Long Thirty five Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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Sharing my translation of a famous poem (Sadharan Meye) written by Rabindranath Tagore, who won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. It's one of his story-like poems, written in Bengali, which is one of the...

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Here he stands, Edwardian vogue, sometimes with his spats, 
sometimes with his brogues below his dungarees. With rounded collar points and tie, and jacket donned below this flying suit, his waste is tied with simple...

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If ever a moment in real life deserved a romantic, melancholy
backing track, it would have been that one ... we'd spent the
entire afternoon at Ferry Beach, sunning and playing frisbee, I
playing guitar, she practicing her...

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Inferiority complex as a kid, adolescent and emerging adult

Yours truly (an amazingly,
gracefully, and markedly modest
passively aging baby boomer -
formerly introverted long haired
pencil necked geek),
prattling wordsmith doth behold
nostalgic memories regarding father
(Boyce Brandon Harris)
long ago lapsed decades

during...

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The Scarlet Letter H



Two Windows                    The Bridge         ...

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There have been those who said,                             ...

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Lament of My Life Contest
Sponsor: Casarah Nance
 

~My Bereaving Eulogy~ 


Time seemed to pass so much faster than I expected,
All the love, loss, passion and things I have neglected.

How many times have I lost a...

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Approximately three plus days elapsed...
without yours truly experiencing urge to defecate

Neither bloating nor constipation
arose, but one nondescript anguished
logophile anticipated intestinal blockage,
hence prophesying worse case scenario

I (predicated in direction for an adult)
ingested three Dulcolax tablets
and subsequently...

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Masalembo
2016 © Fleetwood


Blue-green ocean tipped with whitecaps rolling toward the shore
Plane is humming with the pilot talking about life and your ride is there parked on the hill for easy starting next to the palm...

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Go ahead, you freaking coward, I thought. You drove all this way, with your new 6" GPS. Now you’re a bowl of jello who can't ring a bell? I took a deep breath and pushed...

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MY BUCKET LIST

Years and years ago, I made a bucket list.
I looked everywhere and could not find it.
I don’t remember everything I listed,
so it’s time for a new one to be created
or just to go...

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Unquotable quotes: Gals, Dolls, Bitches and Broads – XXXVII

An adulterous couple soon make lying, cheating and downright treachery (not to mention their role as carriers of germs within the orbit of the family) the principal...

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Harriet Harris circa November 13th, 1935 - ~ May 4th, 2005

untimely death sentence ordained 
approximately six months prior 
to mother dearest celebrating 
her seventieth birthday,
though the last three years of her life
impacted courtesy hysterectomy
to remove...

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THREE WITCHES A LOVE SONNET


Three ancient, rotten, horrid, witches 
just awoke from their daytime snore,
These evil, reeking, damaged, sisters,
Cursed the land for thirty-five score.

As they hobbled down stairs 
they stammered and coughed,
Till they reached the...

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Hereafter in the times of tomorrows yesterday,
                            ...

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Harriet Harris née Kuritsky circa November 13th, 
1935 - ~ May 4th, 2005
(untimely death sentence ordained ~ early February 1935)

I trot out a poem acknowledging birthday
of dear ole mom, who succumbed, 
lost lease on life
nearly...

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I saw a colonel in shadows arms dealing
I saw a chain of command red faced and reeling

I saw a disaster, the flight of the damned
I saw the wreckage strewn where it had slammed

I saw a...

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Voting day at long last has arrived.
Scrambling through closet,
a cavernous space in accumulation.
In the deepest darkest corner, 
purpose achieved, 
garnering my three by five inch American flag,
glorious yet demure.

This my opportunity to come out of...

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Art History

I stand erect with outstretched hand Representing liberty, for many, a foreign land My fire dances an incessant jubilant glow
I represent hope for the oppressed to sow

 Pungent salts mixed with glassy sands
 ...

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Convalescence of Richard McGeehan

Spouse of my eldest sister
marital bond fixed in place
strong as mortise and tenon,
he hales of hearty Irish stock
genes of said septuagenarian
analogous to pith and marrow
wrought courtesy divine providence.

At present aforementioned brother in...

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Me very late mum, a funereal day...

courtesy latitudinarian, nonestablishmentarian, 
sexagenarian, and Unitarian son
and modest mastermind maven maverick.

Another anniversary of her death occurs
upon advent of 
May fourth two thousand and five,
not quite seventy years since her...

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"What are they looking at?"  "the crack on the ground," whisper a silent voice from the airy throne; my heart kept spinning around, and the women in colored hats,  says it is a...

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Harriet Harris circa November 13th, 1935 - ~ May 4th, 2005
(untimely death sentence ordained ~ early February 1935)

Test teasing prophylactics embarrassing
purchase never made at local drugstore
unsurprisingly, obviously, invariably...
birth control taboo subject, best to ignore
subsequently intercourse...

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VERSE ONE:  
 
Christened as averred one Harriet Kuritsky on November 13th nineteen thirty five
     the youngest of four with only one brother
     whose exit from...

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