Short Briefcase Poems

What's a 'proper job'?
Suit, tie, briefcase, paperwork?
One that makes you smile......

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To care for a child
  demands sacrifice
Whatever the need
  to respond in a trice

For those with ambitions
  seeking kudos and noise
Please fill your briefcase
  with businessmen's toys...

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SMART ALECK
Smugly
Ugly

CRAZY MINION
Wacky
Lackey

CRAMMED BRIEFCASE
Obese
Valise

GOOD FRIEND
Lover
Cover

BAR-HOPPING
Beaver
Fever

written September 4, 2021...

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no one around here
ever sees it coming
everything happens
behind our eyes

hear the crackling
briefcase in a furnace
everything happens
behind our eyes

sit down beside me
and kill the radio
everything happens
behind our eyes...

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Briefcase for bottled love
Contains a combination 
A code of consciousness
He walks gallantly down the hall
Swinging his arms by his side
And I hear the rattling within
I can only craft its contents in my mind
Because I don’t possess the permutation...

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A briefcase full of sorrow…
  the hiding place of tears

One trade to end all others
   excuse to lie and steal

The papers hide the story
  all documents in vain

As grief belies the glory
  —of a life that deals in pain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)...

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The Doc strode in, looking quite grim
   'The results of your physical just came in
It's my duty to tell you this straight to your face.'

Suppressing a sigh, he opened a briefcase
   'Sir,' he smiled. 'All the test results show
      ~ Your heart's in the right place!'...

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Listen to poem:

Your briefcase sits beside the water can
(long dry memento of ivy, coleus, 
and more exotic plants which perished 
under your patient, watchful care.)
Not good at growing greenery,
on paper you construct imaginary jungles, 
weep watery tears when they wither
beneath your critical eye....

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Blood clings to my face, my heart starts to race
Couldn't grab my mace, I thought you were my Ace
Nothing looked out of place, inside I pace
I wore my lace ,you left without a trace
You threw a glass vase , I’m in outer space
Why the briefcase? And why did we embrace?






4-30-17
Alexis Y....

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I stand on a city street
Wind blowing in my hair
There is a silence
and I am wondering 
if anyone is there
I run to the corner 
with a shiver down my spine
I look around the bend
knowing there is no time
There's a worried look on my face
carrying this old briefcase
As I look up and down the streets 
on this wild goose chase...

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Such a present! I teared up and smiled.
As exams in my briefcase I piled,
a young girl handed me
snowflakes cute as could be
that she made--this sweet special-needs child.


December 15, 2022
Contest: A December Memento     Placed 1st
Sponsor: Andrea Dietrich


January 10, 2023
Bite Size Poem Contest no. 59
Sponsor: Line Gauthier...

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Birds of Paradise
 

As you move toward the door
to open it so I may leave
I notice how your Levis cage
 
the anacondas of your thighs.
One more move like that, I say,
and I’ll toss my briefcase to the floor
 
and bring you yipping to the couch
and kiss your breasts until they rise
like startled Birds of Paradise.
 
Donal Mahoney...

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Bustling old fella dashing biddly bop by dressed to the nines
with briefcase stuffed under his arm equipped with fixed maniacal grin jabbering to himself while confirming his expressions
to an equally jazzed and jaunty westie he calls Ralph trailing exuberantly behind
let's me know that there are actually still some living beings out there
to learn from...

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The small hippopotamus

Has taken his grandmother's glasses,

Has taken his father's hat and scarf,

And a portfolio his uncle's briefcase.

He put all of the clothing on himself,

          Picked up the briefcase, 

has looked in a mirror,

Has scratched his own snub-nosed nose 

and said, "Well, now I am grown up!"

("Well, now I am an adult!)...

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THE ALARM CLOCK GOES OFF
ANOTHER DAY
I AM UP
QUICK SHOWER 
COFFEE TOAST AND EGG
TWO TYLENOL
BLUE BUTTONED-DOWN SHIRT
NEW BLUE AND RED STRIPPED TIE
BRIEFCASE AND KEYS
MEETINGS AND PHONE CALLS
LUNCH WITH BILL AND JOE
MORE 
MEETINGS AND PHONE CALLS
QUICK DRINK AT CLANCY'S
QUICK DINNER 
SETTLE DOWN TO TV  
TWO TYLENOL
THEN OFF TO BED

NEVER TO AWAKE

THE ALARM CLOCK GOES OFF
ANOTHER DAY
WITHOUT ME...

