Short Chattel Poems

Poor Jack ran a futile race
couldn’t keep up the heated pace
	lost the battle
	someone’s chattel
now he has a Halloween face...

Read More

Fate held, unkind to breast
amnesty's heart, thine to rest

tomorrow, unknown chattel
hope, stands alone in battle

forgiveness, yours
from love's ladle, pours

another stolen day, borrows
eyes keen, our tomorrows...

Read More

People bought and sold as chattel
   Considered no more than cattle
   This still goes on today, you see
   In markets we are told are free

   The difference being that the slave
   once bought and sold for a fee
   is now free to sell his services 
   then slave away ~ a new employee...

Read More

the road to slavery shall die
this Profitable enterprise
so full of lies
someone's property or human chattel
chained in the belly of the slave ships,
side-by-side
chained by feet and chained by hands
where
the rights of men denied
Lord, we curse the vipers, 
the maggots and the Flies...

Read More

Sitting at the bar
Looking like a wall flower
Little do they know the darkness
Hiding beneath my innocent smile
I sit here like a predator
Slowly watching people milling along
Like small prey waiting to be picked off
Separated and devoured
Crushed like the insignificant chattel they are...

Read More

Her name is not given in the Bible
which is perhaps fitting as she was chattel
and Lot named not his goats, sheep or cattle,
although it was rumored that he named his dog.
Besides, it was raining when she turned looking
back on Sodom and was turned to salt, which
all too soon, was one with the earth....

Read More

Half of a woman
for devouring man
is not the way nature planned 
for me to live
belonging like chattel
each day I battle
against the culture
that destroys me
and gather like vultures
ready to dissect
and probe 
and look
and feel
Each day I reflect
of how I am scarred
they dissipated my sex
and my future is charred....

Read More

Horrific News

The horror of dreams
Crashing and causing me flight
I saw him fall
Like the crashed plane

I had a hope
That of waking up
In blinking of an eye
The horror of reality

Men dressed in foggy
Singing an unknown elegy
His face upside turned
In his only chattel

Adieu Amis curiae
A tragedy without raison d'être...

Read More

Climb mountains! 
Slay Dragons! 
That's what I did 
When I was a kid 
Now it's too much 
All this grownup stuff 
Amalgamations 
Corporations 
Business-like murder 
          under the guise of merger 
Micro-second chattel battles 
          waged on computer panels 
Flash before my eyes 
In a plate glass high-rise 

Now 

all my mountains are made of paper, and 
all my dragons wear ties...

Read More

oh, this grinding surge
roaring into battle,
how the air is filled
with the sabre rattle;
how the sky is blacked
by fires in their burning,
how the townships sacked
by counter-strikes returning;
how the guns and shells
through the air are streaming,
how the tolling bells
bleed into the screaming;
oh, the fight for land, 
conflicts over chattel,
how the days are spent
in slaughtering the cattle....

Read More

The dreary chattel of self-preservation 

blinks slowly under a roof of delusion;

a vacancy sign laced with the angst

of neon's persuasion.

Everyone leans a little too far,

toward a mahogany mantle;

suffering the harsh taste of

tomorrow's guilt.

But tonight,

they are free.

Tonight they pour 

their love into frosted 

glass,

and drown. 

-James Kelley 2014, All rights reserved....

Read More

Guiled movement. A warrior's ballet.
Wiled traps confusing choice play.
Battle simulator, test of war.
Chattel, pieces. Sixteen, no more.
Tool used for general and king.
Fool recused, no victory to bring.
Equate life, game played terminally.
Satiate strife, rife with strategy.
Take care when proficiency is met.
Wake caution. Avoid cunning net.
Truly dangerous. Prediction a guess.
Duly acts, a man who plays chess.

-Angel Fatale-...

Read More

We, the citizenry as a whole, cannot successfully coexist peacefully. Family units, as a whole, cannot exist peacefully. Isn’t it hypocritical to expect more than we can do, from world leaders, The same as us, except for rank. Until they feel the pain, and suffering, of those they govern, they will continue to sacrifice lives, and create hardships in others, in the name of righteousness, as easy as cutting chattel, from the seemingly never ending stalks of wheat....

Read More

found out how he faired
in a way which made him scared
still his soul was spared

what i want to stress
must be sure that style of dress
always will impress

for beer had a thirst
then ended up being cursed
another beer nursed

had been big battle
what would we do with chattel
herd up like cattle

we shall plant each seed
grow food so that we can feed
those who are in need

amount has increased
we were hungry like a beast
on food we will feast...

Read More

Lot’s wife, Noah’s wife, John’s wife.
Who invented the internet?
Don’t say Hedy Lamarr.
Name someone else.
If it was a woman, no one will care.

Not the girls in the audience?
What girls?
You know. The other half of the population.
Good grief! We should not have even given them the vote.

Next thing you know they will want to be put
into the history and science books.
Especially if it is that time of the month.
Let’s do what we can to keep them chattel.

Sounds good to me....

Read More

THE AWAKENING

It was midnight that I laid still
and breath had filtered down
An open book - a nagging fly
will wait for me until

bestirred at morning’s knock
when stoves excite a brew
and housewives stir a door
toward sunrise bursting through -

to heaven like a broom
sweeping eyelids like a fan
and chattel and dust balls
like billiards across the room -

that wake the inner chambers
of my brain i separate stalls
that conjure up my daily tasks
within these slumbered walls...

Read More