Tiny, my precious one-eyed ball of fluff --
with oh so sharp teeth and claws --
is disarmingly warm and cuddly but
often still quite skittish,
and stand-offish.
She purrs non-stop, contented,
when safely protected, on my lap
while being stroked. Her food and her water
bowls are clean and full
and her litter box is mostly promptly
emptied, refilled, odorless
and sanitized.
So what if she nips playfully
at my aged paper-thin skin?
Also she may snag my dressy
seldom-donned attire with those
sharp claws. But
she over-pays her board, her daily care,
with fond head nudges, and with her
unabashed preference for me
above all others, even now,
when I may no longer be,
to others, what I was.
To her, still, this outer shell
is precious, is safe,
Is reciprocated love,
is home,
is everything.
she's wild
she's prickly
distant and aloof
stand-offish
guarded and withdrawn
but i will always love her
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
SO SMART IT HURTS
Some have logic as their source of fun
But most would never think that way
Let down barriers and open the mind
It works most of the time, you’ll find
Yet always let a genius have their say
A joke about algebra and they’re done
Being brainy can be lonely for some
As sometimes considered to be a bore
But smart ones all know their worth
More stand-offish than down to earth
Rarely laughing or rolling on the floor
Nor making a joke about bubblegum
It’s a very peculiar wiring in the brain
Left and right sides are swapping places
One impulse starts just as another ends
And seeing life through a different lens
It seems the world presents many faces
Intelligence one small step from insane
She looks snobby, judgemental Linda said.
I observed the newcomer who looked a bit stand-offish.
But perhaps it is because I had not met her yet.
I ran up to tell her that I liked her costume.
She was pure steampunk all the way.
She was a lovely woman, ready to converse with a stranger, me.
We hit it off and sat together for that supper and next day’s lunch.
The convention lasted a week, and I saw her often.
She always smiled, waved and said “hello”.
I never thought my new friend looked or acted snobby.
But judgemental Linda is not as open to meeting new people as I am.
She wandered around alone most of that week, looking miserable.
I thought about spending time with Linda, but then I remembered
How judgemental she is, so I saved myself from her.
The Woman is A Danish
And married to A Scottish
But often heard in English:
Language she speaks with relish…
But the Rather Stand-Offish:
At times slippery like Fish
Or like things one wouldn’t wish,
For example Leaf-Filled Dish
To be served Vegetarian
Or Flesh to a Barbarian…
A Thief-Catching Librarian
And Confirmed True Lutheran!
Ebony fox had no idea how amazing he was.
He was a bit shy and stand offish.
I was eager to get a photo but proceeded with caution.
Gaining his trust, a tiny bit at a time
With a bite of this and a sliver of that.
It took me eight weeks, but I finally got the photo I wanted.
He ran off, and I feared he would never return.
However, he was back in two days, sniffing around for more bacon
Which I gladly gave to him.
An Aquarian Goddess with a wolf power animal
She often keens at the moon, howling her truth
Others are a bit frightened at her confidence.
Being her mother, I understand her spiritual ways.
She is an empath, needing space.
Picking up on emotions of others takes energy
The only way she can live her truth is to push them away.
Some think she is dismissive, cold, stand offish.
They could not be any further from her truth.
She keens and chants and drums her days into submission
Giving them savage glances, to fend them off….
Because she has to get rid of the sad feelings of this earth world
A world she fits not easily into
Being an empath, a clairvoyant, a Goddess of Wolves.
Frost is a fashionable folkway
Rather resented by Reason.
Offish, often obtuse
Snippy, snooty, sometimes sour
Terse, temperamental
written May 12, 2018
I used to sing on the school bus,
Harmonise and everything, full blast,
Most of the others had strong voices,
And I would wish mine was cast.
Geoff the driver would put Radio Forth on,
And we’d all sing along very loudly;
There was nothing there to sing above,
No-one to distract or behave scornfully.
My mum told me off three times,
For singing in church normally and confidently,
As she needed me to have a place for her,
To nurture me and disciple me intelligently.
So since I was four, I've never really sung again,
In church, all dressed up and religious,
So I greatly appreciated those times on the bus,
When the others were about my voice zealous.
I remember Morvan who had Christian grandparents,
And George who really had a lovely voice,
And Keith who would join in whenever he wanted to,
And Kirsteen who thought she had no choice.
It was an offish old yellow mini bus,
With dark yellow and brown triangle seats,
So it reminded me of the yellow submarine,
And I looked forward to its shortcut cheats.
You knew I was angry
As we walked apart, along Spadina
Through the pungent summer air of Chinatown
Past the various sea creatures, dried or iced
And fruits I don’t know piled atop sacks of rice
I closed my eyes and let only the breeze run over me
A million particles per second
Imagining I could imagine every one
I let in the sunlight
And wondered in that amazement you only get
By thinking about everyday things
As the heat danced on my skin
And I thought about how it had been
Through eight minutes and twenty seconds of space
To land radiant on my face
I let things go and walked with you again
I felt stand-offish as you took my hand
But was in awe it was there at all
Or that you love me
Over the Golden Week:
Despite autumn, weather stubbornly refuses to cool.
Started all on a plane, the studied indifference
as opposed to a bus the difference is studied
sick between Australia and China.
(because of the physics)
One polar to the other with intention
in multiples (unknowing) in different colors
(willed), rich wine drunk with color.
powder-pink a hint of mauve,
tight around the upper thighs,
last of that color, that powder
pink no compact holds. So I decline
subtle snakeskin does more for my dark circles
Jade in Shanghai, not in situ,
but very versatile,
silk too short, wool perfect to the hips, (for fun, mostly),
gorgeous long dark red wool,
draped organic wave-folds and flower petals
Now more comfort subdued, show-offish
style a lot of draping and layering
which conceals as it reveals.
Jade specializes in that sort of thing.
No’s
Talking to themselves in the third person
Detached, separate,
ominous—a stilted nuance that does want to know
Abrupt attention spans lashing out as the deadends foreclose
Cutting back on all the backslapping
Having wanted to believe all the
smooth lies and all that crap brings
Devolver minds snapping
Struggling to get out from under makes denial clear
That hate will only listen to fear
Ground-zero panderers jacked up on anger and lack of reason
Birthers,
churchers,
hardrighters, flinching through all the circumspect treasons
The angryanxiety fringe
A binge of onthemake bumper-sticker values gone rouge
Corrosive
these druthers and their blackface esthetic:
the avarice acumen pathetic
Offish flaws as validation, rage as wisdom
What the No generation has become
A reality TV worldview that sees itself through its swindled delusions
Overmedicated, undereducated—the slander ethic
70%-off prosperity
Nightmare personalities who just don’t get it
Alibiing
the next impulse—gimme now
Rationalizing the next urge—gimme now
Surging the absurd—gimme now
Going for another denial do or die—gimme now
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