The Lonely Weed Poetry Contest
Craig Cornish
I set out across the country,
hitching a ride on boxcars
to wherever the wind takes me.
I tumble here, and I tumble there,
across the steel of eyes,
voices of condemnation,
and the hands of fate.
Yet some days are better than others.
For I bask in the green grass.
Other days, I hide through the cracks,
lonely, dark, and cold.
When I'm hungry,
I take the soil from crying babies
and disrupt the lawn.
Along every stop,
I ward off the pesticides of life,
teetering and tottering with the pull of the wind.
It could be windier ... it could be sunnier
It all started on a whim.
dead bee on table
I need CSI Kansas
what killed this being?
I give it a teeny tiny poke
thinking it will rouse and sting me
but alas, she is cold and dead.
I do not use pesticides
this is curious
and a bit frightening
I'm hurting inside,
My feelings are fried,
I've tried and tried,
Now I'm terrified.
I cried so many times,
Lied about my own crimes,
Hiding them in rhymes.
Priming my abilities,
To see through fallacies.
A disease I didn't ask for,
Yet my consent brings more.
It's been such a chore,
I don't want it anymore,
I'm poor and my body's sore,
They fed my core with lies,
My food is poisoned by dyes,
Pesticides decide the fate,
Of the vegetables I ate.
Feeding our vision full of hate,
Now no one wants to participate.
Trained straight through a TV,
They were programming me.
Making me think I was happy,
Now my body feels crappy,
I'm sappy and tired,
My system mis wired.
I fired the chiefs,
They were more like a thief,
Steeling your belief,
A false sense of relief,
Feeding us all grief,
Leaving us all hurting inside.
Formula Fe2 O3
Iron is just awesome – let’s see!
First it was prehistoric man
Who was always an iron fan
Iron is a third of the earth
Industry is iron by birth
Pritchard designed and Darby made
Iconic Iron Bridge won’t fade
Smelt pig iron from iron ore
Produces cast iron galore
Backbone of skyscrapers, bridges
Organs of cars, washers, fridges
Clever Bessemer carbon gone
Heralded steel for everyone
Mankind’s most ingenious feat
Turning raw earth to steel – so neat!
Iron’s compounds are versatile
No wonder it’s used all the while
Inks, fertilisers, pesticides
Paints, enamels and more besides
Many iron phrases pervade
Each as an English language aid
There’s ironclad, iron curtain
Iron grip and more for certain
We need it in a small amount
For on haemoglobin we count
Open your eyes and look around
Everywhere an iron surround
Iron has magnetic appeal
First place must be iron with steel
Wilted flowers
Wilted flowers lie in empty fields
Days pass as flies scour,
Leaving the decomposing ideas to be eaten.
The sun flickers as each minute weans by
An empty shell of you left in bloody waters.
A quiet silence crowding the space your words claimed.
The once blooming pedals, scorned by your nectar.
Craving the burn you bring into my veins; no longer able to be muzzled
A type of silent desire for chaos and destruction.
A desire for deforestation.
What started as weeds being plucked,
Turned to mowing down rose bushes.
Muddy boots left on waxed floors,
Destruction on the original wood grain that was once admired by generations.
Floors handcrafted from trees outside of what I wanted to call home.
Someplace silence was peace and peace was expected rather than craved.
Pruned roses left puddles of milkweed
Each droplet going sour the second it fell,
The bitter taste of cyanide leaked out of your pores into its water supply.
Empty plots. Pesticides. Ripped roots.
A Poet Road
Now that it is hot and the sun has turned from
a warm friend to a raging enemy, what did I say
to make it so burning hot?
I`m up early and drive around, stopping and take
pictures of growing plants before the rampant
sun makes them lose all colors.
Then, before I knew it was ten o’clock time to
sit indoors watching the miserable news
and trivial entrainment programs.
The bushfires of terror are something we have to
live with until we learn to clear the undergrowth
and when needed...brutally weed.
I’m thinking of a man who has a small field of
the greenest vines, every day he tends lovingly
his bushes, you see, we should not be too kind.
On the other hand, we cannot poison the land
with pesticides to save a plant we like and
forgetting that all life has its place.
