Long Epidermis Poems

Rampant and endemic police brutality... 
flourishes against United States citizens of color 
going on three years 
post George Floyd 
short lived heightened awareness
when #blacklivesmatter 
in conjunction with 1619 project
wrought upwelling of progressive surge
hinting at positive...

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Grant this civil yankee to doodle till Lee gets blue in the face 

blowing 99 red balloons April 9th, 2023
will signal 158 years since Appomattox
plus what would have been ninety sixth birth 
of the late...

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I live in a world of brutal ice and cold

Despite the temperature being five below...
these fingered handy limbs
awash with profuse sweat
dripping palms analogous
to a bloody busted gushing water main.

Mein kampf analogous
to a self made prisoner
who...

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Filched formerly anatomical slender man - me! Thus I take a pot belly stance!

Absolute zero escape
velocity gutted dance
sing days (contra and square),
cuz metabolic full abundance
abdominal adipose tissue acceptance
not in accordance
with light as a feather
physique I...

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While on the topic 
of blood kith and kin,
I relate another 
fabricated poem about 
blimey bloke of a fisherman. 

Trawl tale of a fictitious seaman told to ye...

Courtesy webbed whirled wide net wit
cursing thwarted life,...

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An ordinary Australian from an ordinary country place
Who rallied to the flag's call with god's good grace
He was one of the 33rd Battalion "New England's Own"
Into this swirling maelstrom they were duly thrown
The Great War...

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I cherish every precious lock of my hair as a keepsake

Twas partly on account
of yours truly being incarnation of Samson;
spouse and I wed
please fate, don't say alopecia didst tread;
though atheist to higher power
yours truly pled
heart...

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“Thick Skinned – What it Feels Like for a Girl”



When you speak 
it’s as if stars cascade
out of your mouth 
galaxies you produce
musical incantations 
that I listen religiously to 

I watch your lips 
form glistening...

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Ursus Maritimus ...

I entered your world in quietude, slipping through the granular, soft.
          Long slats to feet parting the frozen. Cold of a previously unknown
 ...

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(scoured from dregs of me muss held head)

I shore up a vignette to free 
my ("FAKE") grandfather Hymie,
whose scrunched countenanced 
evinced beetle that of browed monkey
he spent his entire life at sea
his thick calloused hands

and...

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Condemned
I
I just woke up from my breathless bed
And wondered why I still live
I thought death would take me on a leave
Unto the path I never dread.

I sat down on the couch
My sins stirring at my...

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Beelzebub arrived between the christmas lights strung inside my dorm,
Buzzing on my walls and brain to display what he must warn.

Voices scream inside my head when no one is around,
Dragging me deeper into my mind...

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Caution taken (lathering
     exposed epidermis with sun screen)
     against harmful innocuous
     rich (Times New Roman)

     12 font ask tick...

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Paint me blue like the sky
rainbow's smile; thunder's cry
clouded curtains rife with rain
till shroud is lanced and bluebirds fly again
     Wistful moods in mahogany frames
     melancholy painters...

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Insanity or Death

Life begins with insanity~~
~Your soul is kicking and screaming, 

Ready to exit with the touch of human hands.
Insanity rides on a gallant stallion ready to pant.
Hides in the mind, mourning its captive soul....

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On scarred green corduroy couches, lined with age, sighing under my weight-

Like bearded old men, releasing ages of wearied wisdom, 

Slipping in their sleep-

In rooms wreathed in smoke, wafting between breaths of laughter and exhale

And...

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To be fair, it was the end
of a long day and a large drink
we called Screaming Jesus
nothing more than watered-down
vodka, grape soda, and a stalk of rosemary.

We were dug in near a sandcastle
at Ormand Beach....

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Everything is too simple. 
Nothing is the way it seems. 
It has gotten to the point where I can't even think.
Constant dreams of ruthless killings.
Beatings, screaming, bloody murder.
Shall I take this any further?
The sun will...

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I woke up drenched in your affluence.
A lonely thread distending out of me,
you had been at work again.
The ever clever tailor of my fervor.
My skin cried colors that I had seen
in your eyes, every bit...

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Written: April 14, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Matt Caliri 

        ***********************

Inked impressions intricately 
inscribed into the epidermis,
and a story evolves. 
Splintered by the subtle stroke  
From every exquisite...

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Shhh,
         its ok
   scream if you need to
I’m doing this
  because I want to (need to),
do what you feel,
    its just...

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Every time
  my brain pauses
I can feel
             (taste)
your bloody kiss,
   the softness
       of your...

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Time and again finances stretched
to breaking point
crackle, pop, and snap
'curse Alfred E. Neuman
smiles at yours truly
(this luckless papa)

with with his toothy gap
haint even Abel nor Cain,
nor I pull myself up
courtesy frayed bootstrap
dirt poor penniless deathtrap
compliments...

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Prejudice, inferiority and abuse
maligned, hashtagged, and dogged
heels of peoples uprooted peoples
south of the equator, or elsewhere
whose epidermis strongly hinted
fifty plus shades of ebony.

They found themselves in debasement
within complex edifice housing
facade of equality
ofttimes receiving punishment
their sole...

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Babies have been known to crawl
Up to seven hundred feet a day
Better tie a rope tightly around them
Or they'll wind up miles away

Sex burns 360 calories per hour
Who has sex for an hour
Longest for me...

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