Long Smokes Poems

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who return each evening to find
warm food, 
welcoming faces...

consider whether this...

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Recluse by dint of circumstance

Proud anonymous troglodytes 
forerunners of mine
confronted threats less horrific
than forty fifth commander in chief
of United States of America.

He/him (matted hair, ratty, scrawny, 
and tetchy ugly villain)   
scurried into dark...

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Please help yarn hexed door neighbor...

Yours truly pinned down by invisible 
vestiges of coronavirus and
getting attacked from angry plague 
of buttons, plus huge spools of yarn
grossly mistook me for human sock 
to seal and line...

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I am not done yet until all of you speak the truth, I am not done yet until I obtain justice for my brutal youth, you kick me around like ball and blame me for...

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Written for my earthly adoptive, adaptive; Father.



Who passed away from cancers of the spine, brain, and lungs. 



He told me that he had a good life and was honestly grateful to our Creator for this!



No,...

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As dawn unfolds today beyond my fractured windowpane,
a breeze beguiles the ashen drapes. Like snakes they slip aside,
revealing wanton worlds that race and run aground, insane,
immersed in scenes obscene that savants strive to mask and...

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“liaison dangereuse”



Tear a thin line 
along my skin
softly velvet
finger tips 
no nurses gloves

down my neck
along my throat
with something
sharp like words
on a tongue

like I’m
one of the 
gentility heard
soft as a block of butter
hard from the fridge
I'll...

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Before I start cleaning 
the kitchen tonight, 
I think we should talk 
and avoid a dumb fight.

     What would we fight about?
     Everything’s great!
   ...

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Skynard told me, when I was young
To live my life but to live a simple one
Lord knows I've tried but I took a different road
Life can be a mess or beauty can take your breath
But...

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Kids of today, we here them say, no respect, what do you expect
Always hanging around on the streets, doing nothing and nothing to do
Is it their fault in this decaying society or should the blame...

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I never told anyone how my ears reverberate in a silent room.
The whirring drone ever present, a conquistador of my private spaces.
This is my cohabitation with an industrial generator.
But I’ve graduated from the torment. 
My...

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Learning disabled, hopelessly unemployed
Troy can't write the address for his next interview.
Warehouse stock, 331 Tiffany Street, in the Bronx.
His girlfriend, Trinity, also unemployed,
with one child by Troy. She's more resourceful
but doesn't realize it. For one...

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Be not complacent 'bout dire global warming...

Thus spake Zarathustra 
necessitating donning layered clothing
in tandem, especially trumpeting   
being with wise mind and economical
exercising usage of fossil fuel 
completing most tasks 
involving driving automobile
courtesy designing...

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Unquotable quotes: Addictions: Smokes, Drugs, Sex, Films and Sleep – XL

Where the hand leads, the eyes close.
When the eyes shut, imagination is on fire.
What you don’t really see is what you feel.
When you feel at...

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" You saw my tomorrow, seated on your yesterday's laps,
Dirty-duty rusty and arrogance humming, 
Bathing in the smokes of marijuana, basking it malodor, 
Yet, you didn't bother to wash me your words of corrections. 

Did...

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                                  ...

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I cannot express orally, how and how much,
I am unable to say its source and its flow;
Is it from a human or it has divine touch?
Sometimes it is fiercely fast, and other times slow;
Why it's...

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We enter the town with no preconceived notion about what was going on; we just wanted to dine at a good restaurant and sing some invigorating songs. The atmosphere was clear, our spirit was fine...

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Fragrance of Life  ©

Cool rain drums on blistering 
asphalt, the scent streams into 
the nostrils--hot, grassy smell of 
summer, freshly cut-smoky 
cedar lingers on the air 

Fresh popcorn drenched in 
butter, I sit in...

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The following is a tribute to all Native Americans. Please check the footnotes for
unfamiliar words.

A lonely man riding a tashunke
Toward the anapo
Where the yellow-gowned prince
Rises majestically
With an army of golden spears
Aimed at desert’s sandy heart
The...

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PENKNOB: Is our household word that my kids euphemistically created of the two phrases that I purposely refrained its actual pronunciation by slurring PENKNOB: Phrase #1. Hands-Off/or don't touch; #2. Shut-Up/or be quiet. My youngest...

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The Obeah Woman

Heavy musty air reeks with the Obeah Woman’s pungent perfume, 
sweat, burnt incense, bitter roots, and swirling black smoke,
dim light from a waning moon streams into the shadowy room;
and mirrors crack as restless...

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I was a kid in love, in deep adoration, oh the worship,
    The longing affection that I breathed a thousand times;
I wrote his name in my notebook, David, Dave, Mrs. David,
 ...

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I was given to the D’Mangos as a wedding present; I was silver, sparkly, and pretty full of myself. I have survived two children, a family brawl, a window peeker, a couple of heartbreaks, one...

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It’s so serious,
it ain’t even funny
High times going on
in a White House underground bunker,
where Archie is glassblowing
American taxpayers’ money
He got heavy munchies
of Jughead hero dreams
Telling his kitchen cabinet
to kiss the silver signet 
of his fingered...

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