If you want
To go out
Have a drink
Shake a leg
Take a bet
Take a chance
Win or lose
Have a dance
I don't really care
I don't care
All that much
Come and go
it - so?
Have a run
Getting fit
I don't really
Give a...
What do you want
Do you know
Please yourself
Let it - go
Take a risk
Feet first
Jump right in
Bubble - burst
If you think about, how you live your life
What do you want to leave behind?
I want to see the world, I want to know that I
Did the very best that I could
I pissed myself
I'm getting old
It was warm
It went - cold
Do you love?
Is that enough?
Are you the one?
I think I'm done.
(This poem is dedicated to sertraline)
Up-and-at-‘em
Hop to!
Shake a leg, son
You’ve what to do
Feed the cattle
Plant the crops
Keep an eye
on Mom and Pop
Help your wife
with your kids
Once you took
Now you give
Light will fade
Darkness rise
What’s in-between
is compromise
Before Duke shakes a leg, he sniffs around
Some doggies chase squirrels like Harry the hound
Sparky crying mutt
Says he’ll bust his gut
Begs for more pee-trees in the park playground
You should see us move to the beat
with Ciara in the driving seat.
She’s on the stage ready to rock
as on us older ladies she takes stock.
To join our club you have to be
over fifty years old you see.
Our local council’s ideology
To have us interacting socially.
The music is the magic key.
It’s from that time we were
Young and care free.
Be it country and western
or rock and roll we shake a leg
and have a ball.
Ciara’s enthusiasm has us enthralled.
Her playlists and encouraging calls.
She wants us too to sing out loud.
As we kick and step and twirl around.
If there are fitness facility awards
Ciara and Fitness LK deserves applause.
Like an omelette I am cheesy and I tell some hammy jokes
When I flip it to the punchline I don't always land the yolks
I scramble at the thought of keeping it farm fresh
Cracking under pressure like a shell in place of flesh
Whenever I look way up, I can see the sunny side
That can be exhausting and I really feel fried
Sometimes it comes overeasy, not to say they've never spoiled
Still breaking if you drop em' even if they are hard boiled
Maybe I can make you queasy if I'm being really raw
So I will never claim to be totally free range of flaw
Hope this hasn't been too runny, and a laugh or two I've poached
If so I'll take, shake it, bake it for the time I have encroached
Next time you're feeling beaten, just whisk it up aways
Turn up the heat, add some spice before starting the hollandaise
Not to nag or rag or beg, but crack a yolk and shake a leg
To be a fun egg or a pun egg or just a damn great egg
June 11, 2023
Thought spirals endless come and go
What’s it to do with us
We’re blissful in staid stillness slow
Why for would we make fuss
Save us, save us, we beg
Come now, be a good egg
To bliss beats, shake a leg
They scar blissfulness
Thought spirals endless
24-April-2022
Quietus
Which came first, chicken or the egg
Thought flux paralysis
Dance with joy, time to shake a leg
Such is our prognosis
Desire seeking object
Ego intent suspect
Merge, becoming subject
Our heart’s thirst
Which came first
14-September-2021
Quietus
it started twenty-six years ago
in a twisted, cramped recast
bathroom
the sun's rays would perforate
from the right hand side
window
at first there were no
implements, neither a
zither
it was just shake a leg
shimmering by the bed
stuff
and not knowing if it
would be punctuated by
taxpayers
things began to change
minacious, more from the
heart
a clamorous insistence
discovered an obligatory
blowhole
and playing air guitar
in my room with an air mic
floating
pretending to be someone else
"Eeny, meany, miney, moe"
"We all fall down and go boom"
"Oops a daisy" and "Shake a leg"
And my favourite, "Silly baboon"
Heard 'em all a million times over
Oh to go back to those days
Just to experience the fun again
The oh so simple games we played
Not a solitary care in this old world
We'd come in for lunch and dinner
Then off we'd go exploring again
After all, we were just beginners
Experiencing new things every day
Like skipping rocks on the pond
The joys of the world were around us all
It was like waving a magic wand
It's really too bad we have to grow up
Do serious adult like things
I'd much rather travel way back in time
And jump and skip and sing
Lazy-bones, forsake your bed!
