Long Tangerines Poems

Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis, high bred poiet?s of mine

     ("Thus always I cause the death of tyrants.”)
the purported line Brutus uttered 
after assassinating Julius Caesar.

     Alternatively...

Read More

I have slept but I have not slept
I have not slept but I have slept
For the first time in two years
I slept without a word of care
No codes, no crossroads
No railroads, no shiploads
No lizards no...

Read More

Contend with me while you can 
Contend with me and I will deliver the master plan
Contend with me and I will make you smile
We have been through worse than this
And we have always rise up...

Read More

I have always wanted something wonderful out of life
But my mother said there is always a price
It has nothing to do with land, money or property 
Someone has always been there for me and I...

Read More

Green light means go ahead
Make your choice
Here’s a list of the Green light or free, fruits go, go, go and eat them up

Apples, dried: Dried apples make a great snack food and are easy to...

Read More

I crossed my legs but there was a flood
Blushing red I hope folks understood
But my waters had burst
And the baby's my first
Guess I'm ready to start motherhood!

NOT FOR CONTEST

WRITTEN on 27TH August 2016 BY JAN...

Read More

Wondering, pondering, contemplating
The moments when I’ve felt different
Because of my ideas, my dreams, my feelings
The way I think and the way I believe
Struggling to be who I am inside my heart
Instead of someone who is...

Read More

One time, when I was about
eight or nine, 
Poppa climbed up onto the roof.
He was fixing something
(I don't remember what)
but he called me up.
He wanted me to see 
the sunset
uninterrupted by the houses
and trees of...

Read More

There was a man in the first book of the Bible
The one that we call "Genesis"
There was not one mention of his arrival
Because his story had little significance

The "Harry Pekar" of the ancient times
when people...

Read More

Meet Him first, in prayers, then peace. Meet Him soon, in praise, sweetest praise. Meet Him last, when death silences the breath… then, in paradise, where His love will forever erase all the past’s pain,...

Read More

While the dawn collects its rhythm, 
Quietly protecting the whispers of a new day,
Tangerine sunsets composing chrysanthemum hymns,
Risk their gentling tones in rarest glimpses,
Through the silence, into the fated feelings,
Where truth glows and kindness flows…

Shadows...

Read More

Incorrigible Recalcitrant - Doppelganger (mine)

Ala Goofus and Gallant 
highlights my diametrically 
divergent alter egos
always the reserved 
obedient docile boy
afeared to stray outside narrow

circumscribed comfort zone
figuratively tethered
extremely short leash
choked me like yoked oxen,
albeit non red dually...

Read More

dear Calafia,
i saw you on the day you died
standing on that cliff with
fire in your hair, wind blowing it back
standing on that cliff with
not a care in the world with
the forest behind your back and...

Read More

Who do you miss?
What makes you sad?
Do you walk with your head towards the sky
or bowed down
to the ground?
What do you think about before you slip into sleep?
Why are you here?
Do you remember the day...

Read More

Fruit Fairies

Green luscious trees sway gracefully in breeze 
humming song sung by work pollen bees
baby fruits cradled not yet ripen to fall
many are ready but some still too small

     
Laden with...

Read More

I’m thinking of a place
with monkeys and a sled
A brand new jar of cottage cheese
just resting on the bed
An envelope with butterflies
upon the stamp it wears
A basement sitting at the top
of someone else’s stairs
~
A very...

Read More

Are you ready for a brand new year
The spring festival coming
So let’s all cheer
The lunar calendar starts again
It’s time to clean the cobwebs my friend




Gifts of red envelope’s everywhere
This is the Chinese New Year
The year...

Read More

Beneath the clay I eavesdrop hoarse echoes from a marigold world draped in marmalade felicity
I grimace as sandstone terra lets all its weight stack upon my rusty bones, buckling under the fire;
The spice upon my...

Read More

The sky of pink and orange tangerines 
made me feel happy to be me today.
It was joyously warm, and the cardinals 
were creating happy birdsongs.
A perfect day, I thought, which rarely happens. 
I sat down,...

Read More

Malevolent imploded uncontrollably, 
  twisting wildly maniacal posies
   amid diabolically toasted brainstem, 
angst uncompromisingly yanked tresses 
  purging stinging speech patterned rhymes
 amuck iniquitous poetic verses hung
    ...

Read More

Tired of talking 
‘bout weather
Other trivial things

Tired of talking 
‘bout food
The price of tangerines

You may outlive
This aging man
Before I go
Please understand

Never told you how 
I love you 
When I held you
In the dark

Never told you...

Read More

Warm on this October day, as I enter the place my mother does not lie.
Her body is not here either, but a tombstone is, so I give a deep sigh. 
If I speak to her,...

Read More

I once took for granted my childhood when still too young to know,
how time was fleeting and so misleading like a movie picture show.  

I'm older now but no wiser and sadly must convey,
I...

Read More

watercolor morning

it was a watercolor morning
the sky tangerine, punched with boysenberry
and yet you wept
your tears delicious were it not for unbearable pain

i look back now at countless years
wondering ten thousand times over
if perhaps storm clouds...

Read More

Bright eyed red nosed reindeer,
Raring frantically to go,
Waiting for that iconic signal,
A belting “ho ho ho”.

Flying gifts down children’s chimneys,
One house two house three house four,
With a beer at every stop point,
Ten pints twenty thirty...

Read More