Long Fifths Poems

How dare you desecrate the Capitol with urine and feces!
Even filthy pigs refuse to defecate near their own dwelling place.
How dare you flaunt confederate flags, grim reminders of our bloody history, 
Alongside swastikas, hate symbols...

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This was last Saturday night. We were at a rooftop party in downtown New Haven thrown by ‘DocHouse.’ Doc-House is kind of a frat-house, owned by Dr. Melon, where he and seven doctoral students live....

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Fifty stars
and
thirteen stripes
Wavy patriotic mathematician
do the math ... 
Subtraction or addition,
what will the numbers be,
37 or 63?
Slavery took away my parents’ human rights,
and their children’s dignity
I got 59 stripes to show 
	what was done to...

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America's had lots of heroes through the years
Helping the world overcome many fears
Humankind hasn't always been kind
Look closely at history, see what you find

Our founders succeeded and failed many ways
People of color not treated fairly...

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A tradesman’s son and temple secrets die
in sixty nine years, never knowing why.

Contempt delivered their first child perfect,
your childhood gauntlet galvanized neglect.

A mother’s son and her abuse still lie
in sixty nine years, never knowing why.

Too...

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Music of Love

On cloudless, starry, starry nights,
you sit on your moonlit patio,
under the cool canopy of Royal Poinciana trees
showing-off their flamboyant scarlet petals.
Cradling your beloved cello between your legs, 
you plunge into a vortex of...

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SHE THOUGHT BETTER THAN TOSS THEM OUT
THEY WERE PRIZED FOR THERE PERFECT SIZE
SHE JUST DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO
SHE HAD SO MANY FROM THE FIRST PICKING
ONLY IF SHE HAD MADE BETTER PLANS
ONLY IF SHE HAD...

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Savage

Why am I called a violent savage, uncivilized, unteachable, three-fifths of a person?
Yet, it was I who was obnoxiously chased by strange men who invaded my homeland.
As soon as their feet stepped on the soil...

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Kananaskis is 
four-fifths a line of  haiku
Kananaskis is

With spring’s sudden warmth
serial avalanches thunder
one triggers the next 

Winter’s snow melting 
laughing, leaping, running to 
valley far below

Green slopes banded red
dying lodgepole pine,  memories	
of last...

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I AM  the voice of erstwhile nations

Mali
Ghana
and
Songhai
                           ...

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At the park, there’s a man built of black stone
He stands shamed with an indifferent rifle that yawns at the sky
His stallion is frozen in gallop, to be forever majestic
In the sweltering day, the man...

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Ethan was determined to be the best,
to put to shame all other guitarists,
to rock the world in tight, leather pants,
touring like a God across the land.
So at thirteen years he learned three chords,
didn’t think he’d...

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A Lily is one of nature’s most special gifts
I’d pick them in ones, twos, thirds, fourths, and fifths
The exotic scent, arousing my nerves
Such a figure with the most desired curves

A Lily is mysterious
The colors drive...

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Echoes that rebound
on walls of night mist,
floating on sound,
chance not to be missed.

A concerto infused,
glistened in stars,
notes hanging gently
cradled in bars.

Mythical muse
transcribing the sheet,
floats into them,
softly they meet.

A Soprano-pure heart
keening a sorrow
wrung from the strings
no...

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by:  Eric L. Boddie
"A History Of..."

As it has come to be
Foundations of slavery define my destiny
Relentless jealousy continues our oppression
Only the Black American is subject to such obsession

African American, naw, I prefer black myself
Me...

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Sundays we hears de preacher's prays
Hopes ends on ropes, swings 'n sways
Gots ya nothin' jus' coz yer black

Laws gets bent but ya pays no mind
Give up tryin', no peace ta find
Gots ya nothin' jus' coz...

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they say i don't fit their ideal
i'm not the kind that they're used to

they say i'm outside of their mold
and don't behave as I've been told

they say there's no place here for me
to jus' go...

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The Large Hadron Collider was built deep beneath the Earth
to help reveal the secrets of the Universe's birth.
I'm not quite sure what benefits this expensive research brings
but I wish that they would give answers to...

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not to be diminished
your fifths carry me
to a realm of impossibility
where one dares to dream
far from the root
damned to a life of iniquity

octaves spun in figure eights
your eyes, demure
an opal of exchange
dying in and out
inexperience,...

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