Short Grimacing Poems

King’s grimacing frown….
crimson soaks her once white gown
she mowed the field down...

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Grimacing faces
With teary-eyed composure
Look out together
At their capped and gowned daughter,
Happy, yet sad, both know why....

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Grimacing with eyes closed
And staggering to stand
On cranky legs and feet
With numb prickings shooting
Like a thousand points of light...

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I like the rain
And its effortless thoughts
That plunk down on plastic furniture 

Sleeping cars
Grimacing pedestrians
Interrupting your Sunday hair

And how we scatter away
In our silly ways, like ducks on a pond
Instead of drinking 
The world...

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Happy memories have me grimacing,

Beloved friend I would have given all for,

Unmercifully plunged a stake into my heart,

Relishing my every labored gasp for air,

Replaying each moment of my agony,

Trembling, I mouth the word "why,"

Staring into my horrified eyes, she laughed....

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broken bags of water
grimacing skull
upside down
transfiguration
in the green
mountains
estranged ways of pathos
delusional escapade
tropical moon
confessing
in the dark intricate wilderness
of the death valley
red drapes of
memory
parting delicately
she is an angel in disguise
guarding the door
to the hell...

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The child’s mother hands him a pair of gloves
and helps him to insert his fingers.
Grimacing, he misses mittens!
Pulling off the gloves, he puts
each hand in a pocket.
Fingers move warmly
together – snug
and glad now.
The boy 
smiles.

Jan. 5, 2023
Of What Use Are Gloves To Fingers That Only Understand Mittens Poetry Contest
Sponsor: John Lawless...

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barefoot and present 
old soft shoes naked 
foot wiggling toes grimacing
 I come to manipulate the ground
 that I stand dirty souls
 marching forth
 battle scarred 
wiggling toes
 grimacing with rhythmically amalgamated 
marching forward March up  one,  two. three  four
Holy clean feet and soul
I am barefoot standing on uncleaned soil

6/8/23
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2023...

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I triple dog dare you to kiss that girl!

Said Teresa, grimacing wide.

I said “Okay, I’ll do it!”

And I did, or at least, tried.



I walked up to her in study hall,

asked her if she was from heaven and all,

and then leaned in for a kiss,

when she kicked me... right in the balls!



Maybe I shouldn’t have done that!

No more triple dog dares for me!

“Go lick that sign!” Jimmy yelled.

Well, maybe one more dare at least!...

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For every stone I lay I bleed
Bone batterers the pile at my feet
Are foundations so I succeed
Making my triumph out of defeat
Brick by battering brick I laid
Each flesh fanged stone rising up
Against being sore and afraid
Grimacing but gulping from the cup
Of spite, of jealousy, of hate
Offered me; their secret hemlock
By which I am galled by fate
Poisoned since the auction block
With al my feathers littered there
These stones are my babel of despair....

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Slick with wax
My life is lit by jarred candle.
Cannot see ahead of me
Just looking towards it-
Struggling.
Struggling towards it-
Ready to fall.
It seems inevitable that I may sink
Into an ultimatum brought to me
I may give in.
I wish not to-
But it only seems as though soon it will occur.
A feared future staring me in the eyes-
Grimacing
As if to intimidate me
I whisper helplessly.
But I cannot hold on by myself any longer-
I need back up....

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Nighttime, the muse is tangled in the talon of riots
catching bricks to the head- mace to the eyes-
Come morning it sips unholy cups of politics
heavily sweetened with the latest deadly virus-
Noontime it wears a brooding- grimacing mask
it's very breath under the most vicious attacks-
Its spending more time in its darkened cave
9 mm alpha dreaming of an omega escape-
Now it'll only listen to T. Robbins and B.F Skinner
slowly become a braying-blue ribbon beggar....

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