Long Underworld Poems

"The Messenger"

Love is rich with 
venom and honey. 

there was a female ...

snake, 
it watched 
with green-eyed 
avarice, covetting
a dove’s nest

the dove, 
was white as snow, 
not young, getting on,
tiny flecks of grey

the dove 
alone,...

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YOU ARRIVED ON CUE I SUPPOSE RIGHT AFTER THE CHRISTMAS DAY ARSONS MURDERS PROCLAIMING MY LIFE WAS IN GRAVE DANGER WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ARSON MURDER 8 ELDERLY PERSONS PARISHES PROCLAIMED MY EX HUSBAND...

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I. Sighting

I saw you  
through refracted light-  
a prism of chance  
splitting ordinary into spectrum.  
Wind-tangled hair  
terra cotta and rosemary beneath your nails  
the scent of soil and...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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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...

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A Journeyman

Prologue and Epitaph:

I am the fool, the jester, clown, a harlequin, charade, façade of many
shades and colours, mascara over broken fragments, dead and gone

1)	Megalomaniac charlatan, lost in destruction, finding the path, the touch,
the miracle...

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The Enchanted City of Dual Realms
In the sprawling labyrinth of concrete towers and spectral glass,
where skyscrapers, like ancient obelisks, pierce the celestial veil with unyielding ambition,
serpentine rivers of fortune murmur in arcane tongues, their secrets...

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Brazil

As I drove through the heavy snow of Manquiville,
Deep in silence back to Grandfather's house, all frightened faces
Full of solemnly dreams, I remember the smell of the sea.
	The unseen Grandpa's hands, pulling and pulling
	The full...

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To witness no trace of a step, that has lingered beneath the dewy lush grass.
Then to gaze upon greatest glory! While creation unfolds right in front of you.
Revealing its treasured secrets, while you stand stunned,...

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Discard Flat Packs Have Faith

There is a God of the Universe parallel that is and I call 
her freedom ‘Come into my space’ she seems to contradict 
‘do not be afraid’ to fall off that...

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I walked pass the neighborhood restaurants and saw Americans
browsing on their laptops and having their Saturday evening meals
Some were having a serious chat over dinner
I could see angry faces filled with disappointments and resentments
There is...

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THE SENTINEL
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS

					

I took the elevator to the lobby of the small hotel
I’d been here six days the ennui was starting to tell
I’d been sent to cover an international gathering
Sessions so long and dull...

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Within my quasi moat toad lily padded immediate environs

Meaning the corporeal complex edifice
housing these lovely bones, 
where linkedin logorrhea ably
strives to break out 
in meaningless song 
yobble hum hum diddle dee dee
and dance courtesy 
an...

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"The Forgotten Legion of Rose Thorns"



Reversing roll calls
the Anti-Hero 
jumps through 
burning hoops
instinctively

bathed in the magnum glow
designed to fire cartridges
with a kick like a field gun
a bloody victory 
is eventually won

lacking conventionality
novel and picaresque
placing bad...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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Achilles, His Heart and Soul Were Mortal
Part One- (Years Before Troy)

Achilles* woke, his slain foes calling out his name
hearing merciless woes, his sharpen sword they blame
looking at the heavens he saw the moon glowing blood...

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63.
      If Dullness Be Your Plunder

    Speech be silence gone amiss
    But if speech be ne'er to be.
    Choose words with...

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"Love My Way"

Ghosts read the walls like braille in this place
it’s a macabre dance with the past and the petulant future
it romances them away from the let-it-be moments
on repeat heavenly tortured in the evermore never-give-up

they...

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In golden chains of bondage, was the royal queen
Brought forth, force to kneel, before the newly crowned
Pharaoh of Egypt!
Branded a heretic, a blasphemer of the Gods, a traitor to
Her people, unworthy to wear the serpents...

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A synchronised swan chime is very pleasant in a cool breeze but sampling an electric blanket supper is just not that amazing. Nor is it justifiable in a spring turreted garden. Gardeners grabbing gates greedily...

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An image of the netherworld envisioned by a misanthrope

Mein kampf fraught re: 
emotionally/psychologically challenged 
impossible mission to cope
compared to classmates, I felt like a dope
and entertained escapist fantasies,
whereby Miss Rainbow 
(sixth grade student teacher),
though robbing...

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The skipper had sailed quite a few storms and survived

Strong as a cross hanging over an apocalypse’s altar he

Had weathered all seasons and crossed heaven and hell

Tempted his fate and good fortune at times but...

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“Possessed”



The scarlet of her heart opens
where she blooms deepest
from the cuts 
of Past’s insanity
her windows 
full green undressed
him, in his mind;
he confessed,
in quiet reflection, 
he had lost his head
irrevocably -
and taking his brush
dipped it in...

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"Auric Obsidian - The Face Clean Behind the Gun"


You drew me into your new world, 
the corridors of your mind 
fitted me perfectly imperfect 
into the portraits pegged onto your wall 

an unsuspecting target 
from...

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