Self-Portrait with My Shoebill Friend as We Rebrand Spirituality
This time,
Janice is wearing a priest collar
and I’m the altar.
She hisses when I open my Notes app
during communion,
calls me a heretic
for spellchecking my trauma.
I tell her my whole personality
is based on being misquoted.
She says no, babe. It’s based on needing
a witness and a warning sign.
Then she bites the rim off my coffee cup
and whispers the
...
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Categories:
self portrait, extended metaphor, identity, myth,
Form: Free verse
Self-Portrait with My Shoebill Friend at the End of the World
It’s Sunday,
and I’m drawing myself again,
third time this week.
This version features a haunted air fryer,
a coupon for free emotional labor,
and Janice—
the shoebill, wearing my ex’s hoodie
and threatening the moon.
She’s perched
on a folding chair I stole from a church basement,
clutching a Slim Jim like a relic.
Her breath smells like copper wiring and vengeance.
She doesn’t blink.
She’s
...
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Categories:
self portrait, analogy, bird,
Form: Free verse
Self-Portrait with Flightless Bird
I gave myself the body
of a secretary bird—
long legs like accusations,
a face too sharp for comfort.
But wings? I borrowed
from a taxidermied dodo:
soft, irrelevant,
stitched to the wrong century.
In the background,
a sky I did not earn.
In the foreground,
a foot poised to crush a snake
that looks suspiciously like me.
...
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Categories:
self portrait, bird, self,
Form: Free verse
Self Portrait
You’re only as good as your last.
—my spine, mid-fold
I enter a contest
like I enter most rooms:
looking for sound no one’s made yet.
I don’t chase strange—
not all weird is created equal.
Once I find it though—
the mirror says submit
the mask says edit
the stage says nothing,
but still demands presence.
I wrap my fear of not-enough
in a metaphor so elaborate
it
...
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Categories:
self portrait, self, writing,
Form: Free verse
Self Portrait
Unpredictable and volatile--
morose and quiet one moment,
he is laughing heartily just after a while
at whatever excited his mirth,
his high thin loud laugh strange
from a person with a grave mien.
He would often be in deep thought,
as if engaged in contemplation
of a philosophical question.
You’d think he is not given to humor,
but know him well and
...
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Categories:
self portrait, fantasy, introspection, me, philosophy,
Form: Bio
Categories:
self portrait, art,
Form: Footle
SELF PORTRAIT: APROPOS OF A FLASHBACK
I'm a dark-hued poetic mind
Writing mine:
Inking navel keloid words
Water-broken
From pregnant
...
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Categories:
self portrait, allegory, creation, extended metaphor,
Form: Free verse
Self Portrait
"Self Portrait"
My Picasso pro
Boscis only
Knows
Pinocchio
Lighthearted
Lies laying in cubis
Tic
Isms
Of truth
...
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Categories:
self portrait, art,
Form: Free verse
ART of SELF PORTRAIT id ego REVEALED
not
a reflection
or
a picture of perfection
So,what is my goal?
merely a sur-real
glance
into the looking-glass
of
my soul
with id & ego
...
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Categories:
self portrait, art,
Form: Bio
Self Portrait
In the drawing.
Flat paper on the coffee table.
I’m in it.
Crayons? Markers?
Shaking in my hands.
Sadness confined to a rectangle.
My mom looks over and wonders.
I’m not crying, it’s just marker on paper, see?
I like to draw tears.
And myself, no one else is allowed.
I don’t cry in real life.
I’m not annoying like that.
When she calls me down for
...
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Categories:
self portrait, depression,
Form: Free verse
I WRITE
if I am unwell
bring me parchment where I lie
if I do not answer
put a quill in my hand
my lines will speak for me
the ink will form the thoughts
from emotions that fill my head
I beg you decipher the strokes
that I attempt to write simply
but if the markings seem like riddles
make sense of the whole
by embracing the
...
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Categories:
self portrait, age, art, emotions, passion,
Form: Free verse
Sartorial Self Portrait
bomber jacket, dark glasses
blown out hair,
faded jeans that fit me slim,
brown leather belt and shoes,
a dangling cigarette between lips,
is how I would fancy look!
Reality is something else,
and what I look is more like this…
A T shirt straight out of wash,
never seen the underside of iron,
crumpled to show how the machine spins!
trousers broad fit that
...
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Categories:
self portrait, clothes, cute love, deep,
Form: Free verse
Sartorial Self Portrait Poetry Contest
What's this we have here?
Second hand?
No, worn out? Eco friendly.
Sure, the color's fading some
But for the grade
It's not too spendy
And it's versatile
Though it doesn't change
Not affected much by where it hangs
Around
Been through the wash a couple times
So I bet if you take it down
You'll find the fiber's tough
Despite the gentle feel
Threaded thick enough to warm
...
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Categories:
self portrait, character, clothes, cool, environment,
Form: Rhyme
Sartorial Self Portrait
Solid denim
torn at the knee
dark hues of cotton
comfortable as can be
tears from the loving
of horses' gentle pull
stains where
children's hearts were full
A hint of reds
purples and greys
eclectic and simple
depends on the day
Easy the flow
strong are the seams
a small touch of color
smell of lavender when cleaned
Fancy it's not
though dribbles of strife
wares of this wardrobe
express a simple life.
...
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Categories:
self portrait, clothes, color, i am,
Form: Rhyme
Sartorial Self Portrait
[()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()][()]
Ex Hotelier hangs I, We've Vacancies,
closet not quite empty, merely absentees,
the clothes that sort out--hang like memories,
...
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Categories:
self portrait, analogy,
Form: Sonnet
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