Long Ponytails Poems

WOMEN ...

Truly amaze me ... they possess the super-human
strength to birth a child - one of the most painful
and demanding physical and emotional feats of end-
urance known to our species - yet they have the
self-confidence...

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That godless sound
His head explodes at 6:01am
Same as every day
He falls out of bed
Steps on the cat
Slides into his slippers
Shuffles to the kitchen
Puts the coffee on
Bumps his head on the cupboard door
Again
Sits down and looks...

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Back in 1957 
kissing Carol Ann 
behind the barn 
in the middle of 
a windswept field 
of Goldenrod 
with a sudden deer 
watching was 
something special, 
let me tell you. 
Back then, bobby sox 
and...

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i just want to write some new shii
not on some i wish i was rich tip 
but on some if i ruled the world shii
wouldn't be no school you had to pay for
 last time...

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Earlier today April 4th, 2022,
which supersedes bald faced headlines 
pointing finger and 
Putin blame for Bucha killings
squarely on head & shoulders
of Russian autocrat, née
yours truly lathered 
his hirsute higglety-pigglety 
thinning oily tresses. 

Hark….the herald angels...

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January 24th, 2023 Hair washing heralds huge happening

Hark….the herald angels sing, and twitter 
for mass communication 
mediums stop the presses 
when I, a regular schlemiel 
take shampoo to mine matted mass mop 
(no less than...

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Ponytails and blue jeans 
Sat at Papaw's knee, 
Watching as he whittled 
On old branches from a tree. 
    And while he talked of cowboys 
And big old Texas ranches, 
He trimmed...

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I used to be that girl being disrespectful, wishing that someone would pay me some attention. Waiting at my mom’s job, not knowing I needed my father; Mistaking that need with my friends’ father on...

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Release the shelter of bare feet,
     rhinestones on big toes sparkle.
The tentacle-shine of sunwheat
     on the scrapyard-swig of river.

Like a sunflower, the mudlark
    ...

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First, I was a horse,
proud, fierce, untamed.
testing the texture of one continent,
competing with the winds and tornadoes
to achieve the ultimate granular vortex,
testing the manhood of the Cheyenne,
twisting the blistering ropes of the Sioux,
defying the white...

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What happens to all the brown-skinned girls?
Sitting on the stoop waiting for the ice cream man to come
20 plats in their hair
Turning the double dutch rope
Sitting in the middle of the classroom

You know, that one...

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She walked into kindergarten alone on the second day.
Blonde ponytails swinging, big smile, three freckles on her nose.
Miss Thee, our teacher, asked her name.
Merry Dee Singlewary.

Surprisingly, she was on Miss Thee’s list,
But no one remembered...

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she knew all the moves
Queen's Gambit
Sicilian Defense
Bura's Desperado Sacrifice
with her arms wrapping me
we barreled the freeway
racing headlong into the wind
balanced on two wheels below
as free as mustangs in the mountains
abandoned in the moment with the...

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Me again:
Blue parrots screech hawkers off the streets
Where rats and mobile devices scream
Insults into the ears of the sewars.
Whiskers and teardrops and plops of fun
Which dangle relentlessly above the
Green shoreline. 
Playing musical pillows at sinister
Dinner...

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Fifty-one autumns ago on a vibrant blue sky morn,
I was running in my high school girl's cross-country
race in Bethpage Park, Long Island, N.Y.,
as many ponytails bounced under canopies of
red, orange, yellow leaves on the runner's...

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Some days, I look within the book of myself onto the pages I have filled, and sigh. The folds of light and dark portray scenes, some simple, and others horrific. I sit still now. I...

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The museum is full of gangs,
child gangs that roam sneering at the 70’s people.
The 70’s people live now in a diorama.
For the most part they are cheerful,
they cut grass with push mowers,
swim in above ground...

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Restoring My Joy

How does one restore joy?
Is there a secret ingredient?
A secret concoction?
Perhaps a bucketful of daisies?
Or a million dollars in your pocket?
I say joy is restored by running through wheat fields in my ponytails
Or...

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I was sittin' on the porch today reminiscin' about this and that,
And my hometown came to mind where I grew up as a feckless brat!
Life was lived at a slower pace it seemed, back in...

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Winter tested my endurance with its sharp and burning cold and now the warm lavender evening, with its smells and sounds of spring seem like a gift. The breeze is warm, and even the broad...

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Five years ago he joyously visited the maternity ward;
now it is the oncology floor.
Kindergarten will not be in the cards this year -
just lots of tears.

She has the same bald head she bore
when he coached...

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1960 and the world was changing
A time for living and rearranging
Baseball in the school yard with a sponge ball and a fist
Donnie Brooks sang Mission Bell and Chubby did The Twist
Bobbie sox and ponytails, school...

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Giggles and chuckles flutter in the meadows,
Prancing ponytails, peekaboo under the tree's shadows,
Protected below the blanket of the quiet sky,
A realm of peace, a paradise to the eye. 

Blood that drenched the earth for so...

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Way back then when I was ten
the year was nineteen ninety-three,
Mom was so proud when I said aloud
that I made the school spelling bee.

Days of math sums and bubble gums
have faded through the years,
but I...

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ponytails,pretty in pink,candy canes 
and ice cream treats!She's eight year
and care free.
She has some days some good, bad,
and in between .
She's not a teen just the typical eight
Money is tight and the bills are due.It
takes...

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