Long Sledgehammer Poems

No! you weren’t born
to be beaten
raped
chained to a life  bloodstained  ingrained with pain
wordless  worthless  voiceless  choiceless  

No! you can’t live
being beaten
raped
chained to a life  profaned  restrained ...

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i heard a...what do they say...a spine chilling scream
...is that the saying?

a spine chilling scream
followed by

'he's dead, my G_d he's dead'

the phrase echoed 
inside the whole of me
like tennis balls bouncing between two parallel walls

i...

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Aaah!.........There you are!
Right on time as usual!
I can always count on you to appear 
and be your obnoxious, irritating,  
obstruction based, challenging self.
You seem a bit larger than the 
last time I encountered you!
Have...

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The crumbling down of the Berlin Wall finally 
ended the Cold War as a defiant Reagan challenged
Gorbachev as his famous words were spoken mightily, 
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear it down!"...And he shouted them with rage, 
while...

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Pray,
If you should tell
All that you have bottled up
Who will you tell?
Who will believe you?
Stories of swollen head, slit lips
Blood, brimstone and bonfires 
Laboriously ignited to silence
Rats, rabbits, dogs, roaches and mosquitoes 
Stories of brazen...

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I hold it up again today; the world,
Pregnant with magical dimples
Of a child's reckless abandon,
And look at the face,
Then I look at the deep cut
And the pain it inflicted
I look back at the unpaid ransom,
The...

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I hold it up again today; the world,
Pregnant with magical dimples
Of a child's reckless abandon,
And look at the face,
Then I look at the deep cut
And the pain it inflicted
I look back at the unpaid ransom,
The...

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"SHE'S HERE!!!....SHE'S HERE!!!"


   This waiting is murder!........Even though I will be seeing her shortly.
Anticipation has already reduced me to well beyond that substance called jelly in that full bowl!
   I am...

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Cruel agony!!
The brazen breath of your holy anticipation… writhing…conniving…
I am spent… so, so spent…. 

Terrified of your superior countenance, I crush these words in the mortar of your eyes closed tight
Good eye, black eye…. averting...

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                         Thoughts and words cannot be reconciled
    ...

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Dear Mr president

I seem to be in a spot of bother,
Would you please grant me a pardon
before you depart the oval room,
 
Seeking a change of reality 
I ran away and joined the circus 
well...

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So here I am
64 years after
my mother
gave me
the gift of Life
and I have
so much regret

I have so many failures
and so many I wish
I would have moments

I should have
stayed with
little, cuddly Ali,
she was an honest soul
with...

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alternate ending
-------------------

it seemed like a waste of my time
like this chasing after money should be a crime
like nnobody seemed to know anything better to do
all these myriad people, not one with a clue

but i ...

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"Time is the thief you cannot banish."
                           Phyllis McGinley,...

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For My Sister and Brother  Poets

Mornings, again refreshed, I wield up a 
sledgehammer to strike the stone walls of 

the confinement of my assigned nativity...then
 seek to emigrate from those Purposes...to go

settle, an immigrant,...

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Nowadays I find myself
In church windows reflected
By the surface of my tea,
Too hot to drink.
I try anyway,
My nose against a brick wall,
(This Jasmine is my sledgehammer)
I burn my tongue,
(This Jasmine is a non-factor)
I set it...

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Like a mystical wight,
Ain't in a trance,
Nor experiencing delusions and phantasmagoria.
I live. I fight,
Fighting
Because the decision to be free
Is that which I took freely,
Yet, criticized with unsparing vigor,
Cruel and baseless calumnies.

The past is gone,
The future...

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A Letter to My Friends
I love you all
Always there for me
Through it all
But if only you all knew what was happening to me now
If only you could feel what I feel
You know what I want
Every...

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in the fetal hours of the morning,
when insomnia laces my eyeballs with crimson gauze
and my bones disintegrate to chalk -
when the heart plays cat-and-mouse with the mind,
and my sledgehammer blood throbs dully in my veins...
You...

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Using a bucket and spade as a pillow can be as symbolic as cuddling a goose. But wrestling with a carpet cleaner can often be quite a hazardous act filled with semi reluctant fumes. And...

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When I take that leap of faith
I want to dive into a shimmering sea
Not some puddle that just came up

When I play this infernal game
I'll be all in with royal flush
Not waste my time on...

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When you lose a child or a spouse,
a parent or a loved one prematurely, 
feel free to cry out loud, to stomp and moan,
to break some things, take long runs in the rain, 
sit looking...

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there are those who act as if misery & torment
do not exist in this world, 
as if they are somehow immune to the storms,
as if when it rains, it rains
around them---
yet though they may act...

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gale to bluster, sleet to bluster, worst whacked are hobos around huts cluster.

nowhere to doss, tempest to toss, yet another sucker punch sweeps across.

with big boot to field, with big stick to wield, arrogative hosts...

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I AM PAIN!

Blinding, crushing, intolerable.
I make you beg for relief from the 
sledgehammer that’s pounding
on your scull. 

I make you lay in a dark room,
eyes closed, praying you don’t
retch from the intense agony 
going on...

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