Shake off dull sloth, rise from the dead!
On the bridge of Avignon
there is dancing. Join the fun!
Ye gold-laden, ye who beg,
off to that bridge and shake a leg!
Young men dance with dash and vigour,
old men cut a less bold figure.
A priest and soldier back to back
flash their colours, red or black.
To the sprightly, to the lame
the piper's call is just the same.
Will you dance or will you nay,
all must dance, come end of day.
Would you care
to dance with me?
I'll let you
take the lead
Let's trip the lights
fantastic
Let's do...
The foxtrot,
the jive
there's something
in the air
that makes me want to
break into a jig with
you!
Shake a leg with me!
(Yalto)
"Yalto" is a form invented by yours truly
Line 1-15: 3,4,2,4,5,3,2,3,2,3,3,5,6,1,5
Dance With Me Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Kim Rodrigues
Date written: 03/12/2020
~ The night's alive and a-shiver ~
The moon's a sliver
a hammock without strings
a pale banana with wings
The night's alive and a-shiver
Just you and me on a musical spree
hitting the clubs, dancing up a storm
sleek in our costumes, displaying fine form
Doing the splits cross the floor, spread-kneed
The hour grows late, but what do we care
feeling boundless energy nearly exploding
at midnight we drink a toast to re-loading
Ahead of us lay new and brave dares
Tick-tock, one o'clock; it is already two
Our hearts are still young, but our feat feel weary
We retreat to a corner, vision somewhat bleary
So we sing Auld Lang Syne and down a few...
Brrrrrriiiing goes the alarm. 6 am. Can it be?
Time to shake a leg, get out ahead of the day
The music and dancing yet whirling in our heads
We turn off the blinking alarm, and go back to bed
Up, up, up you go. Shake a leg. Out you go, lazybones
-- Aw, come on. Linger a bit longer. It's so comfy under the covers...
No! Don't listen to him! You've got places to go, people to meet. Get a move on!
-- Relax! What's the rush? When you're 97, what will five more minutes matter?
It matters now. And it'll matter then too! You've already scheduled some appointments. Your word is on the line here, you know...
-- Hey, don't panic! Anyone who won't grant you five more measly minutes
is no friend of yours!
You've really got a choice here: You can be your own boss, or you can be
forever henpecked
-- Yeah, yeah, yeah: Your enemies always trot out the same old tired canards
*******************
You're not hyper, naive, foolish or just plain 'chicken'
-- Don't ever let the devil's false, phony narrative kick in
When I write you a letter, you had better reply!
All the time it eats up isn't easy to come by.
Do you think that I've got nothing better to do
Than to squander myself on a wastrel like you?
Why can't you get off of your fat derriere?
My urgency here leaves me no time to spare.
Your many excuses and the way you delay
Just fill me with ennui and a ton of dismay.
Hey, how many more times must I grovel and beg
You to find a good sitter and then shake a leg?
Get yourself to the bank and secure a big loan
Then transmit it to me so my mistress won't moan.
She has much on her mind since I landed in jail,
And I gotta get back, so I need to post bail.
Then we'll flee to Havana on an overnight barge
And I'll write you again once we start livin' large.
Well shut my mouth you honey bee,
y’all come round for gab an tea
At end of day, when all’s bout done,
lain in the hay we’ll have some fun
Gurt deep we’ll think and spin a pun,
shake a leg, you son of a gun
Well I’ll be damned to hell and back,
now you’ve got me on the rack
Your bright ideas, they come in shoals,
and drag me o’er the cruel hot coals
A slap in the belly with a cold white fish;
cross your fingers make a wish
Now you’ve got the cuffs on me, count
your blessings, one, two, three
Colloquially speaking, life can be cruel;
you won’t catch me, playing the fool.
Written for contest Colloquiallisms, 3/7/15
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