Long Sandpaper Poems

A tramp steamer plies an ocean of fog. 
The Chief Bos’n makes a note in the log while the helmsman 
Strains to see beyond the wheel. 
The ship’s Captain leaves the bridge with a groan....

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Society is rife with statements of misinformation, fallacy and contradiction
To say otherwise would be to argue that our settlement was a pleasant eviction
If you are to believe what is in the following first lines
Then perhaps...

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all the coke lines in the bathroom
	lined up and she’s lined up and it’s just a number and
                 ...

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"Petrichor "



Two minds 
have made an entrance
magnetic bodies electric
minions babble 
it’s just wasted white noise
sandpaper against back stories hit
The Wall of Wasted Time
He’s read most between the lines
He’s all hard hot and cool
unruffled piercing eagle...

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Entrance into the Garden of Eden
An Exit Oft Repeated in Four Acts
By Sy Roth

Act 1—Somnolence

Smells of winter tickle a warm sun.
Crisp air, 
Red, brown and yellow leaves, 
Thrust the trees aside for their impending sleep.

They...

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The former blond model pouts and primps
Swinging her hips
Down the splashing catwalk of shoreline
Sand caving to her imagined heels

Wheeling to her awaiting Israeli mogul
Her shoulders set so far back
It’s as if she’s walking backwards

Puts herself...

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Eulogies are beautiful things in the way that many counterfeit things can be beautiful; in the way that deception so expertly executed can be so breathtakingly perfect; in the way that a fist sized cubic...

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I seize time when funky drummer songs break
into my body robbing feeling of nerves making me fly
off floors with hips bouncing and shoes sweeping soot on concrete
I leave my history on any ground wherever I...

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One the beach the other morning…it’s difficult to find the words
to express the feeling we both felt…while walking with the birds.

As usual we began this walk in darkness…it’s something we both adore
but at first light...

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I have set in this corner too long it’s true
My hand rails are polished to a light umber hue
My spines have come loose, but they just need some glue
And my cushions have faded from a...

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We had been married thirteen years. 
We had two daughters aged four and one year old. 
I had no idea what she wanted to talk about that day. 

We went into our bedroom and closed...

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He said, “I’ve tried everything; acid, sandpaper, knife;
I hate these things.  I will have them for my entire life.”
You can predict the future by looking at these things.
At night, each of these pictures practically...

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Ice is the strangest substance
upon this earth then yet it
is seen as insignificant by
many.
It forms from water-droplets
within clouds, flowing rivers
and even in oceans where energy
is forever in motion.
It floats when it should sink;
density is transformed...

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And I witness
Your deplorable “glory”
Hunching over my tattered spine,
So we can have something in common

You walk with glorified shell-shock,
Another sentient tongue, 
Straddling on the Eros of vindication

Your sandpaper hands
Reach for an assaulted tenderness
Embracing lambasted lyric

Another...

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Tap. Tap. Tap.
‘Miss! You can’t stay in there. A cab has been rung.’
I pull the chain and open the door
 Unfamiliar surroundings

I wobble 
Thankful for the narrow corridors
Hands slap against the walls 
Walking with arms...

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I have a pussy cat, my cute mischievous pet.
She loves me more than anyone, I can bet.
Among felines, she is so smart and clever,
Too adventurous, never once a bit demure.

Sleek and slim she is with...

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I tied a hangman's noose
Within the womb
Around my neck was slung
And from those gallows swung.

I was six days late
The pressure wouldn’t abate
I’ve always been
Afraid of change.

I came out looking blue
Foreshadowing how I’d feel
Writing this at...

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My head rests on the doorframe, as I'm watching him at work.
I'm jealous of the devotion, and the motion of his hands,
much surprised at the green-eyed dragon that lurks within my mind, 
while he rubs...

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Every day is a page to write a new story
But isn't this life's diary?
Leather aroma
Tightly bound tome
Mint and crisp at birth
Becoming well thumbed and worn
Finally we reach the last page
As we reach our last breath
To...

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Dreams Forever Awake
                 by Odin Roark

A father dreams of getting it right finally
succumbs to sweat drenched nightmares

Somewhere
he stumbles about
to...

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Blood rained down like teardrops
Down her cheeks and to the floor
Her head was resting on my lap
And she took breath no more

Love as fleeting as the sun
Cares as wasteful as moonlight
I made a promise there
To...

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………....

On act two, my handkerchief dropped down on
my weakening feet, escaping the wipe of tears
from my sullen lids:  by this time children
too young to make their own milk burst into
deafening cheers shouting for more...

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The used is in rare form
thanks to con-artists and politicians
who not only persuade, they take
be careful of the used
they have a tendency to be wild animals
backed into corners from deprivation of the soul
and previously abused...

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I don’t understand you any better anymore
reaching under floorboards of my father’s pickup truck 
lost inside imagination 
left with haunting resignation
I don’t understand you any better anymore
after spilling words
clawing through the growing weeds
walking backwards over...

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A little sandpaper smoothes the edges
The final touch that makes the job complete
You think of your angel yet to be born
This crib represents your loving protection

The final touch that makes the job complete
Is the love...

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