Long Gainful Poems
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Telling "White Lies"
My mother got born November
thirteenth, nineteen hundred thirty five
within poverty stricken household
of Canarsie, Brooklyn, the youngest
(most mollycoddled) of four siblings,
experienced grinding poverty, no
matter maternal grandfather (Moishe
Kuritsky), a tailor he lacked drive
(and felt neutral about stitching
together gainful employment)
to support his family two parents +
remainder offspring, he helped sire
lacked positive role models, none the
less gumption taught her to strive
at tender age livid with rage to escape
caricature living poor, thus sought
employment when/wherever sheik hood
if necessary fibbed to survive
plus rash of healthy nurturing, and
absolute zero constraints, perhaps five
or thereabout years old attested
much later, suspected her papa did jive
with unspeakable improper behavior
(nobody dare discuss taboo issues),
yet intuition awoke within immoral
conclusion Harriet Kuritsky did arrive,
and perhaps resorted to stretching
the truth (fibbing a "white lie") the only
recourse available plied sweet innocence
knowing little or nothing about birds
feathering their nest, nor little about
buzzfeeding activity in beehive
naivete flirtatious coyness advantage worked,
I bet young thang did connive
and probably never did contemplate,
deliberate, generate and wrongdoing,
where mother of necessity spurred
angelic demureness strategy to contrive
securing bare necessities, hence fast
forward, when unsolicited advice given
to this sole son, or either sibling, (an older
& younger sister) tactics upbringing did deprive
ma mum of positive role models, hence
only blueprint to acquire essential needs
serendipitous series of unfortunate events
before Lemony Snicket did derive
school of hard knocks, (I do believe
formerly called Abraham Lincoln High)
rather than impugn, judge, revile, et cetera
kernels/nuggets of wisdom memory did revive
within my mind for rhyme, nor reason
blunt honesty, not always best policy
despite ten commandments
to husbands with many a wive.
Life lesson learned meant blurred line
between mendacity and truth
courtesy upbringing mommy dearest
if repeatedly drummed into me noggin
brutal honesty will bring nothing but bupkis,
or if you prefer the Yiddish spelling bobkes.
Love the oldest,
Love the youngest,
The smallest,
The broadest.
Imperfectly perfect,
Proudly humble.
Endlessly end,
Peacefully troubled.
Quietly lousy,
Uncountable counting.
Pleasurable painful,
Ungainly gainful.
Resurrecting in killing,
Smiling in weeping.
Coming in going,
Abiding in departing.
Truth in lies,
Open-mindedness in sly.
Elevation in humiliation,
Built in destruction.
Unity in separation,
Honesty in temptation.
Standing in tribulation,
Thanking in starvation.
II
Love a burning fire,
But never to consume.
Even though she wonders,
But she never get confused.
Love is the source of life,
The fountain of light.
Love, so above death.
And she has no end.
The she's highly immortal,
But she in love with the mortal.
She is sane,
But love the insane.
She is so peaceful
But she's found in a troublesome place.
So careful,
She sojourns in this careless cave.
In an offensive place to pardon,
In sinful house to forgive.
Descending to comfort the abandoned,
Coming so low for poor to give.
Going blind to see,
Far away to come near.
Hardened heart to believe ,
Becoming deaf to hear.
Pleading in rejection,
Blessing the prosecutor.
Hunted but growing,
Hated but reigning.
Too real to the fools,
Because is so true.
Erred men don't believe its free,
Because is so cheap.
So abundantly, but only few has it.
The people she love are rejecting.
If you find one you're lucky,
Because she's one blood thing you can't just inherit.
My solemnity
Oh! I need you thou love,
I wonder if I can in men find one.
I can trade my eyes for it,
Because I know in her will I clearly see.
Really, men are so many.
But how many can truly love?
Marriage can be done within ten minutes,
But are mostly grounded in lust.
If you say you're true lover,
Show it to many like that pauper.
Don't only love your rich husband,
Show love to your maiden servant.
Preaching and boasting of it on the pulpit,
Have you ever have a meal with the poor?
Show it when sad and when happy,
Accommodate your enemies' daughter and son.
Tis easy to love our family,
That's not in the dictionary of we lovers.
It is easier for us to love the whole country,
And those that has once make us suffer.
