Short Cockeyed Poems

miss leading lovers
deceptively virulent
cockeyed pandemic

Brian Johnston
July 29, 2015...

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cockeyed pincushion
stabbed prickly but no blood
i admire you 

so puffed up and proud 
always ready for grandma
i poke you silly...

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When You See Me
“When you see me smile,
All I do is pile
The S*** from the dim
And from the dead within.

When you see me cry,
And people look at me cockeyed.
I feel like Superman
Breathing Krypton-oxide.”...

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The tornado came in roaring like a train full of thunder
How we escaped our house is a miracle, an absolute wonder.
It was sitting cockeyed, torn off its foundation.
But we were alive, and full of complete jubilation....

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   Hillel the Sage proffers this commonplace
     for the entirety of the human race 
   Never judge your friend
     until you’ve ‘been in his place’

   So, open the door and see what’s inside
     Does tranquility prevail
       or is something cockeyed

   In you, dear reader, I shall confide
    Folks oft remind me of Jekyll and Hyde

...

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I don't suppose
the white hums of summer
will ever out strum the blues;

but here before me,
two colors mingle
in polite harmony-
spouting about
like versed chums
over black coffee

so why do I stand here,
all cockeyed
and bashful
in these careful shades of yellow,
mulling over red
and its poignant way 
of bruising my heart
a callous hue of indigo...

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Children used to play games outside
like hide-and-seek and tag; you're it.
And no one ever stayed inside,
always active, no time to sit.
We fought in fields
with swords and shields.

Today, everything is cockeyed,
I, for one, don't like it a bit.
Computers connect kids worldwide,
but those friendships are counterfeit.
You lose so much
when friends can’t touch....

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Long, winding gravel driveway
  decrepit old Mercury station wagon
    parked there
    doors unlocked
    those big red buttons
    sticking up
     no seatbelts either
Tiger lilies blooming
  all-at-once, on  
  either side
  of the gravel
A few years later
  a cockeyed backboard
  appeared on a tree
    supporting an
    uneven, rickety
    basketball rim

Winters we spent shoveling snow...

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cockeyed mice played saxophones at the table
anyway, the loudest one does, the other we call Mable.
they scurry around as fast and far as they are able
stealing from the kitchen, the laundry room and stable.

cockeyed mice love to dance, dart, wiggle and sing.
we see them running in the corners of everything
there is screaming sometimes as they dash and zing.
the soft spoken mouse goes by the name of Wing....

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With flaming lips and fingertips
casting words of cockeyed quips
behind a face powdered in white
preys a jackyll with teeth that bite

rouge on cheeks, evil guile at play
opened bottles of rich pouilly fume'
fruit of the vine, wine more devine
than one who waits for you, supine

Painted brows and charcoaled eyes
don't be fooled by a gender disguise
a fool you are if you fall for this villain
party girl who seems more than willin'...

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Never Give Up


There was a green frog on his lily pad
A big duck came beside him and said, Lad
I'm hungry and fading out
Amid a full-hearted shout,
"I'm a rare frog!" Duck said, "Yummy I'm glad"

Duck looked cockeyed standing in the middle
Of the pond with a minuscule twiddle
Green frog holding chokehold
Until the duck was out cold.
Frog seen jumping off fit as a fiddle.


5/24/2021

Quitters Never Win Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Margarita Lillico...

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