Long Sternum Poems

Sponsor: Carol Eastman

Long before Christmas had become a jolly folklore,
I met a grandfatherly man...
He was clean shaven, tiny and crabby,
And always wore a floppy black suit, his name was Mr. Atnas.

See, I was at such...

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Young and Strong

She was young, she was strong
Working cleaning all the day long
So much to do, but she carried that load
So concerned about everyone, at Kenmore road.

Then we moved, to Strandfontein we came
A new challenge...

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~FAMOUS LAST LINE CONTEST EXAMPLE~


ORIGINAL POEM

Before the rain fell and the sky's rainbow set the scenery, I had a day that will never cease my mind. The center of my core fell into a creek...

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                               parallel lives

  ...

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The sky has dug a hole in the cloud
it's fuc**** triangle's fault  I can't see the pigs
stratified societies 
revitalized on schizophrenic base of
finger pointing minority
staring at fragmented people 
seeing them as dispensed particles 
that...

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III.
Christine began crying, Zack vomited,
Klaus couldn’t move as he stared at the mess,
only stammering,“W-what could do this?”
Surely no beat to which they could attest.

Then came a rustling up above the falls,
and their horror transformed into...

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VI.
Reg looked from the dinner table,
heard the door take a hard pounding.
Jolene frowned, said, “He sounds sober…
He’s much worse when he doesn’t drink.”

But Reg knew what this required,
good men stood up for their women,
no longer...

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...To prove his point he even opened his shirt,
laid bare his sternum so our blades could stab,
but we were all frozen by what we’d heard,
the worlds just sounded so utterly mad.

He believed he was possessed...

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II.
It was several days before trouble came,
the quiet seemed at odds with all the news,
the papers told of a nation enraged,
with loud cries for the Sioux to meet their doom.

Myron was out feeding hay to...

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Three years have been a lifetime, 
In a place unfathomable-

Met with a gun barrel to the scalp,
Scars cover his back, tortured for freedom,
  Punished for a woman he loves who stands proud with her...

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I slide through
          the darkness
     within your walls,
following wires
      to their heart.
Solidifying in your basement
  I...

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They heard a murmur in your chest,
a whisper:
tiny fish lips bulging the surface.
A bubble, a    b   u   r   s   t,
a blurp of sound
innocent as...

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...He turned back to see all four of his gang
staring at him, in anger and shock.
“That boy was worth thousands,”seethed out mad Bret,
his hand shifting towards his rifle stock.

Chester pull his gun in a blur...

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Such Innocent Madness
  
Listening to KHJ with the Real Don Steele,
playing it straight and loud on Boss Radio, with an
Elusive Butterfly wafting about, inside the tan ’68 Caprice, 
when his secret journey of a...

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It’s that dream again
I’m running, faster, faster

He got me with his knife
sliced deep down my sternum
the blood trickles around my hand
as I keep applying pressure.
I had to run; I never win hand-to-hand
but if I can...

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Voices in my head are babbling everything vicious.
I can't take it anymore, Life has been a tyrant to us for so many years.
Time to let loose and not let the super reign over us with...

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Before the rain fell and the sky's rainbow set the scenery,
I had a day that will never cease my mind.
The center of my core fell into a creek by the cottage
and drifted down slowly into...

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say this for Justine
though sweet she often turns mean
Justine wasn't keen
on men who might misuse her
she kept track of where they were

worked the bar and grill
at the bottom of West Hill
bears beer, food  and...

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eternal enemy run for cover
we have caught up to your hide and seek game
the control cables have all been mapped
far beyond the billowy seaweed tangles
and the monumentalized insignificances
payday is just around the corner boss
the best...

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I.
He lives inside me,
not sleeping—just leaning
against the dark rafters of my chest.
A moss-backed troll
I call him Atlas, though he looks
more like the rock in his garden—

He keeps a room beside the heart—
spare bed, mildew in...

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In mania, the body unbinds itself.
The skeleton’s dense marrow becomes hollow,
an avian adjustment. It is accelerated evolution.
Fluttering and floating in a slew of thoughts
like nervous wind chime chatter.

My brother blew in through the rattling gate
accompanied...

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litany of the Church of the Ecstatic Coma
love shouldn't be a pile of rags
I was playing pinkie dinkie
with next door Suzie Woozy
her father was CIA a spy catcher 
with a big spy catcher mitt
try not...

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The labels, some serve to award with honour
and others are just straight up meant  to demean
The much sought after accolades and the prestige, ever so enticing 
lend a tender sweet stroke to massage and...

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CREATE LIFE CONTEST
SPONSOR: CHRISTY TEAS

Before the dawn of yesterdays, a new 
day was born for tomorrow.  All the 
seedlings forming into ageless amounts 
of roots working together in perfect unison.  
There will always...

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I dreamt of a washing machine,
In colours so obscene,
Of shades of caffeine,
It washed everything that was clean,
To a shiny muddy unclean,
It was part of it's routine,
It was never to fond of hygiene,
I found an old...

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