Long Downturned Poems

 POTD 25 Nov 2020

Manage your Stress … a peeling faded poster boldly declares 
I do get it about advertising campaigns. 
Enough to know that,
‘strategically placed ads’ catching the eye, is huge. 
But this poster...

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The table is old and worn
nicks and scratches 
its red plastic tablecloth left over from a forgotten Christmas
its holiday pattern worn and forlorn
many a Thanksgiving dinner was hosted
the plump turkey as dry as yesterday

many wars...

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I
The beggar outside the supermarket
You swore was picked up later
In a flashy car
Sat there in the sun for 8 hours
While you pissed & moaned
All the way home
To your bookless
Mausoleum 
With a chlorinated pool
Where one day...

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tight thoughts toil,
as threads in head uncoil
ideas plaited, intent's tug
escort through dilate pupils.
umbrella lashes shady look
was all it took-
inception outspooked
at artful spirit's raid, 
inkling's snapline birth
twine in tensile mind, 
sprinkling notion's seeds.
Small things become divine.

...

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Kaleidoscope Girl

She is made of glass 
of  broken pieces
And shattered fragments
She has jagged edges
That splintered my soul
She has wounded me
And my scars healed 
With drops of her sealed
Embedded forever

I shouldn’t have peered
Into the hole...

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There didn’t have to
be a reason
no one thing
no trigger
it was always boiling
just beneath the surface
always.

It could have been
the number of soldiers
lying empty on the desk
next to the ashtray.
You know the one
the one that left
the two...

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I’ve seen the minds of my generation bested by their handheld mobile devices,
texting for a dopamine rush, tuning out the reality around them.
I’ve watched them, withdrawn from present company, looking for bars of microwave coverage,...

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~

"Give me a whisper and give me a sigh"

Those soft words following the emotions in your eyes
exhale poetry on my whimpered dreams
Take from me all that I can give while
reaching for that sunset…a distant prism...

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Clumsily tripping, over our own feet
Sometimes, minds aren't meant to meet
perhaps we're off just a micro beat
thoughts obscured, behind glass covered in sleet

Sure there are those, who wish to exploit
but really in the end, what's...

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I look into my child’s eyes
Brown pools of innocence
And I see my reflection
A silhouette of heartbreak
I want to go back in time
I want to hold her tighter
I need to tell her I love her
And I’ll...

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Don't you cry tonight 



"Give me a whisper and give me a sigh"

Those soft words following the emotions in your eyes
exhale poetry on my whimpered dreams
Take from me all that I can give while
reaching for...

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Long to touch the rows  u p o n  rows of coneflowers,
but the bees, they b u z z, and the butterflies own.
Favorite intrepid host, the red-winged blackbird, towers
over the purpleness  of...

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A Life
My life has three stages, I was young once
it didn`t last so long, and the downturned came
in my middle thirties, I sank into a gloom which
now is called depression, everything terrible happened
in quick succession...

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Weaver birds near Escombe, where I was raised ...
Doing their weaving with palm leaves, cut precisely
With little beaks, for bare Acacias across the yard ...
Now nests like fruit: wide downturned mouths - not for hospitality...

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Do you feel an ache from your virgin breasts,
as you paint the Madonna whom God blessed?
Your eyes present an almost haunted glow,
hands delicate barely hold onto brush.
Insanity almost seems within your reach.
You barely smile as...

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Keep the faith inside you burning
in the face of vanquished hopes
Love will never be the conquered one
Strength will give it will to cope

“Share the hopes within you still
and hold the dreams that in you reside.
Invite...

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no one sees them
as the veils begin to shift
and night falls 

ghosts begin their walk
high heels tattered and worn down
jeans stiff from two days wear
jesus dangling between their breasts
at the corner of a downturned mouth...

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She has the tools to draw you in,
without such tricks as flesh or skin,
perfect orbs that stun unknown:
eyes that spoke, to me alone.

Every feeling would they betray,
want and hatred as clear as day,
love and need...

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To own the upper seat at last is blessed. 
How clear are skies that shine within the blue.
No longer bound by circumstance suppressed.
Think! Are there "thanks" to someone that is due?

Joyfully feel a grateful attitude....

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Those melancholic eyes and downturned lip,
Resembling not so much a whining dog
As sorrow crafted with a stagehand’s whip
Or acted by some theatre’s thespian cog,
Did glisten once with tears of salt and truth,
Conveying more the fear...

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Bleach floods over British Empire blues
Prussian wealth fragmenting into rust
Ochre pouring from the distilleries of eyes
Hidden downturned under peek-a-boo fringes
The lustre of ink wells overflowing where
The sun never sets. Lace and horses make
A violent mix...

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