Shambled Poems | Examples

A Haunting in Alabama

I found you. 

From the floorboards, to the trunk, to the stairs, to my table, you shambled. Howling and bleeding. 


God, I had wanted so badly to recognize you.
To have some common ground with someone, even if it was just a ghost.

But, here we are.

You,
some memoir to a dead boy whose face is stretched so badly across the pain inside you.

And me, 
some sad survivor.

Diplomatic Dancing

I danced with an Alien
At the Diplomat’s Summer Ball
Though I’m not sure Dancing
Correctly described it at all.
A dancing partner with six feet
And thirty six naked toes?
Trying to be graceful while avoiding 
Kicking or stepping on any of those.

I’m not quite sure I appreciated
The appeal or the charm
Of dancing with a creature with
Tentacles instead of arms.
I was so grateful when
It mumbled its thanks 
Then wandered off to recharge
The gas in its breathing tanks.

Another one was waiting
To step up in its place
And I had to accept 
With a show of grace.
We mooched around in silence,
We shambled round and round,
As out Universal Translators
Had both totally broken down.

They say silence is golden
But it doesn’t help pass time
When your dancing partner
Exudes a green sweaty slime.
The next time I’ll throw a sickie
If I’m given the chance
Rather than be on duty at 
The Aliens Diplomatic Dance.

Diplomatic Dancing
A duty to avoid
But then life is boring
On our little asteroid Embassy
At least we’ve made progress 
We’re not the only sentient race
As we practice our Diplomacy
Here on the fringes of Outer Space

I Wandered Lonely As a Rose

I wandered lonely as a rose by Autumn's gate
as I lay there in still repose, petals strewn       
I fell apart like dessert moon; 

The scent that once perfumed my reign 
were mellowed by September's rain
I drifted distant in the woods. 

All my husks fell to the soil 
each petal dried right where it stood    
No gardener's hand of hue embroiled
that filament that quivered slow  
like dying embers of nights glow 

Shambled, windblown as the wind
beneath the last of summer's ray 
regretfully I did rescind 

As summer lost her fired splay 
I wandered, 
Lost and alone like a rose, 
until the end of summer froze.

New Mercies

I’m out here in the wilderness.
I’m baffled, Lord, and in distress.
My heart is downcast, troubled, gray:
O Lord, be merciful today.

At times like these, I’m far from you
That’s how I feel, though it’s not true.
I feel far off and gone astray:
O Lord, be merciful today.

I cannot seem to find the path.
Forgive me, Lord, and stay thy wrath.
My sin on me does heavy weigh:
O Lord, be merciful today.

Lord, if I’m honest, I’ll confess
My life’s a shambled, tattered mess.
Why does it have to be this way?
O Lord, be merciful today.

Yet in the morning, when I rise,
Dawn pierces me, I realize:
You always hear me when I pray.
Your mercies, new, greet every day.

----------

My first kyrielle, so have mercy on me :-)

She Broke Him

After breaking his heart,
His love turned into hate,
All that is left is her scent,
He let go of her sweetheart,
Though it's so hard to forget,
A love story came to naught.

Trembling with alot of fear,
While playing truth or dare,
Dreams vanished into thin air,
And left a trail of total despair,
Eyes open he could see clear,
A game that ended their affair.

It was a day the rainbow tumbled,
A time when the heavens rumbled,
The night their lovelight crumbled,
Feeling like his heart was brambled,
After his love letters were scumbled,
Walking home in argony he shambled.

                               © Kelmwa

One Foot Out of the Boat

ONE FOOT OUT OF THE BOAT
The white hotel! “Clinic”, slips behind his dragging coat and shambled shirt
He surprises himself once more; swallowing prescribed prescription freedom,
From who knows best for both of them?
It seems to be a mixture of minutes and many memories,
A steep prominence takes his breath, plus the breath taking view,
It sends him toxic, biting his hand for steady, but feels the red wetness seep through,
One hand in the water;
The suns morning is still, and bitter; in the finger chilling wind!
And seeing cloudy like; two reflections swept by, in a green pool held by drowned seaweed.
Tangled in nylon line, rusty hooked; held, trapped, and separated!
His home to the south west, painted in the glitter water is far;
The salted soup; of sand and shell fragments foam;
Painting the rocks, Washed up! Served relentlessly, each tidal day.
He continues on, in small, unsteady, dark foot-steps!
                        One foot out of the boat.

The Sky Was Blue That Day

That day was my last
It took my soul away
The sky turned dark
I was led astray.
The sky rained ashes and 
tears

I wiped my tears
as they ran down
my face. I spoke
the language of the
dead

The sky turned gray
The was sky black
My heart was broken
shambled and attacked

The sky whispered a tune
My soul left earth and sailed
to the moon.

The sky was gray that day
I learned that day 
I looked down and there
was my mom's grave.


The sky was blue that day,
 the sky took
 my mom away.

The Bridie Price of An Unfortunate Lady

THE BRIDIE PRICE OF AN UNFORTUNATE LADY
Quietly her love fathomed
The glittering incisor,
A puissant one unravished,
An aesthete affirmed.
Wide in comb of friend
A pilot stood aghast
In rapt marvel of a portrait.
With no joy of dislike he lust:
“I cheer a bride that loves my name;
Such that beckons cheerio in flight,
Behold her chuckling cheek
That calls a carcass alive.
Sir, mind me her love
And I shall yield gold for your care
This portrait moved me
I ogle her a wife”
In shambled voice of remorse
Thundered the hoary pa:
“This trophy of demise,
Here I pore over a piece of virtue and mourn.”
An artless astronaut sigh!
“I cherish her to the core!
And pay for such comeliness
And bids no wife alive.
An artist shall depict a jewel
And hang on my neck
In spirited honour and mourn;
I have her a myth than alive.”

