Long Unnerved Poems

It had been a hellish week.

On Monday
my lonely and tired AfricanAmerican husband
told me, as gently as possible,
that what I had hoped was a temporary separation
is to be extended into perpetuity.

This separation had been scheduled to...

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Was it a cruel twist of fate?
Sneering, laughing chance?
Perhaps something I ate?
A bad bout of happenstance?

It wrenched and tore at my gut,
A sickening, sober, foreboding sign.
Wretched chance it was not,
This time was by insidious design.

The...

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[Continued from ‘Terror Bugs: Part 2 - A Freezer Mice Adventure’]
__________

London’s streets resembled an al fresco mausoleum 
They tracked a trail of body parts which led to a museum
A thousand Terror Bugs were massed, in...

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Two weeks passed before 
Dolly called Her twin. "Hey 
Girl I'm  coming to see you in a 
Little while."  "Ok, sis at about
What time?" Molly inquired.
"About an hour and a half 
Actually it's...

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The shadow in the night is smiling with me
The shadow in the moonlight is dancing with me
The shadow in the sunlight is praying with me
And here I am waiting for you to come and unite...

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As scented air aroused my misty mind,
her shadow broke the early morning sun.
Aromas wafting from the morning grind
seduced a thought that she may be the one.
I sensed her very essence from afar,
unnerved, I sought the...

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My blood ran cold
when my grandpa told
the story you’re about to hear
of moral laws
broke by great grandpa,
that would bring all involved to tears.

It was one day
in seventy-eight,
I was a young buck of eighteen,
I felt in...

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Cockroach Soliloquy 
By:Judge Burdon

The cockroaches left me a wake up message
Written with saliva and excrement 
it was placed conspicuously  in a garbage can 
where they knew that I'd find it 
while in search of...

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Cockroach Soliloquy 
By:Judge Burdon

The cockroaches left me a wake up message
Written with saliva and excrement 
it was placed conspicuously  in a garbage can 
where they knew that I'd find it 
while in search of...

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Now I know you’ve heard the story
of how I all was way back when,
when cowboys rode with Indians
near our small town of Buzzard’s Bend.

Not long after the Civil War,
when it was a hot mining claim,
the...

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II.
It was several days before trouble came,
the quiet seemed at odds with all the news,
the papers told of a nation enraged,
with loud cries for the Sioux to meet their doom.

Myron was out feeding hay to...

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She thought he would rage, clean blow his stack,
but he just nodded with a sad look,
said,”After what I saw, I can’t go back,
there are many things the was has took,
things you can’t even read of...

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But later that night the girl tip-toed out,
And went down to the registry desk.
She picked up the ledger, poured through it all,
There was something that she had to check.

Back upstairs she went, content to wait
Her...

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There is a stranger at my gate.

He stands there watching me with his glowing golden eyes, unthreatening but ever present.  I've gone to my gate to ask questions of the silent unmoving visitor, his...

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He stands beside this long   black   granite wall
broken lines   accentuated reflection   recalled names

It is here where he realized
that intranquility of redemption, even of prayer's forgiveness,
he do not...

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How regretful was I
To see my dead body from the sky
How regretful indeed
Why, with utmost sorrow, did my spirit bleed

In my early thirties was I still
Life, had I lived it according to my will
Yet, so...

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As the light turned red, she reached for the door handle 
About to jumpt out of the car
When all of a sudden
He slammed on the brakes
Reaching passed her,
He pulled the opening door shut.
She felt his...

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Here I am
    Stranded between this and your goodbye.

    You,
Whose thatch is a-glow with fires of Beauty
  That burns my heart,
    unkempt and wild,
Sits atop...

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* * *

The trapper looked for the oddly-dressed man,
but could no longer see him, or his tent.
He glanced around, so supremely confused,
now where the devil had that darned fool went?

He searched along the whole of...

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PETER or SIMON the YOUNGER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
slower
lower
grower
thrower
Christ calls~"Have faith,"~slower~lower~rock
Build church~confuse~grower~thrower~flock
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANDREW the ELDER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
netter
better
   petter   
getter
Catch fish~Greek~Saint~netter~better~first
Bonds~apprise Christ~petter~getter~versed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JAMES of ZEBEDEE the GREATER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
marvelled
 compelled 
upheld
rebelled
Wonder~victim~marvelled~compelled~zeal
Witness~fiery~upheld~rebelled~peal
~~~~~~~~~~~
JOHN of ZEBEDEE
~~~~~~~~~~~
observed
deserved
conserved
unnerved
Flux~beloved~observed~deserved~great
Cross Christ foot~zeal~conserved~unnerved~trait
~~~~
PHILIP
~~~~
willing
filling
quilling
spilling
Holy Ghost fronts~willing~filling~yearn
Guides Divine Truth~quilling~spilling~learn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BARTHOLOMEW or NATHANIEL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sincere
adhere
severe
revere
Gospel~devout~sincere~adhere~true
Exquisite pain~severe~revere~blue
~~~~~~~~~~~~
THOMAS...

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Echoes from a haunting refrain
   buried deep within the corridors of her heart
   weave their tangled, worn threads
   playing on her memories 
like the delicate frayed strings of a...

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If you’ve been to north New York,
or the western side of Vermont,
you might’ve head of a sea monster,
the vast Lake Champlain is his haunt.

The locals all call him ‘Champy,’
not to dissimilar to Loch Ness,
many folks...

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(a flash fiction piece)

My brother (Brice) left university, 6 months ago, like millions of other students, to shelter from COVID. After years away Mr. Annoying was back in MY world, bickeringly close and way too...

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I know I’m just another
stating above and better
trying to place letters
to a beat with base and treble 
as my only form of credit 
to impress so they give merit
Offer opportunity 
tasked to write a tune...

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Echoes from a haunting refrain
   buried deep within the many corridors
of her heart, weave their tangled, worn threads
   playing on her memories 
like the delicate, frayed strings of a lonely violin

Lingering...

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