Long Pawned Poems

Bottom feeders flourish

When the economy's a bust

When bad times are the norm

And good times turn to dust

When neighborhoods go south it's sad

But a sign of their demise

Is when a bunch of pawn shops open up

Before...

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Asifa's Blood Pens 
(The Courageous Princess)

No! No! Wipe out the name of Asifa! 
No more Asifa's on this earth to be born!
O Lord, my creator, my benefactor, my protector!
My parents chose my name in your...

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Fishers fish and merchants drift
But pirates lurk and seek to sift
They show their wealth with coins they spit   
While honest men give honest gifts 

A fletcher rises with the day 
His arrows up...

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Once married to a Nigerian man, mean and cruel
Who pretty much thought I needed to follow only his rules

Once married to a Nigerian, he had one intention, his 'green card'
I will continue to fight Immigration...

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There are many pig-type stories,
Mostly told in piggy fables.
Most are cheerful little characters,
With "Happy Endings" in their labels.

Let's start with 'Porky Pig' cartoon,
S-s-s-stammering pig of Looney-Tune fame.
It's here I'll mention other pigs,
Because all pigs are...

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In the summer of 1949, I lay in the grass in "Grannys"  back yard picking clovers with 8 year 
old Ada Bee, my black and only friend.  Ada Bee had six fingers on...

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THE CHECKOUT LINE

I made the phone call
he's holdin got the work. 
We gotta have the "ins" this time, 
said he wouldn't front me dirt. 
What we got between us 
still ain't enough to score
Let's hit...

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The Middle Years

She'd been wooed by dukes and diplomats
From Nome to Nagasaki,
Kept by mobsters, bishops, bureaucrats,
And a movie mogul's lackey.
She'd been plied with jewels, a fancy car,
Designer gowns and furs
By lots and lots of husbands,
Not...

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What does innocence cost, you ask?
    It seems it's just a grand,
        For I know a girl who had hers sold
    ...

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An old wives tale of modern day

Say's do not eat before you swim

So why are cookies compulsory in order
to surf the web ?

A plethora of unwarranted advertising
from funeral cover to bedroom toys

And what i never...

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FAM AND AMERICA DON'T CARE

Those clothes you wear
Your grey white hair
And yes you dare to ignore me
Compromise and exploit me
You don’t care
You don’t care
Am I too old to love?
Am I too young to use my...

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Ooh...this... just an amazing grace note
     recalling how I felt like an ass
and wanna toot 'bout me getting steered
     (as a heavy metal kid Rocker)

  ...

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It was a late evening when I met you
I walked into the room and I saw you
Engrossed in what you were doing, without a care
I knew then that you were a being rare

I kept making...

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A daunting press of gifted dreams
          The boyish boasts and sculpted schemes
              ...

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I'm lost hurt and angry
Why did you take his life
I want, No I need to know
Tell me, Tell me why
I deserve to know

Haven't you done enough to him
What'd he ever do to you
He suffered his...

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Remember ninety-five
When we felt free
We felt alive
We hugged and kissed
Rejoiced in freedom
Rejoiced and sung
Songs of freedom

Mandela walked 
As skeptics talked
But he walked on high
And touched the sky

He loved and he gave
The spirit of the brave
He...

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A Game
Chequered 
!

Verbose;
Pawned divinity    
Words are pieces
Phrases are moves
Players' wordsmiths 
Egos crowned kings 
Drawn out are words
Empty stands sheath
Reveal your Chess
Strategy-Tactics

Grand master Mikhail Tal speak
On checker board strategies.
"The deep desires
Of a chess...

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I really didn’t realize how awkward it would be to substitute you
After years of feelings for you it can’t evaporate 
With a drop of two tears and a couple misplaced calls
You were gone and I...

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A ‘Chicken’ One Can Milk!

A ‘Chicken’ One Can Milk!
 
Known fact, Hindus believe that no cow should get eaten,
that milk is enough, and their flesh should not sweeten
our tongues (grace a stew)! Let me not...

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Left hand doesn't see what the right ones doing
Gotta be careful so they won't end up suing 
Keeping one foot moving  at all times
Sitting here busting these rhymes
No guitar to play 
Pawned it the...

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Angels fall at your feet ...

  -  To savor the tang of truth - to kiss Heaven's visage
          And sate horrid hearts, they feign...

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Her story ends in a storage unit;
she wrote it quickly in-between bottles of Liebfraumilch
- her life so far,
an autobiography hard to imagine
could have been told in any other way.
The editing took many toll-taking years
decades that...

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HER SEDUCTIVE VOICE

Her seductiveness rang out; in the still of night
Every man listening out for her, shines his light

She was a story teller on a pirate radio, no ads
Moved from place to place coming with...

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Love’s Pawnshop
         by Odin Roark

Unable to pay the debt
Love is often pawned
Sympathy as a claim check
Stuffed deep in pockets of suffering

Such self-deprecation roams the streets
Perplexed with using...

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GOD IS WITH US 

They say God is with us, all you have to do is ask
So I thought Ok, lets put the big man to the task

Not to be too greedy, I asked God...

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