Short Corkscrew Poems

corkscrew
and a beaujolais
the flame ignited



AP: Honorable Mention 2023

Posted on August 16, 2018...

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Corkscrew through depths of
aquatic oblivion
whirls of confusion.
Numbered sheep blaat in cyclones
and wake my unconcious mind....

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It hard to say
Giddy up
to a flying pig.

his snout
is never
within the pull of earth.

a thousand
feet in the sky
a pink snozzle in muddled clouds.

his oink
& corkscrew tail
the only thing;

except your
weightless imagination
keeping such a sight afloat up there....

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Like an innocent ringlet
the corkscrew opened up
her world of tedium
to a heaven, to an intensity
of the stars she had not seen
before.

She clung madly to bliss,
devoured her bottleful
with so baffling a love,
the woman was swallowed
into fractured pieces
of fume

©Kathryn McLoughlin Collins
December 5, 2012...

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The sun shining on the brine
To make a Great Salt Lake.
Up the canyon by the corkscrew,
Yet looked like a robe
Awaiting its filling
The setting sun pierced my back.
Dirtly disk with crescent West
Hung with South
Colors in the dirt,
Colors in the rock.
Walk up a canyon,
Go back in time 
And Forever....

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I will be the princess of the dynasty
The princess of the corkscrew
The princess of the underwear drawer
There is a lot of laughter

Sybil does not understand the others.
She is not amused or laughing
She gets out her tarot cards and her runes.
Begins plotting the spells that will transmogrify the others...

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The magic of the instrument 
travels down my fingers
and onto the page

Liberating my spirit,
as the laughter of a child
fills a room

Like a corkscrew,
first to pierce the miracle 
inside the bottle

It releases my every mood
with its new introduction,
—calling me by name 

(Washington D.C.: November, 2002)...

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Around in circles, round and round,
Spiraling up above the ground

On thermals rising ever higher,
Effortless ride for fork-tailed flier.

Then, talons locked, they cartwheel down,
Orbiting, circling round and round.

They mew and mew like flying cats,
Amazing aerial acrobats !

Still circling, clockwise corkscrew flight,
Ever upwards 'til out of sight....

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brutalized senseless happenstance
 with a corkscrew conscience
 full of cheap wine.

 daylight rammeses unraveling the 
sheets in the morning.

three bottles tipped sideways lieing
 against the alarm clock.

 such a strange cracked nautilus,
 my eyes flushed with water
  in a cheap sink.

 but i will spare the stranger in my skin.

  live until it becomes all to usual....

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on a shoestring diet only going around in circles ~ yo yo 

inside a huge tornado just somewhere over the rainbow ~ toto

happily oblivious on a corkscrew rollercoaster ~ ho ho

somersaulting off the high board heading for a bellyflop ~ no no

paratroopers landing awkwardly behind enemy lines ~ go go

highly intelligent beings orbit the densest planet ~ so so

A STRAND (1063) Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand 
02/01/22...

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It runs low off the moors,
when it gets to this blustering brink,
it shoves and ropes, it punches eyes.

When it sweeps this ledge
it bites like a viper, it's voice
forged in whirlpools of chaos.

My legs tremble in a corkscrew tug of war.
Gust-mobed clouds crush molecules of fear.
Rain hacks and mauls.

This raw wind has me by the throat;
now all the non-rooted must sink or float,
or be delivered down to the deep dale
and a more sheltering sky....

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These are the days of haunted, rented house
 
Of the technology of service
 
Of riding complete with ease
 
How the program shapes destiny
 
 
 
Still you must carry
 
The necessary implements
 
You never know what you may encounter
 
Down the road
 
You never know
 
Who may provide an answer
 
In the crazy mist of tumultuous days
 
 
 
A dull great man 
 
Bereft of calculus once told me
 
its better to have a corkscrew
 
Though always,
 
You should use a lighter...

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