Long Sy 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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Sy Roth - 3 Poems
12/17/20130 Comments
 
Picture
Silence

I’ve dreamt often that she crept deep
Into my cellular structure, 
Some time in the nightfall of my being
And planted deeply into my mitochondrion,
A magical silence pill,
Drowning the kittens of...

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...At that he laughed, and she seemed quite surprised,
he said, “Oh yeah, I guess that you have got me.
A man must be gay if he won’t jump at
rhe chance to get a crack at some...

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Last Trains at the End of an Echo
by Sy Roth

The Conestoga wagons littered the wasteland with their spiny bones
            in search of the comfort...

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A WEED

A WEED IS A TARE
THAT DOESN'T CARE.

ALSO, A WEED 
IS A PLANT THAT DOESN'T GIVES A DAMN
ABOUT LIFE FOR OTHERS : MEANING FOR OTHER PLANTS 
THAT IS OUTSIDE OF HIM, OR HER.

IN FACT, A...

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Entrance into the Garden of Eden
An Exit Oft Repeated in Four Acts
By Sy Roth

Act 1—Somnolence

Smells of winter tickle a warm sun.
Crisp air, 
Red, brown and yellow leaves, 
Thrust the trees aside for their impending sleep.

They...

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Gewoonlik is my boundaries sterk 
Word ek assigned deur guidance met a Engels'vlerk
My journey neem langer en my sielsnare word gevleg
My boundaries raak flexible en a unieke konneksies word aanmekaar geheg
A journey het ontwikkel in...

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A Horn and Hardart Story
By Sy Roth


It begins with buttons, 
ivory buttons,
Pearlized pieces-- 
Not the plastic crap, 
Over-industrialized flotsam
that adorns clothing these days—

Eager hands fluttering like twin doves in flight,
Delivered buttons. 
His effort earned him...

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A Memory
By Sy Roth


It didn’t come in like an invading horde of Mongols astride their horses.
It came like a Siren whispering a sweet song, blowing soft winds in my ear.

The old woman sat on her...

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Resting in Benign Pleasure
By Sy Roth 

They watched me, 
Waiting for a segue.
Continuously gazing at me 
A waxen bowl of fruit
Tantalizing, 
Clinging to my every move
Like lichen on the leeward side of an ancient oak,
Like...

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Konkas draw a blanket over the flats,
but our state live like over fed fat cats
Zuma had another great opinion,
now we must dream of a Rand reunion

People crying, life’s an uncertain fate,
but they are building another...

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Residents of a Fevered Mind
By Sy Roth

I took the road more traveled--my mistake
Thought I could hide among the masses
Fully expecting that someone might pluck me out, 
And I would endure in their sunlight forever.

Waesucks, to...

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Die Lewens gang 

So dwaal ek rond in die lewens gang 
vol van verlange en oral teen di mure 
hang potrete van herineringe. 

Die tyd het geloop sy eie loop 
geloop. Hy het ons mee...

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Deafening Silence
By Sy Roth

Are they going to die like that 
Buried under the silt of time with it all unresolved?
Are they a ribonucleic disaster, a broken string of DNA 
Deposited in a weary, weeping womb?...

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The Director 

By Sy Roth 

 

The directors--  

For want of a nail 

They were not wanting 

 

So many nails,  

A cache of nails 

To drive into their coffins 

 

Paid in...

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First-Person Personal
By Sy Roth

Here adrift wrapped in a coat of heebeejeebies
Fearful of using the first-person personal
Masking it instead by holograms of itself,
Playful non-entities cavorting among the semi-living.

Used to squirrel the words away like nuts now...

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I think I watch far too much cable TV
   the noise a constant dulling drain on the intelligence once in me.
Summer time is worst the most demeaning season of them all
  ...

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The Boys in The Back
By Sy Roth

The right hand turned the waters 360 degrees
Then another willful rotation
Until the bubbling chicken-fatty waters splashed over the sides
While the boys in the back did their algebraic calculations
Considering the...

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I should have known when I saw the condition of my fingerfickerfly caster
The day fishing for cat fish on Magnifico Lake might turn into a disaster.
Hey! There’s a wrigglewormlipsmaker on my breaker, yelled the baker.
My...

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Thinking about Brian's recent Footle contest (my crazy eyes had been seeing FOOTIE all this 
time and just realized yesterday it is called FOOTLE with LE on the end) I proceeded to drive 
to the...

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A Night of Walpurgis
By Sy Roth

The April moon hung in the sky
Full, like nightshade fighting off the darkness
The strident masses hung about the street corners
Chests puffed out readying to rid the night 
With Walpurgis bonfires...

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Hee Haw, I Cried 
By Sy Roth

With a mulish hee haw, 
I wrap myself in my own divine comedy.
Commedia dell’arte path 
For a blind mercenary of his own fate.

An ormolu wonder stood before me--
Trees clad...

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Two Dogs at the Gateway
By Sy Roth


They slurped their saliva, 
huge globs,
big, barking mouthfuls 
dripping from their jowls like milky icicles 

Teeth-bared lips,
They guarded the gateway.
Pleased by their vacated spittle,
their noses now sniffed the air,...

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Her love is more than a small child’s first word 
My mother’s heart and love, one in a chord 
She lived all my childhood dreams in adore 
With wisdom and love allowed them to soar

When...

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Ek was gevra om ietsie oor Pa te sê
Maar waar begin ek nou
Wanneer daar eintlik net een ding is wat ek nou wil doen
Om steeds my arms om Pa te vou

Maar nou is Pa weg
Na...

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