Long Flattened Poems

Dad hit me only once, an upper cut to the solar plexus. It nearly lifted me off my feet. I was 17 then and already fairly tall, 6’1.” He was 48 and of medium height,...

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No, Freddie can’t say he mourned when his father died and his father’s third wife found Freddie's number and gave him a call to give him the news. His father had been responsible, worked hard,...

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I have a little story to tell you ... it's absolutely true, of course, at least as far as I'm concerned, but you can take it as you wish - as a tale, a fact,...

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PRELUDE.
When the sky and world are dark no sounds are heard in the woods. Perhaps the scrabbling of night creatures on the hunt fo food. But no sound of woodpeckers ra ta tatting, bird song...

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How the housefly gets attracted to organic decay
and an infant child traces the voice of its mother
are nothing compared to the intense attraction
Michelle and I possess on the guy owning not a strand of hair...

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Troop ships loading, crowded docks
Mums and sisters waving off
Go with keepsakes, golden locks
Some men hug while many doff

Eric, soldier single stands
Beryl, lonesome widow cares
Many kissing holding hands
Eric stands and Beryl dares

Bump the soldier, make excuse
Apologizing...

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MY FIRST FRENCH KISSES
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS

My first french kiss; I was lanky, skinny, barely fifteen
I had the hots for the popcorn girl, she was eighteen
She made and sold the popcorn at the Strand Theater
Our mutual...

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[My recent poem ‘The Dimly Lit House’ received a
Comment from Charles Messina that it could be a Tom and 
Jerry episode… what can I say? Something went ‘Ping!’]

       ...

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from the extremely large to the very small, rocks have been game changers
  planet-sized melters, moon-makers
  asteroids with cataclysmic impact, dinosaur terminators
  again life's prospects pivoting
  this time, on tiny stable...

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Coercion began
as the ground surrounds the seed
baring life and truth
A kingdom of soil
An army of soiled crickets
A pubescent king
Presenting Jo Jo
the leader of the region
and sire to the throne
Forced to lead the masses
basis chases hatred
Bandaged...

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Fred’s feeding his neighbour’s pet parrot,
He replaced its water with claret,
Poll dropped off her perch
Now Fred’s in the lurch
and claiming it choked on raw carrot

Big trouble is looming for Fred
As Polly is very much dead
The...

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Every summer Mother’s folks would take us to their cabin. ‘Twas neither big nor fancy. Had no furnace. No TV! 
The cistern pump beside the sink was all there was for plumbing. So primitive…and yet...

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I was seven years old when began World War Two
And eleven became by the time it was through.
I have vague recollections of things when that small,
But events during wartime I clearly recall.

Since there was no...

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In case you don’t remember them they came from outer space
They were to be the first beginnings of the human race
But when they crashed they came down in a stark and frigid place
Antarctic ice interred...

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cliche`


Imaginism


Title:

"Every cloud has a silver lining"


Passing through a dark cloud in turbulent weather,
High in the air above 35,000 feet,
Plane dipping, sometimes lower.
Ooops! says some passengers, as you silently pray.

The shaking continues, Captain's warning signal
Comes on....

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As I neared home I went by the water works that stood for years behind the ice plant. That’s where the water for the city was processed and I remember how clean and clear the...

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When ‘He’ decides to destroy one and all
I’ll spend my last day in this old snooker hall
My cue in one hand and a beer in the other
I’ll play my last game with my dad and...

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The sixty-year reunion
of the class of '55
was quite a celebration
for the ones who had survived...

First came prissy Pomeroy-
then Milford, Meeks, and Moody
who like old crows, perched and cawed
at busty old Miss Trudy

While Trudy curled her...

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‘Our House

We bought our house in 1968, for eighteen hundred pounds.

A little terrace in a row, anything bigger was out of our bounds.

It had a loo in the garden, a bath downstairs, three bedrooms.

After a...

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Past unconcerned hens that distractedly 
Scratch
Under frowning protestations from the
Sheltered Lee;
Into the cloaked shadows lain across the 
Cobbled courtyard,
Behind which squats the twisted form of
The old brooding, arthritic apple tree.
Past the neat little cow-byre 
Hosed...

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Ted the Tortoise told his wife he’ll nip around the block
She said if you nipped anywhere it would be quite a shock
He said I’ve got a skateboard with a power-pack on board
It’s not the latest...

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Written in the 1960s ---


While speeding through the countryside one cool October day
I slowed to contemplate a massive tree.
It wasn’t long until I once again was on my way,
But “wonder” soon would stir inside of...

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any fool can be a philosopher
and it's not that big a deal
to be an Oracle either
we all notice more than we let on
so much is kept from us
to lessen disruption is the scam
while time disrupts...

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On edge of arid desert set
a trailer aged in rust
with tires flattened long ago
and covered thick with dust.
A friend I'd known for many years
had lived alone inside -
and if his lamp was burning, then
I knew...

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Through the storm surge and chaotic sky, 
the scale of destruction: hell on earth, 
towns flattened into a horrible wasteland, 
the deluge created ghost cities in a second, 
every night spent is a horror painted...

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