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"give this,
one blood stained
word scrawled
on a stretch of
swine flesh.
call it "soul"
& sacrifice the known
to see it become
whole for one
fainting second
& shown
the surface undone,
completed in its
ever revolving
cycle towards
the center."
& he'll stand
& stretch & close
his briefcase
& he'll turn around
to go & you'll swear
that you saw the
light for just
one second....

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I can’t live without you
The situation is naïve to do
But better to let go on things
The briefcase is ready, leave quietly.

Loosing you is a different part
We have lot of memories from the start
All things bright and seems very easy to me
The only difference is to wake up each rainy Sunday

When the autumn appears
You are always here
We’re supposed to hang on
But to think that you're not the one...

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You promised you would pick us up and  waited.

Feeling  we don't matter  was stated.

Drinking was more important the pain is my reminder.

 

The priest handed you a glass.

Was supposed to be at mass.

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way.

 

You had gone  to the paddock.

Mother had cooked potluck.

And sleeping you mumbled curses.

 

Those memories creep up on me.

I carry them in my briefcase.

Mr Clean doesn't work there....

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They sat him down
In a chair
In a large office
With a gorgeous window
With a fabulous view
And they sent in
One
Only one
That sole representative
Took from their briefcase
A roll of red tape
Flimsy looking
Transparent in places
Red tape
Legally strengthened
With barbs
Then the representative
Beat him
Viscously
With the red tape
And his vision fell
Sliced and compromised
Gasping for breath
Exhausted
Thrashed
Neutralised...

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The stone hero floats across the lawn,
   approaching nonentity with drawn
                    leather briefcase.

Interpreting an after-dinner pause,
   quietly admires a lady's claws
                   and perfect face.

A starving hope can be revealing,
   her shattered glance up to the ceiling,
                  her throat in lace.

The power-crystal is just salt
   and he can tell it's not her fault
                  she lost the race....

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This vexing pencil in turgid fingers I gracelessly hold
  Sorcerer's lead conjures up casuistic captions, fools' gold

My peripatetic purple pen winks at my commands
  Dancing to a distant drummer on sun-scorched parchment sands

A cunning keyboard mocks me, in cast-iron briefcase locked
  Contrarian bent, loaded for bear, at my Muse pointed and cocked

What with erasers missing and forever low on toner ink
  It's a wonder the poetic process has not driven me to drink!...

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No one knows about the bear.
No one hears him talk to it
of stock market shifts, or corporate strategy
as he travels.
He calls the bear, Michael,
and keeps it in his briefcase.
He is thinking of acquiring a little girl doll.
Secretly he imagines caring for her,
but he is not sure how Michael
will feel about that.
A businessman's life is not easy -
meetings and conferences,
endless details.
Gray streaks at his temple.
He knows he should delegate more,
and Michael agrees....

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Headed from Sacramento to Chicago,                                                                                          
I inadvertantly left a knife
in my on-board brifecase.

Airport security found the knife,
and I was completely surprised.

No, I was not detained.
Yes, they kept the knife.

In this fearful terrorizing age,
surely, I would be arrested.

It happened prior to 2001.

03082018 PS Contest, 10 Lines, 5 words 111, Laura Loo, 4P
5 words per line; 10 lines...

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LOVE SIGNS

The husband sat beside his wife
That woman-- passion of my life
Her eyes were lowered but their shine
Betrayed her mind saw us entwined
She took a pen in her white hands
Caressed the length, across black bands
Brought the  tip near to her lips
Her tongue flicked out --the pinkest whip
And I, a pen from briefcase took
Swiftly bit it--her  legs shook
And so across the room we loved
But never from his side she  moved.
A  pen, so small,  a simple thing
became accomplice of our fling...

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