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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I love cock-eyed whangdoodle writing
When frogs are croaking and fish are biting
I adore silly missives with cartoon-like stuff
Of child-like fun I simply cannot get enough...

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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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In my youth, we played games outside
like hide-and-seek and tag; you're it.
No one wanted to stay inside,
active, we had no time to sit;
we fought in fields,
with swords and shields.

Today, everything is cockeyed,
and I'm not liking 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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Owl wise keep your advice to yourself
For who wants to hear it?
No one.
Even people who say they want it
Do not really want it.

They are not going to follow it anyway.
They are like you and me and Cousin Ted.
We follow our own advice.
Wrong, cockeyed or indifferent.

So owl wise keep your advice to yourself
Even if a sneaky cousin lies and says she wants to hear it.
Because she never does....

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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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Be cautious of which little bird you listen to.
Some birds bring joy and delight.
They are the ones everyone wants to hear.
But they are more scarce than the negative Neds.

Negative Neds are instigators
Stirring up trouble,
sometimes telling fabulific lies
anything to stir you up.

Before you get cockeyed and crazy
remember all birds are not the same.
Some want world peace.
The others want frenzy and havoc
and they will do everything they can to aid that along....

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