Automobile prohibitive maintenance costs
pitches me pitifully begging for alms
lamenting dog forsaken
melon collie unpleasant circumstances
pleading with outstretched palms
disgraced to beg, perhaps donate
major organ and/or entire body
to ease vehicular qualms
aha... methinks the missus could pose
as ventriloquist after mortician embalms
these lovely bones, but, hmm...
even then post mortem
agitation most likely becalms...
Straitjacketed impasse finds
yours truly going for broke
to nurse our 2009 Hyundai Sonata,
which monetary outlay doth yoke
mine fate heading, née accelerating
at ever increasing speed
emitting plume of smoke
which thick noxious exhaust
would immediately choke
any innocent wheel chaired,
or ambulatory pedestrian,
bicyclist (think Chernobyl),
a nightmare that did woke.
Mein kampf reduced between
a rock and hard place
analogous to trapped betwixt
Scylla and Charybdis
inadequate funds to purchase
newer preowned car,
nor paltry monies to erase
utter nightmare, yes
father did spring me
unexpected mullah, yet
the near future will menace
this dirt poor aging baby boomer,
and his moderately significant other,
she too needs more than solace
lacking gainful employment and
financial resources, maybe brazen
to broadcast such
amidst digital populace
such tsuris (Yiddish meaning
trouble or woe; aggravation)...
Just letting of figurative steam
emblematic of this easily
intimidated fellow with decent
original (long "e") meme
all throughout his life shouldered,
or voluntarily stationed to sidelines
courtesy crème de la crème
topnotch competitors within
human race attain the
supposed "American dream"
or similar facsimile thereof
finding one fool on the hill
gagging at extreme
pauperism, yes mainly linkedin
to series of unfortunate events
(Lemony Snicket would ogle,
envy chiefly hanker ring)
hashtagging me more supreme
regarding amassing adversity.
Thank you stranger near or afar
understanding how or why
Sylvia Plath crafted The Bell Jar
a cult classic, I would never
attempt to duplicate, my par
for the course literary contribution
might... humph earn me one lone star
if ever dabblings in scratching
out feeble efforts courtesy this word Tsar.
I laid me body stomach down atop a grassy knoll...
here at Highland Manor Apartments
earlier today Juneteenth 2022,
(a pitch perfect spring day)
with serious intent to read
seat of the pants suspense thriller
The New Comprehensive
A-Z Crossword Dictionary.
Invariably, yours truly
quickly experienced drowsiness,
succumbed to deep sleep
and dreamt being linkedin
with livingsocially off the grid
among ecological, liberal, social minded
people progressive in act, deed, and thought
versus participating in consumerist paradigm.
As a conscious conscientious counterpart
the missus shops with a conscience
and yours truly considers her price savvy
when she purchases groceries
at ALDI, Giant, LIDL, or other supermarket.
Impossible mission to adopt modus operandi,
whereby wife would entertain notion to husband
energy garnering fruits and vegetables
courtesy sweat equity
since we lack basic homesteading skills,
nor consider either of us
adequately financially solvent
to contact compatible intentional community
since requisite criteria
require a healthy monetary stash of money.
Unlikely substantial windfall will appear out of the blue,
nor grandiose wish to draw winning lottery ticket,
thus sobering truth to burnish marketable skills
finds me seek assistance
courtesy office of vocational rehabilitation in general
and counselor Donna Marchese in particular,
which most likely entails
securing training to learn Microsoft Office Applications.
More precisely, some familiarity exists
regarding understanding computer software
since admission of foolhardiness
now averred how countless golden opportunities
slipped thru these ofttimes sweaty fingers.
Though never successfully completed,
received funding back in the day from:
CETA, O(ffice) of V(ocational) R(ehabilitation)
twice before whereby
the former and/or latter program
allocated unspecified dollars
(poor Ray McNeil, the first OVR counselor,
whose tiresome love's labour's lost for naught)
in an effort to acquire gainful employment,
which in all honesty sabotaged
cause of that bugaboo severe social anxiety
more specifically diagnosed
as schizoid personality disorder;
no shame to admit mental health crisis.
Written: April 8, 2025, for contest sponsored by Brian Strand
*******************
love fleeting
moments
soul controlled
promiscuity &
wantonness
winnow wheat
from chaff
magically
besot
bog-myrtle
emblem
shrewdness
credence
communication
intimacy & physical touch
oversight
laudation
love binds
oozes
matters
expands
prevails. . . and sounds
spiritual
visual
reversal
unperishable
individable
love is all around
love is all about
love is all we ask
love is all we bestow
love is all I have . . .
