Long Vertebrae Poems

[This poem 'No God Of  Mine' was seemingly confounding readers as
to its meaning. Ordinarily, if I felt a poem wasn't  cutting it, I'd delete
it, but on this occasion, I've been asked to explain it... so here goes.]


By...

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When I Consider Life

As a baby, I was laying in my bassinet when a rifle bullet was shot through
 our living room window and passed through right under my bassinet not hitting me. 
 ...

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When I Consider Life Without You

As a baby, I was laying in my bassinet when a rifle bullet was shot through  our living room window and passed through right under my bassinet not hitting...

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Cement, sand and gravel, blood, body and soul
Eternity bred from hell's darkest hole
Combine gruesome aggregates, hydrate the mix
Mould them and dry them, then stack up the bricks.

Thought in advance and precision laboured
Set automatic, eternity savoured
No...

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LC

I drop bars, that break bars, and start fights in dive bars
“Emotio est pons, amor est finis.” 
I am the spark between the medulla oblongata
and the thalamus. 
The protector of vertebrae,
And the processor behind what...

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We briefly meet the Mandan Chief Big White
in the village center where the animals are sacraficed,
couples wed, and disputes are dealt with,
he is a massive, and portly man
and is wearing a headdress that spreads to...

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I woke with blood in my mouth
and no memory
of the scab that sealed the rasure.

I’m cat-spitting
dog-growling
peregrine-divebombing
rooster-flogging
badger-flipping
hornet-stinging
wolverine-ripping mad.

I fired the sun for showing up late
cursed the fridge light until
yogurt soured in terror.

God called
I let it ring...

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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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III.

He wore a necklace made of dozens of vertebrae,
whether they were human or not, nobody could say.
Rick looked down at the dead man but still showed no fear,
said,”Tell me why we shouldn’t just kill you...

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There are skeletons in the wardrobe but they’re home and dry

Looked after properly moth balled and yet unkindly falling apart

Conscience is layered just as are subconscious wishes and fears

Sometimes I play with the bones and...

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IV.

As the werewolves all funneled to that narrow gorge,
the brush was pulled away, revealing a cannon’s bore,
the beasts were to furious to see they were caught,
Bob pulled back on the cord, fired silver grape-shot.

Small spheres...

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Daddy's specter plectrums mercilessly
Fraying my nerves raw
with oxidized guitar strings.
my thoughts relentlessly hemorrhage
onto clay vinyl grooves
s p i n n i n g
endless nights
of
suffocation.

a midnight jazz wail
lacerates
the void of your absence.
notes gnaw through bone marrow
ravenous...

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Woke up this morning
With news headlines spawning
I do not know if it's winter yet
Because of old age I often forget
Got to realise how weird it is
When I can brush my teeth
And scratch my nose
But try...

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*NOTE:  Jack and I wonder how many of you have heard of the Zona Shue case – 
an American murder victim who had revenge in Virginia in the late 1800s.
Zona was killed by her...

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Red hot chili pepper poker face...

Born that way angry antithetical 
mailer daemon when...
all of Christendom bows their collective 
talking heads in supplication,
a temporary truce and reprieve 
against bigotry, deviltry, idolatry (nah),  
et cetera across...

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One day, Myopic Milo; went slithering across the street; and met with some misfortune; as a car, he tried to greet.

It really sent him flying; that half-blind, water snake; so to a chiropractor; a visit...

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Let us discuss the circus alive in the theater of your conflicts,
the Master of Ceremonies cremates caution
in the center of curiosity's conciet
where birds bleed songs of azure agony,
madness remembers the melody of a midnight march
to...

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Written: December 30, 2023
                _________________________________________

Embrace the oxymoron, if you will.
Shall I fool you with monsoon wrath?
Despite tears of rain, life...

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Don't tell me I'm beautiful when I've done something different with my make-up
Don't call me beautiful because I've bought a new bra and you can see it through my shirt
And never tell me I'm beautiful
Because...

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     Planned a pretty picnic, yet didn’t predict 
     Pigs begged - please eat us
     Allocated table had laid out a feisty feast
...

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Gazing across the Trailer Park morning dew glistens on overgrown lawns, as the sun rises, empties strewn randomly in the grass sparkle like jewels in this dawn of day. Saturday night has past, Hank Sr...

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She is not impressed by your borrowed brilliance,
By the overly polished theories that hang from your lips like cheap jewelry,
No—she feeds on rarer flesh, nourishment for the chosen soul,
She feasts on the marrow of irreversible...

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Get Your Dr. Seuss On! Contest
Sponsor: The Seeker

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FAT SNAKE???

Snakes are squirmy and sassy and naughty,
snakes are wormy and creepy and haughty.
They sleep and hiss and eat all day,
they creep and...

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The discerning river moves
through the crowded valley woods
like an ancient crooked spine
beneath the vertebrae bridges of fallen trees
it's restless currents strum against strings
of rich green algae that cling
like eels onto polished stones
thrusting waves that curl...

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There is no possible way to tell anyone who is reading this, 
How much pain and suffering I have endured over the past three months with this. 
Two or three days and you should be...

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