Long Uptown Poems

HEROES

Near somber guards, units of children heap 
dead leaves, naive to any else fallen.
Friend, you chuckle, but your posture speaks
of duty on this day of contradictions.

Firefighters bow heads in silent paean, 
while polished trucks stand...

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I

These days I forgive myself everything. After all
I'm alone and unhappy so I give myself a little treat
whenever possible. On summer nights I remember
the good women who loved me but live with their husbands now.

This...

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STRAWBERRY SWEET 
Strawberry scent 
At the picnic place
Late in the afternoon
Birds singing up in the trees
With the joy of spring season`

The basket half empty all the pies gone
Red wine from one glass, but we had...

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My mother always took the bus.  I never understood why.  We had a car, but she insisted on taking the bus uptown.  I think she did it because father would not let...

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What Is Love 
   by Edmund Siejka

My parents argued frequently
So love was an elusive something 
Usually found in someone’s else’s home
In high school 
A little more sure of myself
I dated my first girlfriend
In...

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A reason behind The reason
Off to uptown 
I flew for an holiday
In a resturant of
The so called v.i.p
I was as I never realise
Not until too many eyes
On me as the Afro hair
I wear speak more...

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Nine nine  

A story I needed to find  

My credentials were declined  

But it was Sunday, I did not mind  

Honestly, I tried  

Decided, ‘take a ride’  

Into the...

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I was waiting at the bus stop, for the number nine to take me uptown,
that’s when I saw her in the park, sitting crossed-legged on the ground.
The sun reflected in her golden hair, her lips...

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Leong's watching TikTok on her laptop (as always) and she asks Lisa (an NYC girl) “Are you familiar with the the “downtown girl” aesthetic?”
Lisa’s dismissive, “Yeah, it just looks like Urban Outfitters grunge to me.”
Leong...

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She’s just tired and scared of walking home alone,
Stepping outside in the dark is among her greatest threats,
Honestly, she is afraid that any day she opens the doors and windows,
might be her last,
A hint of...

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Dawn Forever Rising

It starts

Street lights fade
their tiny soft-winged tenants flee
checkerboard facades change
last night's illumined squares now dark
become but yesterday's portals
some polished
some weather streaked
all reaching to reflect first breath

Steam ascends from the city's vacuum
gratings rattle with...

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To the Invisible Friend 

The dredging decades have floated by like drifting clouds in the beckoning western sky.
Hello dead friend of my distant youthful days under these erotic jacaranda blooms.
It is my firm hope that...

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OK another adventure in the mad poet’s life,
This occurred just before I met Jane, my imaginary wife.
Jane’s brother, Glen had set me up with a blind date
He said the girl was a stunner, I could...

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Used to be a happy go around…later shrouded in frowns…?
For many a birth places…what are the shades of their faces…?
A log of many a cases…where are the words of their paces…
Memories of a ghetto…not in...

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Dedicated to all those who lost Sons and Daughters to war

It's Memorial Day today
 I hear the bands uptown 
I'm sure there are many flags 
Hung all around 

Soon the BBQ will fill the air
Friends...

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Where there is a petty imitation
There'll be pests, posters of sensation
Grouping of hesitations
Complaints to order, servings of hallucinations
There'll be soap-box amatory slander
About walking coat-hangers slender
It ain't working girl, it's a waling green guile
By his friend...

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The dichotomy prayer
I'm free, my will
So stagnant this standstill  
designed by He 
Of metaphors and mystery 
My mountains of molehills
no carrots yet im gold
So it's said , "only one you".
Talent unused -a crime 
Oil...

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Seems it stood there all the time
her good piano ~ church now closed,
she used to sing her songs in rhyme
made church folks happy, in the rows.

The years went on ~ church once so gay,
for Indians,...

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CHANGE by Ian Munywe
upon his visage boasts sweat,industry an upheld virtue.
firm stature is exhibited,hard labour an accepted custom.
a time for toil yearns,wheat and other victuals for the future.
every stride to strive in burning heat,a quest...

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I wrote a song last night,
Oh yes I did,
The bittersweet words came to me 
As fast as a locomotive train...

About a girl from the wrong side of town,
Shooting up smack to calm her down,
She was...

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If I, ever again, caress my nostalgia to those dense greeneries, to those forests , out there
Breathe air through my lungs, fresh air 
Touch every single tree, the spiral plants, a trivial beauty, unnoticed, unknown
I...

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A DUSTY OLD HURT ROAD

I was steering my car in an un-alert mode
While driving down an old dirt road
My auto was making clouds out of dust
While I was doing that which I must

My hands grasped...

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Grandma’s brown knuckles crinkled 
As she gently peeled the heirloom 
Potatoes, discarding the brown-
Skinned strips into the garbage
Bin. She was at home here, alive 
And aloud, tastes and scents mingling 

In the air like wispy...

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Coming from out of nowhere 
somewhere in space
somewhere above 
Somewhere my love
Running and running I was
Those son of a guns
Would pop me in my head
Pop pop pop on my face
Splat spla splat
Trying to dodge them
But...

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Lyrics are sung to the music of 
David Bowie’s “Panic in Detroit”


                       ...

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