Long Shelving Poems

Placed First in:
This or That Vol 22 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh                       ...

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I wait with bated breath for... C. Cure T. Clarence

The following crafted 
approximately midway 
into the administration 
of forty fifth president,
whose crass, gutsy, lewd,
repulsive yawping finds
him squarely poised to
nab the nomination as
Republican front runner
come the...

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Absolute deafening silence...

during and after a moderate snowfall
today January 19th, 2024,
within Southeastern Pennsylvania
and elsewhere across the Eastern Seaboard,
whereby blanket of whiteness
muffles sounds of civilization.

I hate a spoiler alert
regarding weather forecasters prediction,
especially when meteorologist
wannabe spouse doth...

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Though I wrote no book 
attention summoned to look 
at following--->>>

Urgent message – to send Mephistophelian madman back to stone age

predicated upon past and present, I gauge
will offer ogre golden opportunity 
to rewrite anarchistic playbook...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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           Your past, your romantic past, is a shadow. Like all towns, Port Angeles was a combination of rain and clouds, sun and mist, with a chamber of commerce, barrooms and boards of directors, the known...

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"The righteous shall live by faith"
Romans 1:17

Posted on Poetry Soup 12 January 2023
Contest no 1265 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand

               ...

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Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA is 114 miles from my home in San Francisco. It's home to my friend Jane (a former fellow worker) she now finds California's central coastline to be the next best place to live.

She's...

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We had been up, down and sideways with lonely nights and 
solitary days.  We had seen total darkness dispensed from our 
fights.  Our heads began believing our wrongs could not discover 
our rights...

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They’re drawing the curtains in Dorking,
Lighting the candles and pouring the lotions.
Switching off TV’s and shelving resentments,
Checking on children asleep in the darkness,
Creeping   up hallways   like teenage lovers.
Stairs and hopes creaking...

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Walking the path each day
introverted thoughts in 
cased in my skull
a boneyard of ebbing 
memories and thought-processes 
back slightly hunched over 
eyes to the ground 
seeing earth, stone 
cracks, grass, flowers 
bird droppings, dog's as...

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Atheistic beneficent credo,
dogmatically evokes fundamental
gnostic humanistic invocations,
joyously kickstarting literary

métier, native oeuvre
pulsating quintessentially,
rudimentary schema
traversing utilitarian vectors,
winsomely xing yore zen.
*     *     *     *  ...

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I hear their idle chatter and wish that sound was optional.
A box checked in a menu, a simple click and forget.

The rapid dilation of my pupils brings me back.
Back to hypnotic aisles of temptation and...

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Impossible mission, nonetheless
eschatological, diabolical, critical...
dire straits betokens armageddon.

Come Tuesday, November 3, 2020
mandatory voting obligation to oust
horrible malevolent commander in chief.

Spanish and English writing on border wall
bespeaks impending apocalyptic windfall
weapons of mass destruction concomitant ashfall
brinkmanship ticks...

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I’m not sure what’s happening in this country…sometimes I think it’s being overrun by fools…in some states they’re banning books…in my state, Florida, they’re banning talking about gender and sexuality in schools.

While closing up the...

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This last day of February two thousand nineteen
Southeastern Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
unlikely to be inundated with heavy snowy scene
methinks buds will burst early issuing royal green
carpeting landscape, sans expert architects queen

"Mother Nature" commences to baptize spilling
purity,...

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I Wait With Bated Breath...
(slack jaw froze mine countenance
when eyes blinded with figurative
daggers asper mistakes in original draft,
hence...this flood proof, fire resistant,
and fever reducing error free version.)

(yes...yes...yes, this rhyme
resembles a recent one of mine
 ...

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It could never contain these things inside, 
they amass so high –mountains of them

Whispers from the many who have ventured in,
now silent echoes heard till its rhythm stops

Weakness pays a visit now and then to...

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I Wait With Bated Breath...

(yes...yes...yes, this rhyme
resembles a recent one of mine
     from a previous time,
yet appropriating wands zone writing  
     haint no crime -
at least...

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It all began one afternoon

The ground was hot and the world seemed bounded
But up the sky the boastful sky bird glided gaily
Enjoying the boundless splendour of the universe
Huh! If only I had wings like that...

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cravings, like niggling whispers,
flit on covered tables
skitter on the floorboards
shiver nerves like humming cables

racing up my backbone
trembling spinal pathways
as I dive for pantry's knob
in a glucose fired craze

tearing through the shelving
jumping for the flour
cracking eggs...

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I was shelving books in the children’s section the other day…straightening up the space
when I ran across Where The Wild Things Are…and it brought a smile to my face.

Because when I enter into the world...

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She pulls the past together,
gathering weeds, twisting kelp,
squeezing minnows of memory
through shrinking nets.
 
My ex-wife phones
from a former home,
a village by the sea
now sinking
on a shelving shore.

"Brian the pub-crawler
took another tumble
he now gets rat-arsed on...

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Self-righteous do-gooders, so they believe, preaching the Word while minds they deceive,

Casting their ballots for racist, lying, cheats, shelving morality for them to be the lead,

Satisfied preying on the innocent and cleansing the impure, while...

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