Long Shrunken Poems

A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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The Old Dark House

This tale of “The Old Dark House” is one that’s replete with a
most horrid sense of pure evil and macabre, and is worth being
retold each year during the deep-dark hours of All...

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This tale of “The Old Dark House” is one that’s replete with a
most horrid sense of pure evil and macabre, and is worth being
retold each year during the deep-dark hours of All Hallows’ Eve
before the...

Read More

This tale of “The Old Dark House” is one that’s replete with a
most horrid sense of pure evil and macabre, and is worth being
retold each year during the deep-dark hours of All Hallows’ Eve
before the...

Read More

He just appeared to me, like wispily curling 
Chimney smoke, 
One grim and early morning in the very midst of 
Decembers briefest days, on the highest slope,
Toiling through my daily round; where, slowly 
Driving up...

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Continued from FREEZER MICE

The cat had travelled straight from hell, a hell beyond the stars
The cat that theories claim once levied genocide on Mars
She now seeks vengeance on descendants of the primal shrew
Whoever knew that...

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Our lusty voice was in the tramp of narrow, winding,
     Scree-littered, deep-rutted roads;     
 Ravens, uttering guttural croaks, slow-wheeling above      
 ...

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Upon approaching advent of an early spring 2024
(alternately titled  GENESIS RESPLENDENT)

No matter the calendrical/official onset of vernal equinox takes places Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024 and transpires until Thursday, Jun 20, 2024, an intimation sensed...

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The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror

This tale of “The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror”
lives on in the mountain village of Gpeth Tor in the outlying 
region of the “Dark Forbidden Forest”...

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A friend—
not a good one, but a close one;
one that I couldn’t let go
If I could see you now, I don’t know what I would say…
there were always things I didn’t know

but I loved you...

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The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror

This tale of “The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror”
lives on in the mountain village of Gpeth Tor in the outlying 
region of the “Dark Forbidden Forest”...

Read More

This tale of “The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror”
lives on in the mountain village of Gpeth Tor in the outlying 
region of the “Dark Forbidden Forest” known for evil, death,
and lost souls. This...

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I am a right-brain prominent writer
which must not be confused with
a prominent left-brain writer,
which I am almost decidedly not
nor would I aspire
toward such all or nothing thinking
and not at all both/and feeling.

Like most writers,
I feel...

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So I wrote again. This took longer than it should have. Only fair to warn you, this is a long one.

SHANGRI-LA

Prologue

The village gates stood, like old men stand

Worn with age and bent by time

Rust had...

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"Cry for the soul that will not face the body" Dory Previn 

                      ...

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MY VOODOO BRIDE
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS



Married only three hours still in jubilation
My beautiful bride natures finest creation
A seaplane trip to an island just east of Haiti
I had in my life a model of unmatched beauty
She was...

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Do not vainly look in those remote
Places,
That, once, were acquainted with a 
Small part of me;                   ...

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Cypress trees like evergreen steeples
rise above rows of gravestone woes,
their shadows lie side by side like railroad ties 
across writhing paths banded like snakes;
the gravel birth cords sinuous 
sensing the ground   seeking the...

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Sung to, You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, (extended version).
KP

You’re a monster, Donny Dump.
Some biiig-time twiiisted clooown.
To no end, I could deride you,
are no depths you didn’t fall to,
no ineptness could elude you,
the bottom-feeders they...

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Is ARANJUEZ a pining after the composer's mother ?

(Joaquin Rodrigo - 1901-1999 - who composed the " Aranjuez " concerto on piano in 1938/9 and which later was destined for the guitar and orchestra, turned...

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The casement creaked under the scrutiny of darkness

A lonely candle flickered to the tune of one single log

Unhinged she sat where darkness fell upon her face

Which had grown cobwebs and spider lines over time


It was...

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Wanton women of Whitechapel
Desperate and destitute
Weakened from want
Shrunken stomachs barren of bread
Dying from disease in dingy dosshouses
Selling themselves on the streets for shillings
to buy beer, a bed for the night
or a bonny new bonnet
to enable...

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Emily of three years
Leukemia eating her soul
Her bald head, made her smile wider
Please mummy do not cry
I will hug you even after I die

Tommy of five years
Bone cancer eating his limbs
Unable to walk, this beautiful...

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Dereliction (possibly "FAKE NEWS") - read all about it!

2020 presidential election
already promises seat of pants suspense
hint of (post apocalyptic) coming attractions
see – https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/09/25/
probe-into-discarded-ballots-becomes-campaign-
outrage-fuel/24630731/

supposed poll worker(s) accidentally
(yea right) fomented kerfuffle
imposible mission witnessing
transgression Republicans wont muffle
reasonable rhyme...

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I.
It was in 1554
that young Liesel watched her little nice die,
a fever had swept through Bavaria,
and from her tiny frame all life did fly.

She wasn’t the first, many died that year,
but at the funeral for...

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