Long Teeter Poems

WINTER, 1948 [40 Saxton Street]

for W.W

The winter nights that pass now
are so unlike the winter nights
that passed before, that I often
struggle back in those suspended moments
when sleep grapples for a hold,
to once again hear the...

Read More

When we think of traveling we most often think of going from one location to another. That’s good but I sometimes like to return in reverie to times in my past. Places where I spent...

Read More

Turning my back on typhoon skies, 
a pestilent past, I pitch my mistakes 
into a forgiving wind. Standing barefoot 
at the edge of apologies, 
coastal tides carry hope, tomorrows stir
on a mariner’s horizon. I search...

Read More

August 13th, 2021 – twenty two years since...

Wicked bad designed day poem originally crafted
then alternately titled for no particular rhyme nor reason: 
courtesy Doctor Donald Dossey  
who coined paraskevidekatriaphobia. 

August thirteenth nineteen hundred and...

Read More

(alternately titled: courtesy Doctor Donald Dossey  
who coined paraskevidekatriaphobia 

August thirteenth nineteen hundred and ninety nine
forever etched in annals of my personal infamy
as one still sending hair raising shivers down my spine
which following unpleasant...

Read More

Dear SafeLink Customer,
(one of the many recipients includes me).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is ending, and April 2024 will be the last fully funded month for your benefits...

Read More

Let hope rely upon your Maginot
for swift retort has choked your Gallic might.
It crushed your will beneath its undertow
as diligence receded in the fight.
Your flailing forces teeter on defeat
and any hint of truce shall be...

Read More

a lonely place.
It's nothing to do with that person
who asked how are you? this morning.
It's to do with staring through
fear-frosted windows
as snow sugar-sifts the street,
watching through dark windows
as firework flowers burst to bloom in a...

Read More

Teeter totter

This is my voice, writing from within too without
For a long time, I wasn't listening to my soul.
I was wearing shoes to protect 
From the stones and the mud and the bugs in the...

Read More

Flies, drawn to their only sustenance, cloud around my head.
In this cloudless desert sky  - blank, deep-arching cavern of thought  - 
Unblinking  sun stares down but this fire-bird will not fly,
Has no...

Read More

I weigh in at live energy
learning in life to live the way

the way like the wind
resting in the nurturing stars
concocting a breathtaking blend
of forgiveness' smiles eroding the pasts scars
aware my vibration will constantly bend
rebuilding my...

Read More

I Write Wits Psalm Burning Desire...

Why?
To escape livingsocial,
     and negate mine birth
figuratively, knowingly,
     and precariously,
     I nightmarishly perch
teeter tottering atop - dearth
of financial...

Read More

I fear death, not quite death but yours, and not yours but mine
I guess I fear my death in being your survivor, but not quite
I fear grief, that it might consume me once more, but...

Read More

society never seems to wanna understand
i got feelings too just because im a man dont mean nothing
i bleed to damn
babysitter raping me at 7
told my folks got my ass whoop because liars dont make it...

Read More

It is of the essence.
Time; it is very precious.
The past affects the future but for now let's focus on the present.
Tense, like the feeling you get when you can't breathe.
Mind, body and soul supposed to...

Read More

“This circus is falling…”

It’s circa 1997; I’m in Charlotte, NC
It’s a 13-week consulting gig, my longest ever
I come home every few weeks
Long days at the customer site
A hostile environment;
    they don’t really...

Read More

***Crazy Menagerie***


I definitely bit off more than I could chew,
when I came a-running to my friend's rescue
He said it was no big deal, a real snooze actually
to just please, please look after his cutie menagerie

He...

Read More

"FAKE" assertions unstoppably
bandied with beef,
(sans doughty deeds done dirt cheap)
courtesy of commander in chief
trumpeted as a way to backout,

embarrassment analogous to the thief
of Baghdad, when culpable faux pas
woe philly pops thought balloon of mine
reckons with...

Read More

When I'm licking toads I regress into a dream
Glory is bestowed you won't believe what I have seen
We travel this same road don't know where it may lead
The greedy overload take much more than they...

Read More

three incisor teeth burst through fresh flesh...
opaque as pearls, strong as love, precious 

beautiful baby babbles assertively
mesmerized by mishmash sounds 
that her astounding mouth can make
prose poetry in its practice

as canines erupt, she moans from...

Read More

From generation to generation
Times have changed so much
By leaps and bounds
Back when technology did not exist
I grew up in a family of 13 kids
Survival was the game of life
Working hard day and night
Trying to make...

Read More

Vae victis! Her quick eyes spy out the field.
Reconnoitred, the foe's dispositions have been noted, 
quantified, assessed. The forces of order
and tidiness, in neat array, 
perfect their alignment, await onslaught.
The sentinels stand guard:
A pot of...

Read More

My kids like myself were instructed on how to wash clothes as soon as they were tall enough to reach into the basin without falling in. Parenting 101 calls this the see-saw or teeter-totter effect,...

Read More

Hungry for munchies, on his way to the lunchroom, 
a rambunctious, persnickety,“fuss-budget”, elderly
jittery, fidgety, geezer, named Cassidy…
whose questionable dexterity, aghast by a massive sneeze,
teeter-tottered precariously. 
at the edge of the thingamajig, ...jigging one way, jagging...

Read More

I can hear your demons screaming
And I know you're hearing mine
Times changed you just a little
Now your beauty's more sublime
Sat here waiting for a reason
To be sitting here at all
Just about to leave
I smell your...

Read More