Coming of Age On a Tiny Isle

coming of age on a tiny isle

my father reached out his hand to me and took my bag of marbles including my hand made "shooter" of red river clay hardened by fire and ground to roundness against a flat grainy rock
near perfect 
at least to me
even though it wobbled a bit in it's travels to capture the prize from Jeffy
my friend
my enemy
"it's time" was all my father said to me on my first day of being eight years old
my childhood was over
the old boat needed patching
fish needed scaling and gutting
shrimp needed to be shelled and cleaned
summer had started and the few people with money
shambled up to buy the daily catch
wrapped in paper

on this tiny island
this small sliver of sand and scrub
stood three shacks lived in for four generations
the mainland shimmered in the near distance and we knew that my father's calling would be the last of his kind
the far rich shore beckons to me 
and someday soon...

Supervention-Impunity Falls To I

Unleash your reign to only I, truth be wary of accost,
Many tyrants ripple kindly, though chilled I enflame the frost,
High Thronehood, I shatter thou, endorse the Chain of fallen veins, 
Gentle godhood now to falter, weep not for me, but for my blood, 
O’ wisdom boldly ravished he, he whom justice shambled there, 
Hostile military, flee! Humble thee within his snare,
Lastly, thou contract my heart, though my throne remains unloved,
As impunity falls to I, all souls blacken, now enclosed,

Jurisdiction of our thoughts, unattended is my Wrath,
Greatest knowledge of all men, leaveth such within my mind, 
Shower nothing but sore shame, for all life is now left parched,
Prophecies of holocaust riseth strong with vengeful blood.


-Craman Yyulus, HOTK Book 4

The Black Quandary

The black curls, oh the resemblance to the night

clings to her forehead, distraught,

like the spider's web shambled,

crooked,   rubbing the forehead like the harsh waters 

rubbing the grey stone, by the riverside.

Polishing it maybe, intriguing,

forlorn tales hit back, yet again

saying the clandestine, monotonous, words,

one by one, the whole nine yards.

Magic, Stealth, vigour, 

anonymous all the emotions,

wrapped in the grey blanket

to  the body to cover the bitter marks,

The black curls, congruence to the pain,

symmetrical to the thorns,

playing angles, all the way

Oh, these black curls falls the way

it did that day.

Conundrum, play.

Saints and Sinners

she woke me—
	I sprawled, numb, eyeing her ass
		sashay off to pee
then I sort of felt crass,
I mean, what was her name?

that’s when bells tolled
church herding its fold,
	well, they can have that fake shame,
		that organized ruse.

me?  I live as I please
like last night with this sleaze,
oh, head tender from booze …

	church Sunday?   on my day of rest,
	what’s-her-name still undressed?

then she shambled on back
with her bottle of Jack,
	so we each downed a shot
		to soothe the right spot
			while steeple bells rang
				and the gullible sang.

		let them waste Sunday—
	.		I won’t … okay?



October 27, 2016
Saints and Sinners Contest
Silent One

Tootle Lou - Adult Version

Tootle Lou met the gang at the McDonalds by the sea,
She shambled in with pants too big and stains for all to see.
We chewed and swallowed but never tasted,
Brain receptors craving stuff that Tootle Lou had wasted.

A carnal exchange that blew on a dime;
For that, it is true, she was always on time.
One after the other, our loads made our minds.
It was later in the decade that I opened the blinds.

Tootle Lou has a baby -- a spawn not of this earth:
Rings in her nose, unwashed hose, a pain she can't desert.
Come one, come all, and abuse her,
User after user.

Tootle Lou reads poetry -- her voice is smart and sad.
A pretty face lies buried in a made-up, phony fad.
No prince of old is coming to slay the Mongol hordes.
Tootle Lou is a friend in need, and no friend shall I abhor.

That day I came to need her, she was lost in powdered fluff.
Her eyes I'm sure they saw me, but her mind was in the rough.
Her perfumed arms I warmly held while lifting up her head.
My Tootle Lou was smiling.  My Tootle Lou was dead.

Stained Glass Mirror Girl 7777

something here
is not right when 
i breach into the
eye of your candy

what was once neatly 
furnished is now 
carelessly shambled
the sourness of it all
leads me to endlessly
leap

trust is melted quicksand
under the merciless sun
when it rises, the apex of descension
truly begins

Only One Theme

In the hushed forest a deathly silence prevailed
there was a ram shackled hut in the clearing
Three men stood in chains waiting their fate
with a bright flash the witchdoctor appeared

Cavernous of face and skeleton like body
he was a gruesome sight in his tattered rags
banging his villainous staff on the ground
he summoned the ghouls, witches and Zombies 

Capering around him clambering for fresh blood
they advanced on the hapless men undoing chains
first the ghouls had their feast on fresh meat
the witches grabbed the intestines and organs

The Zombies got what was left and reshaped it
forming new Zombies to haunt the local people
so very fearsome with their red flashing eyes
they shambled slowly in a disjointed fashion

For this night of Halloween they were free
to gather souls and turn them into the undead
to serve their evil master and follow his biding
until the first rays of sun send them to the grave

Shadow Hamilton

written 10/15/2013

contest Halloween poem contest only one theme

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