Short Commandeers Poems

Kim commandeers hallway sockets in her high-rise
with a microwave to reduce her electric
bills: frozen dinners cooked outside her apartment.

An icy day clouds the sun seen through a window
of the building. Kim's smile captures the sun
racing across the sky to crack its disc

on her face, her chin and cheeks, a cheese-melted heart....

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the words coagulate, stuck
in the back of my throat, I choke
on the words I cannot seem to
acknowledge, articulate, remember.
aphasia commandeers my body as her vessel
inarticulate and mute
and in so much pain
but she doesn't seem to care.
when it matters all the soliloquies falter
and stumble from my lips, lame
and inadequate
like everything else i touch....

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September sixteenth, wedding change of gears.
I wait my turn an usher by my side.
Surprise! my arm, the groom now commandeers.
Revised rehearsal plan requests his bride,
a special treat for mom moves me to tears.

September 16, 2022

remembrance of 22 years ago, my son 
escorts me to my seat at his wedding.

Sponsor	Andrea Dietrich
Contest Name	Remember September...

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The way she twists her hair
and places back that wayward 
wisp behind her ear, the way she 
checks her face in every mirror.

How she shimmers to the ladies' 
room to re-apply her lipstick, 
or she lingers irresistibly
as you politely hold the door ajar.

The way she glides so smoothly;
you're speechless as she 
commandeers the room; 'neath her spell 
you're both the best man and the fool....

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The way she twists her hair
and places back that wayward 
wisp behind her ear, the way she 
checks her face in every mirror.

How she shimmers to the ladies' 
room to re-apply her lipstick, 
or she lingers, irresistible,
as you politely hold the door ajar.

The way she glides so smoothly;
you're speechless as she 
commandeers the room; 'neath her spell 
you're both the best man and the fool....

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Curly haired Carlotta brought her curls onto our bus
Filling it up from seat to seat, annoying many of us.
Her hair grew an inch every fifteen minutes you see.
We could barely speak to each other for it was not wee.

These curls went down the aisle and into the seats.
Two guys sitting on some of it were known as the Petes.
We cannot cut it, they told us, for we did that another time.
Those curls transmogrified into thugs and held us hostage until almost nine....

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