Long Flinched Poems

He just appeared to me, like wispily curling 
Chimney smoke, 
One grim and early morning in the very midst of 
Decembers briefest days, on the highest slope,
Toiling through my daily round; where, slowly 
Driving up...

Read More

Slang..
Chick-fil-a = the best place ever
jade = 
brooke = gorgeous 
mishin = the boss, as in “You aren’t the boss of me.”

Orpheus
We’re on vaycay. School is OVER, COVID is over. We’re in New York City...

Read More

Colin is a cabby with a proper taxi cab
He drives for all the passengers an Uber didn’t grab
Which means he has a lot of time to kill most every day
And lots of evil folk to...

Read More

Severe night terrors after being held 
captive for a week during Christmas 
again my abusive ex brutally attacked 
me every Christmas since that arson 
murder that cold Christmas day 1984 
all the elderly persons perished...

Read More

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
The score stood four to two, with but an inning left to play.
And when Cooney fell at first, and Barrows met the same,
A hush of sorrow...

Read More

Hard lessons learned when brought into my home at the age of 3                      ...

Read More

(a university-life vignette)

It’s Saturday morning at about 9am. I’m in the chemistry lab, a sterile looking room with 12 workstations that are like multi level kitchen islands with sinks and various lab gear. It’s the...

Read More

This was last Christmas - 39 days ago - doesn’t that seem like ancient history? 

We were in Lisa’s (parent’s) 50th floor flat, in Manhattan. It was mid-morning, we’d done the present thing, and it...

Read More

"The Day(s) I Saw That Fate Exists"

6/17/19 
"What Makes You Flinch" poetry contest
Sponsored By: Julie Leigh Rodeheaver

Today began as most of many days do
Today I woke, a tad bit hungover

Opened my eyes, rubbed my head
Said...

Read More

I had fallen in love with a young Mexican maiden in the town of El Paso
Completely mesmerized by her eyes had me following her wherever she would go.  In 
Rosa’s Cantina, the music would...

Read More

Splaaaashhhh! Another tear lost to memory...
A secret image I keep with me in my heart,
we parted and I waited to hear your Star.t
~When would you deliver words of my eternity?
~Here I am reaching pleading feeling...

Read More

Prospector Hank rode down the canyon cold
Ten years on the trail, out looking for gold,
Hank found a camp, not long abandoned then
In the dust lay tracks, of cows and of men.
Why cows would be here,...

Read More

The putrid, malodorous and fowl nauseating smell 
   can still be conjured nearly fifty years later wracked
I never forget ineradicable tangy, sulfurous 
   acrid odor rankled olfaction tract
entire sinus cavity, yet...

Read More

Once the light was lit,
           and my eyes could envision
  I wanted, I sought, I longed for
      I craved...

Read More

I laugh as I think of it now, the dire warnings of hell
Nothing could scare me it didn’t matter, on this teaching I never did dwell.
I wondered why one dark night, again begging for sleep.
No...

Read More

Run, Girl, Run
She was just eleven, small and spry,
Her father said, “You’re due, oh my…”
A spanking, harsh, the kind she knew,
But this time she thought, “Not today, not you.”

He called her brothers, big and loud,
“Go...

Read More

III.

Scott bought the farm and some dairy cows,
and set about building himself up.
He soon made a name for quality milk,
local wholesalers could not get enough!

One summer day he took to the plow,
preparing and old field...

Read More

Walking quickly,
Feeling uneasy.
I think to myself,
I must be going crazy.
I look over my shoulder,
But not soon enough.
Two hands grab me from behind,
'Don't scream' the voice is tough.
I try to pull away,
To get out of his...

Read More

I can't believe I thought that.
In the shadows of my soul the whispers lingered. It murmured and elegantly sat massaging my last ego in the stool of regrets. My being was lied to, stomped at,...

Read More

When Max Martin rode into town
he found Juanita, tanned and brown,
as she worked her shift tearing bar,
he walked up and ordered a drink.
She looked over the dust-swept man,
who seemed as if he’d once been grand,
but...

Read More

Have you ever had a massage of any kind?
During the process,did you,your teeth, grind?
I always thought you get this tender,sweet, relaxing feeling;
Until I became a massage client who left squealing.
What was going on inside my...

Read More

My paper heart 
Flies like a bird 
And flutters like a butterfly 
When I feel my breath taken away.
It is weightless,
Gliding on air 
Along miniature music staves, 
Hop-hop-hopping to the notes 
In quarters, eighths, and...

Read More

Purple Dreams In Other Realms

Once upon a magical evening an enchanted fairy I happened to see 
dressed in a fantastical dress with two dappled wings of lace,     
she shone like the...

Read More

I gently massaged her shoulders moving surely
up and down the nape of her neck
she flinched, as my hands moved passionately
down to her lower back
and as my fingers tickled, she moaned a 
whimpering moan and I...

Read More

She came out of the water,

naked, free, and without a care,

skin smooth, soft, and wonderfully bare,

the man’s face was expressionless,

unreadable, pale, and cold,

her attitude nevertheless was sweet and her actions bold,

his face drawn to a...

Read More