Here’s the double standard
The goal for someone
To eat healthy is
Not putting pesticides
Steroids, antibiotics
And preservatives in
The food to preserve it
Which is harmful to the
Human body
in this world of political pesticides, no flower can bloom
I watch my verdant eyes envious as the botanicals blossom in a sandstone sunrise glow,
I am a forlorn figure wandering in my fog of fears,
I cannot omit my icy turbulent tears,
Our short saga of passion much like the snow keeps me on the slippery slopes of sorrow,
Unlike the spring my heart is wary of healing,
I have tried to evolve like my kin as their colours modify with the sky,
But my reckless resilience sits saturated in puddles of pity,
I am perpetually a grey shadow lost in winter's chill,
I sometimes ask the cotton candy clouds to glimmer their cedar joy upon my perils,
Their intellectual gapes tell me I must find my internal self-love to glide with other stems again,
I know you're the perilous storm I sowed, but I desire to leave behind our wilting tale.
I wish to burn these bitter beads of pain, yet like the summer rain, I’m struggling to allow a fluorescent rainbow to shine its rays of hope.
Instead, I wallow in the equinox between light and dark,
I fill my petals with pesticides because they resemble you, I wait patiently for this period of despair to depart, as no emotion can linger eternally.
Sittin’ in the sun softly sighin’
Bees buzzin’ butterflies flyin’
Sharin’ their joy with the dandelion
Neighbors wonder why I’m smilin’
Don’t use no pesticides so nothin’s dyin’
John G. Lawless
©5/19/2023
Oh, do torture me sweet Dandelions
Amaze me with your sun like blazing glow
Tease the waking bees of early springtime
To join you in your yellow scented show
Dance among the crab grass and the Jonquils
Question the absent beauty of the rose
Arise from the stony cracks and thorn beds
To fill the air with angels seeking homes
They’ll come with their pesticides and shovels
Attempting to upstage your springtime act
Fail to comprehend your tenacity
The root of your existence still intact
Oh Dandelions, golden crowns of spring
Forever let your golden voices sing
©5/18/2023
Sonnet Poetry Contest
Sotto Poet - sponsor
a dandelion
defying the pesticides
mocks the suns brilliance
valiant warriors
salutations to the sun
rooted in the now
John G. Lawless
©2.15/2023
Fireflies face extinction due to habitat loss, light pollution and
pesticides. What have they done to deserve such callous fate?
"No man is an island"
A saying by the English author John Donne
Fireflies
Born underneath enigmatic expanding skies
Cuddled by a Blue Planet of emerald and ice.
Like a serpentine river of gems silently arise
Gliding on gossamer wings evoking surprise.
Sparkling rubies wove in the curtain of night
Bathed in darkness in sheer ethereal delight.
Solemnly await the inevitable ultimate flight
Towards soothing rays of love's healing light!
Penned: 02/07/2023
4:25 p.m.
N. Las Vegas
A monarch butterfly flew past.
I wondered if it was the last
‘Cause they are disappearing fast;
Our world will be much grimmer.
For climate change and pesticides,
Plus loss of habitats besides
Means we are taking giant strides
To make our days much dimmer.
These orange beauties did appear
Like clockwork every single year.
Their loss should make us shed a tear,
With hope, a measly glimmer.
Having waited for long after hard laboring,
Tilling, planting, manuring and irrigating;
Keeping stray animals away from grazing them,
Protecting them from dangers, as though, costly gem;
Treating the illnesses of better-half who's weak,
Pleasing the moods of kids, who fun and frolics seek;
Eating sometimes; evading timely food, often,
Pleading the money-lenders their hearts to soften;
Weeding the field frequently when it's so needed,
Cleansing, spraying pesticides when it's thus weeded;
Drizzles, hailstones and storms visit the fields, betwixt,
Tending the fallen plants, he gets the problems fixed;
Thus, midst mounting temptations and tribulations,
When his hopes reach their zenith of expectations;
Floods unforeseen, when whole year's livelihood destroy,
He stands calm, yet, facing forces of pain and joy...!
15 March 2022
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