Long Sidle Poems

"The Messenger"

Love is rich with 
venom and honey. 

there was a female ...

snake, 
it watched 
with green-eyed 
avarice, covetting
a dove’s nest

the dove, 
was white as snow, 
not young, getting on,
tiny flecks of grey

the dove 
alone,...

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There were three wings at the veterans home.C wing was for the seriously ill .B wing was for those
Who were relatively without relatives.Not really unwell just unwanted.Finally the wing I worked on
for seven years A...

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The grey clouds roll in from the southeast
like a cumbersome beast
a thick pewter fog smothering all
a hollow silence
menacing but devoid of violence.

Face pales with blood draining
ears straining

The mass hovers almost low enough to touch
I reach...

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End of summer countdown before school year...

countless decades graduating 
contemptible cum laude
hence same time frame every 
August since...the stone
temple pilot age, this beastie 
boy flashes back to yahoos
whose rawhide (mine) they 
miraculously never whipped!

Uneasy panic...

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The warmth no longer comes
it seems to only leave.

The furry ones, all
caught in hypnotic disbelief:
hardening ground's
taken root
where once
gardening grounds
(forsaken, mute)
were once and again
makin' fruit.

Each beast, shaking
like a leaf
(though, truth be told
I've only ever 
seen 'em...

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Embarkation upon meditation...

Believe me you upon manifestation
regarding Das godaddy bing linkedin
with avast cosmic consciousness
self induced light hypnotic trance
I become enthralled

unless wife disrupts intent concentration
calling out "Matt...Matt...Matt"
bajillion times Googleplex
(slight hyperbole for literary effect),
subsequently courtesy

disembodied voices
deliver poetic...

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My grandfather on my father’s side, was a pecker-toothed sidle who raped his 
daughter when she was just ten. He threw down vodka from an eternal well and took my father out to buy prostitutes...

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I can hear your demons screaming
And I know you're hearing mine
Times changed you just a little
Now your beauty's more sublime
Sat here waiting for a reason
To be sitting here at all
Just about to leave
I smell your...

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Robert browning and Me (2)

Where was I with that book on Artemisia?
No Internet or Amazon back then,
So I got busy trudging round – then busier.
No joy. “American?  We’ll call you when …”
“Import it from...

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PROLOGUE

Umpteen billion years
Big Bang, supernova, gas
Brief eclipse of time

Gases swirling, fall
Sun and planets, water, goo
Brief eclipse of time

Another billion
life, amoeba, fishes swim
Brief eclipse of time

Movement, change and flux
slither, crawl, climb, walk and talk
Brief eclipse of...

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A day in June.
Tuesday.
Week’s worst day!
Twenty to five.

A wintry sun,
Low in the sky,
Casts long shadows,
Emits no warmth.

I’m in a dorp
With tired shops,
Bank and church,
GPO and a Court.

Tucked together
Along a street,
With bumpy tar
And dusty holes.

Now and...

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The Allegory of the Cage

I have not written much of late;
I toil in my hamster wheel.
While ev'ry sage of ev'ry age
Will gape with wonder at my cage,
And speak in voices small and still
About my stilted,...

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Shhhhhhhhhhhh…… Husssshhhhhh
Waves sidle up to the beach 
in simple companionship
the gritty sand 
creeps into every crevice of my toes 
reflecting off the blue waters 
the full moon and stars 
fill up what otherwise
would be a...

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I suppose that nearly every town has its share of self-appointed snobs,
A few old crabs and the usual crowd of ordinary Bills, Jills and Bobs.
In our fair village there's a character whose name is "Squire"...

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Robins sing joyfully to the morning sun,

hidden behind the pale white summer flowers,

up in that old basswood tree out back

Splish splash splish 

 sounds of the sprinkler 

water the now lush green grass

smells of freshly...

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he was pouring at the happening and usually there is a fair amount of disdain for the enthusiasts 
who like to sidle up to sample the snacks, libations and what have you goodies.

he was a...

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Bird around the bay of white and swoops aloft the air
Descends upon the deck and lays a top a chair
Dear bird me thinks I leave my land to forage and to bare
And now my suit...

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She’s a Savage Killer

She slides between unformed
Dark stealthy
Yellow blaze eyes
Implacable as they read
Deaths demise
By strangled throats
In needle merciless teeth

Blood is drawn
Cold in her domain
Demanding respect
She is the savage killer
Perfect

Only a slow guttural prowl
For the scent...

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Side Order of Regret
                       by Odin Roark 

Some walk the banks of rivers...

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I frown into the mirror.
What happened?
Yesterday, we were newlyweds.”

"Fifty  years ago," he says.
“You lost half a century.” 
There's my husband, slouching
in the recliner, thinning hair,
frayed collar, expanding stomach.

A slow smile spreads across my face.
I...

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Your smile was one of innocence before you looked away.
Was that a bit of fear in your eyes as you looked away?

For a month you served me breakfast every morning,
but tawny eyes never meet mine...

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My father passed a few years back, and he keeps appearing in my dreams, always on the same street and roughly the same dialogue. The poem/story has no real format. Just my feelings on it....

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We’ve done our weekly shopping
and I need to use the loo
arriving at the ladies
There is a massive queue 

I stand in line cross legged
there are six in front of me
I wish people would hurry up
Cos...

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A gust of icy air blasts 
the cold into my bones,
tugging at my knees with 
hollow, aspirating groans,

making numb my cheeks, 
whirling 'round my waist;
pulling at me thither-ward 
down cobbled streets in haste. 

Thick snowflakes...

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Written: February 26, 2024
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whilst an ivory sky, my mast ignite.
As tidal waves flicker in sparks that gleam.
Igneous scarlet...

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