Long Rattlers Poems

Thomas was walking through his favorite part of the forest,
where the overturned giant oak tree has been a sitting spot
for him since childhood, the part of the forest that is lit
a little bit thanks to...

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EXFOLIATION, I AM      
 
In my advanced age am I but 
       The castoff--remnants 
Of a vitality that once was and has  been...

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A man named Ben stood on a slope looking at the gates of hell,
He swore they’d never turn back, him and his best friend Del.
They knew the bandits came this way, they’d left a sloppy...

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winds chill the bones and rattle the teeth of the those who dare stand in the cold, 
when there's a shield blocking the chills, the cold seeps in; drowning me in a unbearable
quilt of 
frigid...

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That be cold sun rose yonder, our heads be hot, I'd declare,
I'll get Whitey my critter, worked all night, best she nicker.
'Bout saddlin' her real tight, or I'll headlong out of sight,
I want movin' nice...

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I had a dream — 
different ... dark ... obscure
Mine’s wasn’t like Martin Luther King,
it was different
So very dark to the core
In my dream I saw his dream
masquerading as a fantasy
There were separate, reality TV...

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I’m from the great state of Texas, the biggest and the best.
   No other place is like it, be either east, north, south, or west.
I went to California, to see the golden state.
...

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Out west, near Black Hills, over South Dakota way,
On land where layered rocks records eons before –
Some thieves rode the badlands that hot steamy day.

Rough riding rustlers raided a ranch; stole a boar.
Those thieves took,...

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She lives in the desert
with skin the color of sandstone
and the texture of an orange.
She’s a man’s man if you ever saw one.
Her carbine seems to have a mind of it’s own,
never knowing, when in...

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Mornings fade into evenings, evenings slip into nights.
Day colors spill from their pails, then seep into
valleys, wind caves and shale.

The Painted Desert bleeds into a Stygian hue
as the heat reaches up to embrace the moon
and...

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sweet pungent
fermented hay 
dark and warm
slithers of light spit
through the cracks of the
warped weathered wood
old pie tin lies in the dirt 
in its corner
where the mean old bull snake
drank milk with the cats
and kept the...

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When I was skinned

I made a little list-

Call it (Something Here) :

It started out,

'I am getting older,

what should I do? '

Like go on the road,

Actually join the Legion or

Take vows for the ashram of Guru...

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Let’s face it
living here is a lottery of death.
Most countries have their natural perils
but if danger were a horse race
The U.S.A would beat all commers by a head and a neck.

Those early colonists
should have interrogated...

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Since the Garden of Eden and Cleopatra,
snakes strike great fear in man
I have it—ophidiophobia---
legless lizards equal repulsion
 
Slithering, sliding as they move
something about friction and scales
like goose bumps on human flesh
more than I want to...

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Snakes

Watch out for them
They come in all shapes and sizes
Like chameleons
Stab you in the back
When you think they’re your friends
They can change colors
Cold-blooded reptiles
You can’t tame them
Because they belong in the wild
Forked tongue smile like...

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I am an enthusiastic rainbow chameleon
until I am a cumbersome ox
Wait! Hold up! Stop!
I meant I am a excited spotted lizard

mercurial and fast moving
I slide from granite rock to mica rock
slithering in wetness, shaking my...

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Panning in frigid water, for a nugget called freedom.
The seed of the dream sprouts in the mind
deserts are brimming with icy coyote eyes
the mountains though lovely, grow higher
barely alive, the hopeful are battered
dust devil dreamers...

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When summer fires can burn
a hundred miles of trees
and winter cold can lock
you into a deep freeze

What with all them rattlers
wolves and big grizzly bear
You might think it dang’rous 
to ever come out here

If you're...

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         The Socialists' Sorrow

What if I opened a store of some
kind?
Would the rattlers in your soul
tell you I am evil in your mind?

What if I worked fifteen...

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I make a list of A words; thinking an alliterative poem would do today.
A cobra falls from the sky and lands in my hair with a big “hooray!”
A talking snake; just my unique daily kind...

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There’s a desert sage northwest of here
In a town called Sugarville,
Not on the top of a mountain
Nor even a humble hill.

This sage lives on the desert floor
Where the ring-neck roosters prattle,
Where rabbits hide in the...

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From far and wide.
To see the
Big Island Rattlers
Verses
The Desert Snears
Alot of planning
Across sport negotiations
Stuff to say in conversation
Nothing's ever been like
This before.
From riding someone's coattails
To individual dominance
Secure the worm
and cast the rod
there really jumping tonight
Tune...

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From far and wide.
To see the
Big Island Rattlers
Verses
The Desert Snears
Alot of planning
Across sport negotiations
Stuff to say in conversation
Nothing's ever been like
This before.
From riding someone's coattails
To individual dominance
Secure the worm
and cast the rod
there really jumping tonight
Tune...

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From far and wide.
To see the
Big Island Rattlers
Verses
The Desert Snears
Alot of planning
Across sport negotiations
Stuff to say in conversation
Nothing's ever been like
This before.
From riding someone's coattails
To individual dominance
Secure the worm
and cast the rod
there really jumping tonight
Tune...

Read More

From far and wide.
To see the
Big Island Rattlers
Verses
The Desert Snears
Alot of planning
Across sport negotiations
Stuff to say in conversation
Nothing's ever been like
This before.
From riding someone's coattails
To individual dominance
Secure the worm
and cast the rod
there really jumping tonight
Tune...

Read More