Long Chaffing Poems

ALL YOU CAN EAT

by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS


I never subscribed to an unusual idea
That aliens are among us and thriving here
I now question my stand on that theory
Cause I’ve noticed some bodies quite eerie
I see gigantic beings...

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SNIPER

A yell “ man down;” then zing, pock, pock,
pock, pock against the sandbag revetment.

Down on the plain is a man in a spider hole,
he is well hidden and armed well enough,
smokeless powder provides no clues.

Binoculars...

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A path strewn thick with ruddy-faced leaves
led to nowhere and everywhere in fantasies, 
our near-death rescue from boredom 
        come afternoon chores and homework pages 
  ...

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Three busy witches stood stirring a stew
Cauldron filled with freaky things for a brew
Each Halloween they made
soup in their escapade
Adding ingredients to a brown roux

Jan, of course, as she always wants to do
added a bouquet...

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He woke down the slope, by the hay
With him a thousand shrill cries
That stilled to him, yawning.
He moved with strands of hay, trailing
On his rags.
Sauntering, he is a flaneur...
The road lamps gave him away.

He moved...

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When Comedians Marry

Comics juggle three rings when they wed
On trampoline bed they start a circus 
Keep gold bands on hand while thinking zany thoughts  
The comic husband wears two condoms all the time
To find...

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I’m gobs smacked; I thought I saw it all,
I said “Rub your eyes Sidney Hall.”
There’s jelly at the Beach,
There was lemon, orange, banana yellow, and my favourite peach.

So much jelly all in one place, 
I...

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You May Yet Make Your Blessed Choice

As old man woke, empty room spoke
silence cried, you have yet to die,
mortal flesh is your chaffing yoke
deepest regret your fallen cry!

Fight no more, let love its gems pour
rise...

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OLD LEAVES


Heads bowed they sadly wait for slower death
than that of those entrenched in fear’s retreat
the edge of lifeless branches their defeat
life’s fluid oozing thickly from their veins,

stilled as red stain mimics beauty’s blush
the tyrant...

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Hanging is too good for them, 
Should cut their danglies off.
Use a rusty jigsaw blade,
They’d be afraid to cough.
Our great Judicial system, 
with infinite foresight,
Ignores these sound suggestions,
That you and I think right.
For Judges and...

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~~Paper or Plastic~~
I went to the doctors the other day
 an embarrassing problem some would say
I cannot stop a tinkle when I walk 
and it causes me problems when I talk
I dare not laugh I...

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. for public domain

A folded, yellow lined sheet of legal,
taped to a railing of chipped red paint,
caught my eye as I stepped down the stairs
from a Lower East Side dark street.

A note from our ancient...

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The air has a burnt flavor 
tonight – I guess, that’s the
taste of grief;  we all breathe 
it in and blow it out differently; 
life never, for any of us
    an...

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Even Rocks Can Cry



Even rocks wear away with time
and the demands of strength.  These
seemingly immoveable objects,
deflectors of life’s raging torrents,
sun warmed seats of contemplation,
bearers of past high and low water marks.
Unnoticed, they sit as...

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His unshaven jowls quiver, and his lip trembles,
In his eyes, his rheumy eyes, simmers horror,
Revulsion at the memory, this old man, what he
Knows he has done and can never forget.

“Do it now!” the death’s head...

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Sometimes it’s easier to live without sight.
To become oblivious to any degree of strife,
Where the murky darkness protects from abasing,
Through our thoughtless words or unkind chaffing.
For the light can cause sorrows should we choose to...

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jackolanturns grin 
atop rolls of dry fodder
strains of music float
all eyes watch the couple dance
they see only each other
~//~
fine country setting
whiffs of barbeque remain
the chaffing dish warm
old friends who now sipping wine
reflect on their own...

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It won't be long before winter's blasts
With chaffing cold and white out conditions
come to pass, are done, deemed complete

Our forests far too frozen and fast asleep
to have the strength to harbor
winters freezing keep

The lakes and...

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Dusk wades in.
Anhinga necks stir shadows.
A humid nightfall laps Cypress knee’s.
where unseen eddy’s bubble and swirl.

Florida evaporates at its lakeshores
where nocturnal-fevers simmer.

We are locked into the chaffing songs
of crickets, the drilling buzz of mosquitoes,
as cypress...

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