Long Rasps Poems

Opa John

The caboose sits red—its iron spine cradles the earth like Atlas
rails stretching into nowhere. The stream murmurs softly
its voice threading through Ellie’s laughter like silver wire

"Do you see it?" I ask her my voice...

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[An Autumn kitchen a crucible of y e a s t and y e a r n i n g]

Samantha kneads dough with determined hands, she hears
    Hank's cry—"Vi vi an"—a phantom...

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In the weeping crack of dawn, a battleground unfurls,
Reflected in the mirror’s gaze, a storm behind two girls
One, a wisp of tattered light, eyes shimmering with tears
The other, a vicious shadow, barbed smile and pointed...

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It’s you I call to in my dreams,
To pull me out from the fear I’ve seen.
The ones that hold me in captured fright,
When slow motion kicks in,
And my screams are no more than wheezing murmurs,
When...

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Of the items in the store,
All were second hand
An old computer did I buy,
With a broken stand

One side was badly scratched
Two knobs were missing too
But that’s not the story
I’m about to tell to you

T’was about...

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...In the capital a great feast was thrown
to welcome Larren back from the frontier.
Minstrels sang songs of his victories,
while they ate venison and drank beer,
the whole city thronged with good cheer.
But Larren was subdued in...

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Twist in your dark deep eyes flit me, your body engulfs the thoughts. 
Crazy upstart, floating lock, graceful body dexterous striptease dance,
Walk me to your room, steroid zombie in moves, rave, exult to crave.
I hold...

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In the penumbra of oblivion, I've engraved words of gold,
About flowers that assembled their petals from moments of beginning,
About storms, in which the lightning melted into dark forces,
And all that was here was but the...

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Yea, victors jest. They out-sped the cast of hunger’s cave.
Their cantors, ragged kept, did reach an faithful end.
They in the din o’ drizzle laugh, licking cool drams from stone,
as had they crawled o’er hot pools...

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Out of my be jeweled gown,
A well-tailored dark brown,
I smugly lie down,
My brow releasing from its academic frown…

Now, I’m a package on a fluffy bed sheet,
Any flesh would hurriedly greet,
Speedily decide to meet, 
At it...

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I am hungry.
I take a bite from a sandwich.
I record its 343 calories.
She breathes, 
“Pathetic.”  
“You ought to be eating a salad.”
“You can’t afford to eat this way.”

I go to class.
I am too short...

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DREAMING OF CHRISTMAS

characters on chairs,
ring-a-round-the-rosies.*

in-tro-du-cing…
mr. claus, mr. frosty, o. deer, and self e. elf

silently a counselor ticks notes with a pad and pen,
occasionally, taking a one minute christmas snooze.

dully, he asks, “so what are you...

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Waterfowler’s Delight

Clouded marshes masking what may come.
Suzy's boisterous invitation over yonder grass 
Dark shadowed spreads set to entice some.
As the glow of the East begins to amass.

Newly anointed awaiting the first blessing.
Old dogs hoping the...

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Surfing, morphing
Through amorous tidal waves
Thou Babylonian scoundrels
Poisoned, ordained
By the blues-begging rasps
Smelting Earth
Caching together as one
By force and virtue
Yielding life's battalions
Seeking solace, fame or gentle ears
What captures me most
About this glazed nuthouse
Riffs and thieves
Throwing down as...

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 Leaden clouds sweep swiftly in from the north,  
Blanketing the sapphire skies in melancholy.  
Deafening, rolling thunder cracks  
As a mysterious chill sends a shudder up my spine.  

A faint...

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Standing on the edge of a cliff,
I contemplate my fate.

A life that is safe, known,
always the same, predictably on course.
Like the days of time.
Flowing from one to the other, endlessly...
“Is this my fate?” I wonder

The...

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"What do you want to be when you grow up, son?"
  "I think I want to be a poet."
  "Oh no," moans Mom.
  "Anything but that," groans Dad.
  "You'll never make...

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Forgive me please and don't berate
My dismal voice when I narrate,
The many poems I've written well,
To bring to you my tale to tell.
 
I like to write my thoughts in rhyme
And find I have an...

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Unrealities and realities
grind together in mortar’s mouth,
spilling, pulverizing, volatile perfumes—
succumbing scents of citrus, crushed copper,
musks of bruised lightning,
threshing thunderous throbs. 

Instability incarnate sings her reveling wails,
fragrances of something
Beyond Name.

I guide existences into black curve,
severing them...

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I watch him mumble, lines of treble notes
Bones flinging on park so emerald clean
The old man droops, his shape a curving moat
Weary the shirt that covers marks unseen
Throwing bread crumbs to hide a balmy scene.
My...

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Silent is the stand, gentle is the gaze 
The view of the meadow is grand, in oh so very many ways 
The person looks on, all is as it was 

Gentle and green grass, dancing...

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Circling twilight, honed by rasps of one lone star,   
fireflies weave their magic through the last of the golden haze     
A pensive cricket hums, uncoiled from the thick green...

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When night markets begin to come alive;
Kaleidoscope  of light  glitters the street
As  sundries  pile,  welcoming a throng’s  dive
Where voices shrill to haggle for fine treat:
And cacophony rasps  like...

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The day is fresh
Long before the sun yawns into the morning
The sound of bells clanging
Ropes whipping the mast into shape
Creaking of the old boats

A feint smell of lobster
Rises to meet me as the zip
Rasps towards...

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Furious wind from the north hisses louder,
banging against the gaped mouth of  a sky, drenched…
 Haggard, the night wheezes with quack
 of birds waylaid; a time of  unruly rainfall
crashing once more: and ...

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