whatever pets your monkey
Whatever frosts your cookies
Whatever spills your pills
Whatever trips your trigger
Whatever humps your camel
Whatever melts...

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I slowly tread the prickle-cold mat of grass
And savor the mud that squishes between my toes
The darkening night smells musky here, and damp,
And not just because there is a pond. The moisture’s in the
Air, wrapping...

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Each new person is a gift
Some wrapped in shiny foil paper
Tidied up with ribbons and bows

Others trussed inside brown paper 
Restricted by an extra tight string
That chafes them, tearing into their souls

The challenge is easy.
All...

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Missing the luxurious lush green of verdant spring.
When autumn chafes against the soul
Reluctant of letting go all that summer had to offer
We do not proffer from resentment 
Find, we may contentment with the season immediately...

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