Altho' knowing that
nothing beats tit for tat
there's no call at all
to cooperate
if you don't wish
to participate
but if something you lack
and scratch my back
while one hand
washes the other
I'll scratch yours
which could be
accomplished
when down on all fours
however taking a gander
unseemly tho' it may be
what's good for the goose
is good for me
Don’t get confused mates
I’m not talking of any primates
Picking through each-other’s fur
Neither am I asking you to concur
In fact, according to you
There might be very few
Who would have any objection
To helping someone
Especially if that ‘someone’ returns the favour
Goes ‘scratch-scratch’ on others for want of a back scratcher
It may appear as if I’m against social grooming
Please dears, no cause for that fuming
I can very well understand your irritation
Believe me, I’m not pointing at you or anyone
On the contrary, you are welcome to assist me
However, I may not be able to return the courtesy
I know there is a term- reciprocal altruism
And now if you permit, I want to end with this truism
“I scratch your back, you scratch mine”
I am sure without a quid-pro-quo, you’ll decline
Definitely I’m not the one to feel bad or whine
I know, it’ll hold you back and that’s perfectly fine.
There is a solitude
at the core of beauty
that holds to a silence
when interrogated
by the mind. It stays
fixed in the moment
whilst I move
leaving the marks
from my grasping nails
scratched across time.
Would a snack-happy
happy snacker
with a snacky itch to scratch
be a happy snacker
if he snacked a happy snack
such as a happy cracker
or could there be a catch
as it was not enough
healthy happy snacky stuff
and he'd need something to munch
with a much more succulent crunch
a Grannie Smith or Golden Delic'
a happy snack-like pick
happily snackily
should really do the trick
When you lost everything you worked for
You feel the real affects of being poor
Life isn't normal you dont function the same
Things were stolen from you with no one to blame
Thats when any and everything seems to matter most
As you gain items back you have reason to boast
Losing things quickly when you gained it slowly can be a pain
Feeling as though everything you worked for is in vain
Its not easy starting over when you know what you had
Each time you realize you need something it makes you sad
You feel that nothing is ever going to settle
Your patience wearing thin while gaining little by little
What was taken from you was yours and you want it back
It was here today and gone tomorrow just like that
When you have something for years you grow attached
You feel a sense of emptiness when starting from scratch
I have a cat
(or a cat has me),
a furry cat, a very purry cat
when on my lap it's sat,
independent it is
(egotistical too),
yet demands attention
(self-centred through and through),
and when well-fed, its purr
(a four-stroke motor),
is full of condescension,
when behind its ears you scratch
(it's expected of you),
you may believe you heard,
“Meow, meow, meow,”
(sorry, here's the catch),
what it really said is,
“Me now, me now, ME now!”
And, as goldfish swims in bowl,
cat looks on with danger fraught,
thinking, 'So near yet so far,
that fish is food for thought.'
she sits at the bar near chamberlain high school,
her nails chewed to nothing,
a lipstick smear on the rim of her glass.
the men orbit her like moths,
drawn to her heat,
but she keeps her eyes on the jukebox,
fingers twitching against
the lacquered wood.
there’s something inside her—
a scream buried too deep
or a wound sewn too tight.
she scratches at the edges,
but it won’t bleed,
won’t break.
just festers.
the bartender pours her another,
and she drinks it fast,
chasing a man she’ll never catch.
I scribble, scrabble, scratch and scrawl
Squiggly words on walls down the hall
I am a scribe, and I must write
Sentences flowing out of sight
Some people might not be able to comprehend
My ideas are pushing and prodding me to begin
I have a pencil or pen in my hand every day.
Almost every moment is grand, writing is play.
Into the edge of adrift
time shrinks as the glowing
spectrum pans and shifts
i want to feel friendly with
the screen again
i want to feel the fuzzy static
embrace me
like arms made of out dozens
of freshly hatched chickadees
warm around my chest
like jet addled water
outside the leaves flutter
like channels in the airways
its getting dark earlier in the day
i want to like watching movies
again
so i watch them more than once
it feels like sin, like a scratch on a disc
skipping through limited screentime
just to reconnect
with actors and good direction
i don't want to turn it off but yet i
see the faint gloam of my own reflection
To the soul, death is only a tickle.
This life is an hors d'oeuvre to a heavenly buffet.
Somebody sprinkled poison on half the plates
, and therein lies the monumental problem.
NO exact
measurement
will do
because
my Poetry is truly
immeasurable
sometimes
heartbreaking
other times
pleasurable.
You definitely
want to
Start with passion
mix it with loss
a dash of pain
from her deceit
with
a pinch or two
of how
I paid the cost.
Blend in tears
we wouldn't want
it to be
D R Y
toss that together
with all the
hundreds
of Times I asked
her WHY?!?
Poetry needs to sit
i n s i d e and Rise.
each new batch is a
Learning experience
and bound to make
You W I S E
©SamHarty
All over is the same,
we scratch each other's, that is the game.
We kill logic, hard truth, wisdom and opinion,
we don't feel any shame.
We break our conscious like a horse
and live like a lame.
(11.08.2023)
Remember what now you forget.
The days we've spent together
and that will never come back.
Remember all the laughs
and talking we had in the park,
listening to the birds in Spring,
listening to ourselves in all the seasons.
Remember about the days we used to make love without talking,
and the days we used to talk without making love.
The wind whistling on the windows, in front of our bedroom, while we were embraced in that poor apartment.
How poor we were those years
with nothing but love?.
The wind blew too strong for us that got us apart because we were living on a scratch.
After many years, life took us to another level.
We are not much richer now, but are missing each other.
Different lives, different countries, but a feeling coming alive from the same heart.
Nothing but love, nothing but laughs, both embraced, nobody richer than us,
keeping those unforgettable years. Nobody can delete that.
Illustrious
Phantom
You chase
My desire
For satisfaction
As I chase you
Hither and thither
Like the rainbow's end
Always just out of reach
Escalating intensity or just
A trick of the cruel mind
Dancing across my skin
Infiltrating my sanity
As a ghostly feather
Until I find your
Illusive hiding
Place
Ahh
You end up
Enjoying and loving it so much
You are willing to
Scratch away
And lick at it
Like Catnip
Chocking you on furr ball's
Stuck permanently in your throat
Like the worst kind of chest infected phlegm
You will never forget always remember
Like people of old who used to smoke coughed
The way one day you may yourself
End up as well
If you don't heed the warning signs
Everywhere
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