Joining
flowing counting
growing knowing
asking giving
motivating comforting
having
love is painful
fruitful
disdainful
gainful
baneful
graceful
hateful
archangel
playful
baleful
wakeful
unstable
i love: love
i am so in love
in love with Joy
in love with happiness
in love with anger
in love with frustration
in love with tears
love hurt, love heal, love win, love kill,
love loose, love catch, love toss, love match,
love fall love is right love is wrong,
love is weak, love is strong,
love rise love tall, love smile, love frown,
love stay love cease, love dream love sing,
Thee nonpareil Amelie Beth Harris-McGeehan
blessed honest to dog goodness her person doth bring
never could her brother wish upon NON GMO
(archaeopteryx, buffalo, chicken...) wing,
and genuine prayer anybody more a maze zing.
Many countless years before
our dear mother passed away four
plus eleven earth orbitz ago,
she voluntarily repeated more
times than I can remember "your
older sister possesses altruistic qualities."
The above words enclosed by this bloke
with double quotation marks, okey-doke
not necessarily the way mama spoke,
but yours truly took poetic liberty
without any intention generating impulse to choke
the harmless, nameless, and stateless writer
and literally went bonkers
while going for Baroque
for recognized virtue that recently woke.
Kinship towards angelic, fantastic, pacific anchor
understandable why her spouse did hanker
during their courtship to pledge his troth
to maneuver metaphorical
hook, line, and sinker as though steadying a tanker.
Innocence and naïveté suffused little boy
occupying body of aging long haired
pencil necked geek without gainful employ
and (and as a shy person without benefit
of powdered milk biscuits)
generally trended solitary
verses masing with hoi polloi,
nevertheless ofttimes relentlessly teased
bully me, I loathed treatment on par
with worthlessness linkedin with discarded toy,
thus gratitude prevails toward eldest sibling
(no matter just thirteen plus months older)
pseudo motherhood she did deploy
to ward off aggressive monsters.
I reckon eyes appreciation
matured into present thankful attitude,
now with mooch time to ponder and brood
how earlier in my life behavior childish and crude
methought meself as hotshot dude,
yet these days, I couch sincerity writing
one or another poetic endeavor
knitting words analogous to composing an etude
contemplative, intuitive, and ruminative mental food
for thought hoop ping to convey
honest to goodness gratitude
communicating reasonable rhyming message
(if yee be downcast dearly beloved sister)
delivering uplifting, kickstarting exalting mood.
Damn anticipatory anxiety affliction...
trumps volition (mine) to don employee hat!
Until the grim reaper
whisks yours truly away
common joe just biden his time
chronologically old fogey
(albeit boyish looking goodfella)
at moon shadows he doth bay
meanwhile stricken with
dripping wet sweaty palms,
perhaps attired with
trademark Harris tweed
this August twelfth
two thousand twenty dog day,
viz just the mere thought
to seek part time employment -
cuz I wanna supplement
(social security disability) income
perhaps out of desperation
selling myself short on eBay
unless an anonymous reader
espies adept ace at foreplay
i.e. whereby his linkedin word choice
oft times evokes double entendre
essentially this poetaster
at large concocts gourmet
reasonably rhyming literary cuisine -
thus hip hip hooray
invariably an anonymous
respondent will inveigh
against playful badinage,
and/or perchance some grumpy
humorless cat (woman)
originally whose nine lives spent
housed within San Jose
will take objection with base (sic)
lame ribaldry (mine) laughable
courtesy none other than kkk,
(kooky, klutzy, and kitschy tendency)
who though reformed Caucasian Jew
coon sitter me laughingstock, nevertheless
(modesty notwithstanding)
he brews the best latte
this side of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania,
where whiplashing, madding, and
clamoring crowd fuels melee
along Perkiomen trail
over hills and across Atlantic Ocean
eventually leads to Norway,
which namesake river from “Pakihmomink,”
or “where the cranberries grow.”
Rather than get further
bogged down with inane zeal
I best steer clear of poetic poppycock
courtesy imaginary wheel
thus the following pablum I unveil
nsync with titled malady all to real,
which plight involves hyperhidrosis
quite a debilitating ordeal,
especially when thinking
to pursue gainful employment
emphatically steadfast
and honest think (me) leal
course this humble communicates
(hyperbolically) embodiment ideal
if seeking to gain insight how I feel
about myself, a tense body
inept to cartwheel.
I always wanted two slices of ice cube pie
“You only get one”, was the standard reply.
