Long Firebrand Poems

The Dance of Salome
Herod bellowed out the night's festive orders..
"Bring the torches, bring the tables..
more wine, that we may rejoice,  
for tonight we revel in kindred friendship."
Herod strolled onto the terrace, nearly stumbled in...

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Come post presidential election 2024... 

heil to the Wharton chief firebrand -
more worrisome than an ovarian cyst
every race, religion, nationality, 
gender, creed, et cetera with impunity dissed
brigand able, eager, ready and willing
to punch contenders throwing...

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Poet who exhibits panache - meant...

to tickle your fancy dear reader rabbit,
perchance European G-man double agent
regarding the following poem
with kick a$$, je ne sais quois
ingenious, humorous bent
even though reasonable rhyme
mebbe worth no mo' than ten...

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(alternate title: days of yore bubba's zayda
flush with buggy boo horse sense).

Norristown City Hall police person
informed yours truly
on September 15th, 2020
mine automotive driver license expired,
thus between January 13th 2019
and September 17th, 2020
I drove automobile,
(whether borrowed...

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Poet who exhibits panache - meant...

to tickle your fancy dear reader rabbit,
perchance European G-man double agent
regarding the following poem
with kick a$$, je ne sais quois
ingenious, humorous bent
even though reasonable rhyme
mebbe worth no mo' than ten...

Read More

Call me a pacifist activist deploring insanity of war,
never a Fitbit moon-unit soldier of military industrial
complex, this articulate baby boomer verily stupefied,
openmouthed, dumbfounded at inane ill logic to send
best and brightest, or even those boasting...

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As mortal veils dissolved, our bodies merged in the ossuary's somber symphonies, two mistress awakened by the velvet-wrapped cadavers, our disinvested hands tracing syllabic patterns across the olive verdure of our skin, as maelstroms of...

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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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Attorney General William
Barr black marker in hand
kept promise to censor vital
details of Mueller Report
swift as Usain Bolt candidly,
grandly, lustrously, roundly

youthfully blocked out more
rapid than an elegant eland
vibrantly, regally, magically,
and gracefully skirts borderland
which favored topography
constitutes grassland...

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"All the Dark Stallions"



Calliope burns 
ecstatic bright star
fire brands, all her marks

both hands 
holding the ropes
firmly fast today 

slow burn 
tomorrow
warm whispers 

gently towards
the unlit shadows
love wanting always stays

driving all 
the dark stallions
towards heaven

where the...

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Stalingrad
During moments I yearned for forests grown for me alone,
Caressing them in a dream,
I could sense the throbbing of the heart 
Hidden beneath my ribs to bless my journey. 
Summoning me with a pulse that...

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Like Moses fleeing Egypt 
and finding refuge in Midian
I was a stranger in a strange land.
Having fled Chicago in ‘84
I journeyed east to the
unpromised land of Detroit.

8 Mile Road.
“I'm a man
I'm a make a new...

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Raven was Death. She dwelt in death. She lived on death. Ages past, she had worn 
the blue-black, purple, feathers of the raven and dined on royalty at Tower hill. A 
tumble from grace had...

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Oh, my dear honorable poet!
Words recess when I write about you
 For, they start loving you

You were a sincere lover,
   when you wrote about love;
You were a lovable mother,
    when...

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OH MY GRIP

I want the firebrand
To my taste 
I want the dagger
To my taste
I want the bullet
To my taste
I thirst for blood
To my taste

I want war at the front of peace 
I want hate at...

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When I was a child, I would run on a street in the back of my heart,
"Run faster, jump higher, test smarter!"
The street burned with the tongue lashes of a scar ridden backside,
Running from National...

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He’s the best friend of democracy’s worst enemy ...
spinning white lies, treasonous yarn
Red coat ruby lipstick speak;
seditious bellow larceny,
crafty cerulean sound bytes of ruble treachery

Bennie Arn,
firebrand fox with the silver coin tongue
Got those oval eyes...

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Towers collapsed to foundations,
  The planes exploded in air,
To gratify firebrand preachers
  Destruction and death everywhere.

Bus became coffin on byway,
  Train torn up beneath ground,
Fanatics end innocent life,
  Spin godless chaos...

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“the fate of winter moths”
sitting on the  stoop, concrete sodden with
the chill of late winter. the air
acquires a coolness like your first breath
after confessional. the Christmas lights
illuminate the porch in a motley of whites
and...

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Hauteur brigand bound for gratuitous strand
Knows not he is country's chattel, enemy's contraband
As gallant marauders o'er ages spanned
His quest for glory fate will countermand
Gleeful lad starting out on quick, definitive errand
Becoming grizzled veteran in war...

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The haze did a dance before the saloon 
in the ghost town of my dreams; 
the batwing doors swung a nervous creak, 
rusted hinges, muted screams. 
A high noon clock with a warping hand 
failed...

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He is a kind soul and lends a helping hand
He is always my hero; He is everyone’s hero
He puts himself to good cause and is grand
He is a kind soul and lends a helping hand
He...

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Nestled deep in the tawny, drab woodland
Sedate cottage neither haughty nor grand
Sparse hovel of unassuming, itinerant brigand
Martial decor of detached highwayman starkly bland
The etched path sculpted by intemperate hand
No manicured garden on the scrubby strand
Briers...

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The white lie powers-that-be
want to pink eye me,
try to git me to walk around blindly
Pretending I don’t see
their yellow reign of abuse
cowardly pissing down on 
us black-and-blue trees — 
Scarred scarlet hearts
with the wilting brown...

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Five fine artistes combine The Outrageous 
With love messages ‘Courageous’,
Their offered songs a triple grand
For an innumerable-like-sand:
For their slumping admirers catchers on hand:
Blokes who had the youthful band
Glowingly judged Firebrand
And to their hairs hit to...

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