Long Exigent Poems

Many of you live
humbly and heartily
patriotically and industriously
nutritiously and faithfully
in Western and Southern States,

United in this time of shrinking reservoirs,
dying rivers,
hurricaned coastal residents

Displaced by floods,
invasive mold,
voracious rot and rats,

Barren top soil,
failing electrical networks,
drought,
inhumane heat,
decimated forests

Bereft...

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CORRUPTION
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


Now that I’m approaching the final inning
I need to re assess the ideas I had at the beginning
I thought that if you were altruistic and right
That alone was the strength needed to fight
To...

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What can a bewildered brotha’ say,
it happens every unnatural day
Sunshine is labeled as shade,
crystal clear is called opaque fade

Did I make a left turn 
into the wrong dimension?
Now I’m seeing curvaceous things
that Nana never mentioned
Me...

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Broken promises churn my heart, 
like what the desert whirlwind does 
to the desolate dunes. 
I can’t calm down my twirling turbulence,
pent-up rage shatters the shield of forbearance, 
turns me into discarded debris of indignity...

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explanations of life's complexity seem more like 
eager delusions designed to keep us tame, all my 
energy is sucked out of my soul as I try to hold on 
explosive emotions can't just be willed...

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Words unkept, promises broken churned my heart, 
like what the whirlwind does to the dunes. 
I couldn’t calm down my twirling turbulence
as pent-up anger shattered the shield of tolerance.
Defenseless and discounted I disintegrated, 
turned into...

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It's not every woman I love gets my kiss
(Though I wish for it), some lips aren't tasted by mine,
Although touching's in play, it may not know the bliss
Of a moment's reflection, "I wish you were...

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recklessly chaotic surrender
 midway untrained assimilating
thought patterns struck by twilit
    idiosyncratic contractions'
 irrational heart dotted i's 
   of contradictory falsities, 

pushing past buttoned loops
 orchestrating emotional surges
  coasting sideways...

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The exigent mountain 
in the tough terrain 
of upheaved life,
          crumbling, 
needs to be climbed 
as the solemn summit 
alluringly calls.
I follow 
the undefined trail
in surging...

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Dearest Prof –
I did not title them:
These ever-ready logs
Ready to assemble ants of cowries;
They dance from sea to land
Wishing to be titled by exigent gods
Who watch over their lonely coronations
Lavished with sacrificial songs!

I did not...

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In the trying times of Covid pandemic
I was home-bound, secluded and agonized,
restrained from doing things I needed to do. 
Derelict life had lost its natural rhythm 
in the exigent chaos of uncertainty.  

Cut-off from...

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Eternal granite, crystalline scree, agates, boulders, rise
to hills, towering tors,* mutinous mountains, endlessly growing
rising, lifted,  then toppled by the fiery rebirth of draconic lava**

Like the cracked shell of an avian egg***/ **** both molten...

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I want to rearrange rooms with you,
Sipping steeped teas and coffee beans. 
Pondering an existential anamnesis;
"The aloe should go here."

I want to want little victories,
Shape sovereign lands from the exigent patriarchy of our uncordial entente.
Reap...

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The exigent mountain in the tough terrain of life 
needs to be climbed as the summit alluringly calls,
follow the undefined trail in surging storm of strife. 

Cross with piety the divine gateways God installs, 
in...

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It is not the kind of conversation that is exigent to the circumstances.
When questioned, we could have feigned its importance, but why?
It was a superfluous conversation, and no one should have asked.
But the police detectives...

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