Short Charlatan Poems

a charlatan is born every minute
a thinker
surrenders...

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web of pure evil
black widow,oh charlatan
picturesque view of...

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promising the moon
and more
the charlatan



AP: Honorable Mention 2022

Posted on August 20, 2018...

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Hedonism echoed
every pore of charlatan
bleeding illusion
mirage of grooves of magic
rode hollow soul to the black hole....

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Was Sam a charlatan
or was he inexplicably overly-honest?
Weirdly half felt he was a charlatan
A third felt he was inexplicably too honest
The rest did not think of him at all
Choosing to live their own lives...

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A hot air sauntered day, of early June
scalding sun smeared in salty sweat,
tears drenched a ground that  afternoon
on which you laid on ice, still in death.
A cold charlatan summer,  I'll never forget




6th May 2019...

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gilded servant
hyperbolic purveyor
sculpting truth

liberal spender
filthy lucre
licentious gain

promoting freedom
curtailing liberties
accruing power

crafting bills
self-serving pork instills
bankrupts nation's till...

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The only single truth i know
beyond a fact

Is i lived my life as a charlatan 
and a habitual liar

And when i die if nothing else
i wish to be treated accordingly

Otherwise i will die knowing the
only truth i told was meaningless...

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Grammar school speculators
charlatan math
trading the currency
of borrowed youth
optioning the investment
in forsaken dreams
hedging their futures
with diminished returns
margining interest
—that will never compound

(Radnor School Board: February, 2021)...

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A Russian Mystic Outré

Mystical-Strannik  
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
A charlatan to many
A prophet to some.

His hypnotic effect
Incomprehensible
His eyes uncanny
A saint to none.

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
July 18, 2018 (Double Dactyl)...

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An empty voice with naught to say,
a barrel hollow born

To spout and spew, pontificate,
a hairless sheep forlorn 

With lines recopied, often stole,
released, his name to bear

A charlatan of spoken verse
—embezzled words to share

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2020)...

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The dream
broken down in immature time
with puzzling notices;

Never I was negative
Positive is truth veins

They make enigmatic all loyalty
Their all fidelity to God as detestable scaffold

But it's true
I was never with their charlatan truth
where they inflamed a vindictive hellfire
for antagonism desire! 


-Wednesday, July 24, 2019 Chattogram...

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"The Owl of Minerva takes flight before night is about to fall" - Hegel

No charlatan - this Hegel
character
    His words bespoke 
clarity and change
     Seeing the world 
through a fine perception
  He laid our history before us 
      Great creativity is 
coming to the U.S. 
     Before it falls
reach out for the brass ring 
Watch the dance 
   with clear eyes 
Don't weep
  UNDERSTAND!...

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Life Mistake Were Many In Silence Wrung

I got married a child and far to young
With no life experience, seasons stung
Charlatan future sticking out its tongue
Pretending life was a concert that swung
Son born full piss and vinegar I clung
Then one day my prince came when my head hung
He sang songs unsung and the chain lock sprung
To feel, think, love, in arms I was among

Life Mistake Were Many In Silence Wrung

6/27/2016...

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Self Depreciating 
Flagellate 
Popularity 
Feigning craving approval 
A path to Institutionlised acceptance 
Rising to the next level
Free of the title working class
The fabric cloth cut from
A sell out a Charlatan 
For the Man to prey upon
What is a boy without a soul
A rich man
Who when fails 
Is hung out to dry
On blacksmith's nail's 
Hoping his old friends 
Will forgive and forget
Given the choice 
He pretended he outgrew...

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That ever elusive continuum
Which one thinks shall be, is suddenly now, and then has been already
Consistent, precise, and measurable
Beware the charlatan
Who sprints and creeps with equal ease
Lunged after but never held
You escaped once more 
And then dispersed like the morning mist
Insensitive, indifferent and undeterred
Unconcerned about pain or pleasure
Rude and fickle and frugal
Friend or foe
Is it worth asking
What are you to me?...

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Completely confused
I don't remember inviting you in
yet there you stood
a seductive charlatan
so smug and cocky
taking charge of my life.

With twisted words
you wove a strangling web
from which I hung in false hope
awaiting the fulfillment of empty promises.

I gave you everything
even that which wasn't mine to give
and you rewarded me
with a lingering fear of uncertainty
a hopelessness so deep
that only death could bring relief....

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Erstwhile was my eye blind
To your most pristine shine,
Which best scans eschews
With a graceful guiling sign. 

Yet now may my pupil sight
Your wondrous doings espy,
Which men's erudition mock
With wisest strategem high.

Most sterling sense I salute
In your ageless infinite trails,
Which world's charlatan wits
Shame as brazen lying tales.

Invincible light at last I find 
Cached in your lasered writ,
Which does all sciences' ink
Render mere deluding crypt....

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The Imitators

He has worked in the garden of poetry
Forty years gone.
The soil is meagre and the plants are eaten
By boars, they applaud him with grunts.

To find the roots and transplant them on a page
Or in the garden of literature, is not easy.
The gardener is famed for his genius or a charlatan
Of rose bushes.

Truth rears its ugly head, there are doubters
Who will not be silent, he knows when his plant’s
Has been purloined.
Better than not be read at all....

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