I don’t know why I did
But since I was a kid
It was my favorite treat on the Fourth of July.
The pastry is known by all our relations
Since the recipe’s passed down for generations.
Every bite you’ll savoir
Exceptional flavor
But remember, don’t settle for imitations
Long ago, my great Aunt tried experiments
By leaving out one of the ingredients.
Once Uncle took a bite
He stared out in fright
And barely survived that bad experience.
My oldest son, Johnny became quite wise
He grew up like the others, before our eyes.
His passion for confection
Was a gainful connection
When he opened the first ice cube pie franchise.
Soon after that, we made our first million
And played in the sun with friendly Brazilians.
But to our surprise
We saw ice cube pies
On bamboo platters next to our pavilion
Right away we knew this was an infraction
Without delay our family took action.
We found a private eye
Who loved our ice pie
But his research left him broken in traction.
It was apparent to us that that kind of job
Was endorsed by the brutal ice cube pie mob.
But we didn’t frown
Or give up and back down
We were going to prevail; oh, yes siree, Bob!
With a meeting of minds we gathered resources
And then undersigned the following courses.
To make sure our ices
Sold at cut-rate prices
To knock competition off its high horses.
So back at the shop we assembled platoons
To build enough pies to reach to the moons.
And made plenty dough
That allowed us to mow
Down the cube racket’s, knuckle dragging goons.
We now manage an ice cube pie monopoly
Sales started smooth, but then turned choppily.
So we eased the frustration
With another vacation
But guess what we saw in downtown Mexicali?!
The moment comes for sad farewell;
A brief song sums goodbye that tells;
Feelings go numb with parting spell.
So much of art in lines that speak;
Words from the heart with ebbs and peaks;
Space and time part in groans and tweaks.
Days in the sun where time unfolds;
Nights on the run in dreams untold;
Jest and wit pun in hot and cold.
Words tell a tale of fond fine verse;
Hope sparks a sale in faith once terse;
Love now avails what kind peace serves.
This journey here is but a flash;
A certain cheer marks a bright dash;
Pulse now must steer a lovely bash.
Verse weaves a glow in simple zest;
We come and go much like the rest;
A sanguine flow in gainful quest.
Here at the gate the weary pass;
Each to a fate in looking glass;
Set on a date in sacred trust.
Our ample daze is but a test;
Our problem craze brings out the best;
Our hidden maze forks out the rest.
Go now in peace as journey trends;
Go bring new ease to dare attend;
Go find increase in moments grand.
Farewell my friends from way back when;
Farewell to spends of now and then;
Farewell to blends of wordplay stand.
Here words can niche a sacred shore;
Find moments rich to word some more;
Write to dare reach with verse galore.
Press on and write to dare now share;
Ply witty cite to show you care;
Prime each new bite with more to spare.
Thank you so much for this sure stage;
Poise frees as such a poetry page;
Voice must indulge soul from life's cage.
The moment starts and ends too soon;
Watch cryptic art word pain's high noon;
Now mind and heart hurl a fond boon.
Leon Enriquez
29 December 2014
Singapore
Friendship: Just Like a Palm Tree
By Izunna Okafor
From the crusts of lonely loams
It gently roots inner and outer
And softly pullulates harder and taller
To register its purpose to mankind.
Like the trunk, the bond glues harder
To the closely open hearts of soil
Who signed for mutual reciprocation.
Its oil heals internal and external wounds
Smoothens the rough path in the journey of life
And generally satisfies the ravenous and thirsty mind
Amidst love, sweetness and uncommon affableness.
It is a shelter
To those who faithfully embrace it
It is a protection
From both the seen and the unseen blitzes.
Though it might be swayed or troubled at times
The frond fans away fears, worries and anxieties
And breezes up pleasure and comfort
Drawing from the wind and coolness of the heavens above.
From its base to the apex
Valuable is every tranche thereof
Beholding its mutual and universal foredeal
Both in the long and the short runs.
Just like a palmtree
Friendship is fecund, impactful, virtuous and gainful
Though bad may fitfully come therefrom
That, the good utterly outweighs.
About the Poet:
Izunna Okafor is a bourgeoning novelist, poet, journalist, essayist, publicist, administrator and an Igbo Language Activist who hails from Ebenator in Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
He writes both in Igbo and English Languages, and has published enormously in both.
Izunna, a graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, has won over 20 literary awards, has four published books to his credit, in addition to hundreds of online publications, which cut across Journalism and Creative Writing.