Long Effigies Poems

As I pivot to confront my offspring, I anticipate the sight of terror etched in their innocent eyes, a reflected horror that would mirror the abyssal darkness that has long resided within me.

Instead, I am...

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“Never forget 
everything Hitler did 
in Germany was legal.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

drop by drop lady liberty bleeds
red on white and blue
common sense vexatious 
verboten spins askew 

“We can and we must 
write in the...

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Yolotli, the beauty of Tenochitlan,
She was a tender, loving woman.
Every day she was catered to.
That is, until she was stolen.

Men, Warriors big and strong came from an opposing tribe.
They saw her glamour even from a...

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I.
GRAIL OF TIDES

from the brewing storm’s steeping chalice
the breath of death’s journey awakens in quiet tides 
beckoned by the stirring whisper of mortal winds
furrowed by stoic angels in pallid temporal skies
on wings they dance with...

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“Gods Like Men”



you the small men 
who war like gods

mystery that never was
in a likeness formed

through the mirrors
of the soul of God

a darkness
and a light 

the next star rising
after Sunset comes the Morning

you the small...

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“Clap your terrible wings, vivacious serpent of old!
Imagine my plight as dangerous as your spite,
Stomp your clawed feet on these prison floors,
Peace shall always follow the sink of your fangs…”

Silenced were the wailing demons round,
Crouched...

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My contingency measure in case of…götterdämmerung

A scenario unfolds
more abominable among
any previous warring factions,
his wicked weltanschauung
charred effigies futilely hung
against regime of brutality
considerably more unbearable
than infestation of fruit flies brung
about courtesy evil monster sprung
shortchanging restless and young.

Seconds...

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Stokey 2014

I am working the door

At an all night bar

Sometimes I think I have spent too much time alone.  These long nights remind me of flowers and effigies. I drink too much.  There’s...

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The Obeah Woman

Heavy musty air reeks with the Obeah Woman’s pungent perfume, 
sweat, burnt incense, bitter roots, and swirling black smoke,
dim light from a waning moon streams into the shadowy room;
and mirrors crack as restless...

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The mirtangist may never willingly hear
may not want to hear
the multaiyam announcing his cue
nor the melodist aware of the flautist's right
to the change in the raga
the plucking of the yal strings
to the goatskin drummed bleats
and...

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My chamber teems with tensions, taut, that logic can’t withstand,
fragmenting mental masonry with memories unplanned,
as bitter tears from hazel eyes reduce the stone to sand.

Dim shadows cast by candles flit across the haunted room,
beleaguer apparitions,...

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When we were younger
Our hearts and hands had melded
And brightened up a world

Then in winter, came snowstorms
And lightning, to burn up our shelter
A dragon roaring proud

So we were dashed, were broken
A nasty scar formed upon...

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Elegant in burnt orange afterglow, 
sparkling starlight opens the show.
Neighbors and strangers appear all aroun’, 
porch lights and car lights enlighten the town.

They arrive afoot and atop handlebars.
Tots wave from strollers like famed movie stars.
Mothers...

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On the dreary streets of a quaint but callus steadfast hamlet

A pearl in the bluster carries a handwoven sweet grass basket

The umbrella' d  tinge of the tiny town was opaque and gray

As the girl...

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DUCK AFTER DUMP PING THE DON
air ring ma thoughts - no matter aye ham 
juiced one twenty first century mwm ape
serves as genuine s cape
to fly (during pitch black hours of night) and escape
burning effigies,...

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In a royal antibacterial waste machine one must wait for the willing vibrancy of the whistling seal. Dressed neatly in a three piece suit he sits on a rock and calls to the breezes on...

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In the kingdom of forgetfulness you've left me, dear friends of old,
But in my soul I bear no grudge, just an undying flame, bold,
You've planted in me the seed of longing, in the endless wasteland,
Through...

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The Lady in the Mist

In a land where memories are lost within a heartbeat 
Where all of your dreams and imagination find retreat
Somewhere between a glimpse, what is lost, what is real
Drawing you closer into...

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Three faceless Misses
amble amidst vagarious March rains
under parasols / veiled in the anonymity of death/burial 

Three / shifting between tangible lives
breathless bellies barely acclimated to first-life
Brown girls who were shadows before second death

Voiceless / ambassadors...

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Now is the summer of our troppo paradise
Made sullen winter by this pretty virus;
And all the sun that shone upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with funeral...

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On this auspicious birth day of Jesus of Nazareth,
A genus of my country - claiming - saviors of their faith,
Took to the streets, burning the effigy of Santa Claus,
Taking pride as though they have won...

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Guy in Guantanamo 

Catherine’s wheel spins round the revolution ever since that day her lover died 
when both lost the plot and their passion and she cried her grief into Bedlam
	
Guy jumped to his death...

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Below the veil of twilight, memories sway in the moon's oaring,
Effigies of the departed rise like incense smoke amongst ruins.
They have sprinkled us with pale dreams, and now, flowers of forgetfulness in the yard,
Whisper silver...

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A GUNPOWDER PLOT

The 5th of November is a day to remember,
Children get excited from September, 
The sound of fireworks reverberate,
And bonfires with effigies of a life like
Guy Fawkes commemorate
What might have been a very bad...

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I’m done with co-dependence or so I say
I’ve burnt so many effigies for others
I’m the giver in my codependency
The taker burns all my oxygen 
She used to grant just a puff to breathe
Her flame used...

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