Long Chortles Poems

IMPRINTS
(Part 1 of Trilogy for My Father)

His shoes by the front door make me cry,
like his glasses resting atop an
unfinished crossword
and his toothbrush in its holder
the bristles still damp.
And I wonder...

Did he brush his teeth...

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A game of musical chairs has just begun in earnest. A pot and kettle band arrives 
through the dining rooms’ French doors following the Valentine Queen. A putrid pink 
flamingo with a croquet ball stuck...

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Old Mr. Nicholson
totters across the town square
to the barbershop where
Clive has cut his hair
for the last forty years or so

Not hardly needing
even a trim
but pretending
he has a reason besides
the gossip waiting within

Inside, the shop smells...

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I am so screaming bloody MURDERrrrr!!!!!!!!
catch that Poet Destroyer!! (grr, grr, grrrrrr)

She took my turtle sweetie
then said he tasted salty

Well what did she expect?
She is now my prime suspect!

Gone now is my turtle lovey-poo...
and I'm...

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I never thought it’s something I’d live to see……I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad
But today it finally happened to me…I turned into my dad.

We are supposed to welcome the good traits…we inherit...

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Smooth, mapped roads
intersected with red-eyed 
nights, quivering 
nerves, fists pounding air. 

A nightmare
descended as a phantom
snaking black shadows into 
ebullient corridors 
of light. 

A hulking foe crowded his way in
uninvited.

Sun rose with belly chuckles, 
banners,...

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In a humble hamlet, not so grim or glum, 
Lived a goose named Lucy, quite the funny one. 
With feathers fluffed and waddle wide, she'd roam about, 
Her honks and hijinks would make the townsfolk...

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Hope and belief occupy the same saucer
Positive vibes released social enjoyment 
My childhood years reared with laughter
Learning with parents was a commitment

We were young and living happily at home
Climbing all over Dad and jumping off...

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She cuddled in a signature pose
That resembled the 'one-hug' position
Arms wrapped around her disoriented and confused body
Pulling her skin covered torso into the black sheath
To her demise and surprise
Her situation was on the path to...

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He grins, his smile is contagious.
He chortles, you can't help but to join.
Sun makes his hair burn like a halo
His movements are an intricate
     and amusing theatre show to watch
 ...

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Blessed by the sunshine
Spring shining, brilliant
Whisper of grace, pouring 
Gentle flames of delight
Raising my hopes for His
Wonders warming me
With inspiration and insight

Blessed by the rainfall
Sprinkling beads of faith
Across a heart who knows
His beauty is a...

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(Part 3 of  Trilogy for My Father)

I took my children to the cemetery, a rare visit,
But they did not understand
---could not understand---
the reality
the finality 
of lives and dreams turned to dust,
of a childhood lying...

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Pitching a leg across the nether
Of a pretty appaloosa or possibly
A chestnut bay who needs to know
That she’s being ridden by someone
Who will take her through the paces,
Strides both gentle and regulated
By a walk, a...

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"A straight!  Two-three, five-six and eight,"
but Mildred bleated, "Ain't no straight;
you, Alice-ewe, are one dumb rump."
Bright chortles burbled round the stump
till Jingles raised, "Two straws of hay,"
too rich for Fay-Fay: "I can't play,
though, know...

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Quoth The Raven

Under frosted blankets lay
On crispy frozen petals,
Sipping hearty beverages
Of dandelion and nettles,
As I gasp on misty chortles 
Reflecting in an icy puddle,
Deathly spirits reminisce
Outside my winter huddle.

Snow, snow, she hath no gold
To pave...

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MY FUTURE SELF

My future days are as a grey thickening mist
I refuse to countenance them and will resist
Life’s mill is slowing now with no more grist
I am told to live for today, whilst it may...

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Laughter's healthy, contagious, and brightens your day.
It's pun that's a groaner or joke that's risque.
It's a belly laugh, horse laugh, or laugh like a loon
At a comic strip. slapstick or clown or cartoon.

Laughter's chuckles and...

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East sea capricious invites frolickers
          Lose all resolution fighting her euphoria 
          Entry to her anger ensures...

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Oh, America,
my beloved America.
The world owns your soul,
and chortles as catastrophe comes.

Bartered was your legacy,
for riotous living,
and pottage no longer gratifies
your innards cravings.

Terrorist lambaste your innocent,
and spread false doctrines.
Fear and anxiety hold you captive,
casting foreboding...

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The air slowly fills
with curly pungent wafts of steam
billowing up from a 
hot freshly brewed cup of coffee.
Raising the baton to 
conduct the dawn chorus 
of bird songs and plans 
mulled to begin.

I love to...

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Rain, I adore, I impatiently wait for,
Like a wife awaits her husband from war.

Sloshing, splashing scintillating drops,
Soothing my skin with hopes
along with my smudged heart,
Rain, my first love, my sweetheart.

Laying on the gullible grass,
Staring at...

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Prayers Find Me

1-22-'17

Grinning with a sugar tooth vibrant
Groove me through the soupy mist
Standing here in Life and Tonight
Here on the ledge of This:
Standing here, heart thrumming.

Dire cascades collapse away,
Prayers find me everywhere through this day,
There's...

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At funerals, we listen as
The anecdotes are shared.
Some speakers prattle off the cuff
While others are prepared.

The congregation laughs when tales
Embody the deceased.
Those chortles let the tears subside
As tension is released.

As relatives and friends reflect,
Each listener...

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He zings through tall grasses and lands on my knee
I try my best to pull this sticky legged insect off me
He chortles and chuckles and pings off in the wind.
This hopper of grasses surely has...

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Beauty chortles forth a frabjous,
interrupting static sanity,
Misheard through ears abstruse.

Boojums guised as proper
Cast labels fathoming blind vanity --
Yet, beauty chortles forth a frabjous.

They are the true Doctor
Jekyll’s -- hiding the reality
Misheard through ears abstruse.

Bolt nothing...

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