Long Checkerboard Poems

I used to be obsessed with fashion, caring far too much about clothes,
Like the sun whenever he's coming and going, is striking vanity's pose.

I lavished absurdly upon my wardrobe, in excess of what was practical,
Like...

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Imagine.

The canvas is enormous, bigger than you or I.
The brushes are many, 
Though the hues are only five: three primaries and two shades.
I am the painter of my canvas.

Older canvases, like the art of painting,...

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WHY 13 TOPS MY WEDDING CAKE

A cherubim approaches the celebratory podium,
a fifteen tier cake in her congratulatory hands.
The pews, full of spectators - ready for a heavenly slice,
fragrant oil poured from above, stirs hearts where...

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Our boat is first to slice
The green snake skin of Clam Lake
This Saturday morning in May

Heading east to the mouth of Grass River
Where angry Pike still hunt from shallows
Before the Milfoil grows to summer impossible

My...

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Dawn Forever Rising

It starts

Street lights fade
their tiny soft-winged tenants flee
checkerboard facades change
last night's illumined squares now dark
become but yesterday's portals
some polished
some weather streaked
all reaching to reflect first breath

Steam ascends from the city's vacuum
gratings rattle with...

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	The Selfish Knight and His Lady

Sixteen pieces for me
	Allotted the same for you
But, it always begins with Me first
Unless the 'me' is you...
Whereupon, like Alice in her checkerboard world,
It's up to me to find our...

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Gross misconduct bullets falling like rain drops
Mosquitoes kissing marinated children 
While in the hood homeless and thugs
Suck on those the things unruly plugs
Crack-cocaine, meth, mary-jane
Elusive while simultaneously being inclusive
Only check me N marching boys to...

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CHILDREN OF LAHORE
(Easter Sunday 2016)


Arms flailing
From
Her
Blue burka,

The woman
Jumps

Like a checkerboard
Piece
Up and over
The white squares

Of bedsheet
       To bedsheet
To bedsheet

Each
Draped
Over a
Red blossom
Bump
Lumped
And soaked on
The gravel dust
Fairground
Floor.

Like a game of peekaboo
Between mother...

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TWO OLD GODS

Two old men.
That’s all; not much to look at.
Their frail, broken shadows shrunk against the sunny morning
Brightness slowly searching its way through gnarled branches
Overhead, and crisscrossing the red and black pieces
Upon their welcoming...

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37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love...

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SAGEBRUSH RANCH

holding his small hand,
jumping up and down,
in the silver box —
a playground with mirrors
and three buttons.
people that look like us
are all around.
when the box is full
they disappear.
the ding-ding sounds
and doors part ways,
as we exit...

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My golden ego soars higher than yours
I can hold my breath longer underwater
of course,
because my publican lungs are stronger than yours
I can outshout your taxing voice 
to the heavens with a prideful text roar
I’m the...

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In my chest is a black void
That has left me annoyed
I'm tired of rhyming schemes
And vapid memes
I'm tired of perplexed faces
In outrageous places
Life is like a checkerboard
Where every king is abhorred
If I reach the other...

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Truly, the bee hive innards hum 
Truly, the body inside gurgles 
Truly, the cave echoes the vortex 

Truly I know these sounds 
from last night 
4 cackling creatures spewed 
their saturated sayings upon 
the floor...

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Meet My Robin "Hood"

"Hood" being the key word, the 
man who is a saver of souls 
lacking passion and adventure,

Robin "Hood" swept me off my 
couch where I had grown roots, 
eatin' chips n cookies...

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.

Looking on
this expanse that encircles me,
closing in during open hours,
unlocking doors I can’t seem to walk through
Stairways of rotted, termite eaten steps
each with my name painted on them,
creaking underfoot,
losing to the weight of
long lines at...

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The plains of the Dakotas seem endless
With rumors of great mountains to the west
And rumors of great lakes to the east
But to the proud pioneers who settled here it was home.

The sturdy Swedes, the proud...

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Games that empower the mind with mental challenge, especially with a counterchallenge, not only for entertainment, but also food for the brain.

     The game of Chess, a two-player checkerboard, with sixty...

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EASTER DINNER

they liked the one behind me
the teal and black checkerboard
its sparkling tiles on the diagonal
red, yellow, blue, pink pillows
on sofas and chair

the sunrise was unsympathetic 
like the cross, but the service
was cozy for Easter...

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What is a square, a shape, container quadraphonics, a traditional rollerskate
What is an atrium, a fireplace, a closet
What is a boxing ring, a gymnasium, blackboard 
What are a checkerboard, deck cards, crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzle,...

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All blessing great and small come from God in heaven above. Many we see, know and love. Many just pass us by in life like a flying dove.

 

Abundance even when we were poor
Blessed everyday...

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I hesitate for a moment outside the rod iron gates;
sensing behind those castle doors, a long past life awaits,
within those many mortared walls, rising high above the lake,
as my breath begins to quicken and my...

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It is something
I've never feared,
I was born to fly.

Born to see cloud shadows
on the ground and the sugar sprinkles
of snow along a ridge,
leading to
the frosting clad Shasta.

Born to see the meandering
snow melt rivers descending
into checkerboard...

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I swirl and twirl on the reason and rhyme
Of a season so perfect, vulnerable and fine.
Leaping and jumping on the checkerboard of time,
Recalling the hourglass sands falling in line.

For isn't spring but an exuberant child
Speeding...

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I am standing naked on a crowded street
But nobody seems to be noticing me
I am less embarrassed by my nakedness
Than by my invisibility

They all seem to be looking right through me
Or staring down at the...

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