Short Grinder Poems

He turned on the coffee grinder.
His nagging wife,
no one could find her....

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Left with only his cup the monkey now panhandles on the corner of Beacon and Kent....

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Cows will have their day
From the grinder they can’t stay…
Chicks crow buzzards play...

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I'm on my uppers but bring light to eyes
so this isn't poverty
my music touches souls...

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Like puppeteers
organ grinders will always exist;
there can never be a last;
there’s an endless supply of monkeys,
and sheep....

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the snow is coming
these chains are a pain indeed
he breaks out grinder

sparks fly all over
waiting for garage to blow
good grief man it's snow...

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Her late husband was a fault-finder
And she wished that he had been kinder
But not her fault
She spilled the salt
When he caught his meat in the grinder!...

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The White House is our nation's grinder
With Donald Trump our main fault finder
To prove he's a man 
He fires those he can
And then claims he could not be kinder...

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The last organ grinder (I’ve been told)
hailed from Boston and died very old.
When his barrel organ
got played by his son,
in his grave the dead Fred must have rolled....

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A female butcher who knew few borders
By accident caused several disorders
When not looking behind her
She backed into her grinder
And got a little behind in her orders!...

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pass me a grinder
the bigger the better
everything tastes finer
with a generous scatter
of the finest black pepper



AP: Honorable Mention 2021

Posted on May 8, 2020...

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God 's  angels 
come in singing some 
wonderful chorus for him.  
Adorable instrumental musics 
strengthen in the journey to become
one of the commander - in - chief powers....

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Night train screaming down
The hill, grinder for
Metal rails in Earth’s dust.

Painful reminder of war
Carrying troops to battle.

Her screams echo those of 
the dying soldiers....

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roasted coffee beans
inside grandma's old grinder 
exude aroma
of groovy early mornings
catching the first bus to school


19 February 2022


" A Briand Strand Tanka" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand
1st place...

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The Deal Killer,
The Heart Stomper,
The Grain Grinder,
The Mind Stealer,
The Spine Feeler,
The Mind Peeler,
The Spine Dealer,
The Chain Binder,
The Strained Reminder,
The Shamed Re-teller...
And now that all have spoken...
The deal is broken....

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This is America. 
We kill everybody equally.
So do the Neo Soviets.
So do the English.
So do the Chinese.
So do the Muslim extremists.
So do the...
On and no it goes.
A meat grinder of death.
More fresh kills are needed.
Feed the death machine.
It's ravenously hungry......

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You're profession is my depression,
A constant reminder of an emotional grinder,
A year of sleep is all I need,
Inducing coma of you're planted seeds,
The weeds can grow,not that I'll know,
Water my pain I'm feeding slow,
I'm moving now towards the sun,
Never to return you weren't the one....

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The last organ grinder played a blinder
Intending to leave folk a reminder
To music upbeat
All those in the street
Did a conga to “Eye of the Tiger.”

It was the close of a splendid career 
The organ grinder shed many a tear
As the music died 
He swelled up with pride 
For the crowd gave him uproarious cheer....

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Donning a vintage coat, boots, hat and all,
the last organ grinder readies his smile,
outside the old age home, heeding love’s call,
to rekindle heart’s joy, for a short while,
triggering memory elders recall,
recounted to young ones, in life’s last mile.
His next stop is for the autistic child,
where he’ll sing songs by God’s angels compiled....

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Zoom Zoom went the organ grinder
As the panda bear bore delight
in its urbane mind set
Burning marigolds over wrought
only tell half the story as was
Jupiter jumping 
Nostrums for the retraining
A thousand dandelions heads
If they could only scatter mile high
Joking leprechauns come out laughing
in black dustbin liners
by the dug notre jardin...

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Our class of three suites me
we get along just fine
we play and romp and run around
under the smiling sun
we fall we're scraped we're cut too
I always have to tie my shoe
but no matter where or what the game
no one will ever name names
we compute in math like gears in a grinder
we experiment in science and work together
the boys and I get along just fine 
we'll always be together same class same time...

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At last she found the salt pot
About an hour it took her
It was tucked behind the pepper 
In the cupboard by the cooker
So keep it in a sprinkler 
Or even in a grinder
But if it’s near the coffee
Please heed this reminder
In case it might be found 
By the unobservant looker
Please don’t keep it in a pot
That bares the label ’Sugar’



5 March 2021
Contest: Salt
Sponsor: Anthony Biaanco...

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The Organ Grinder is Grinding
The monkey isn't there
He ate to many bananas
Now he's in Hospital care

The Grinder keeps on turning
He's grinding that old crank
He's looking for donations
To put into his Bank

He's under lots of pressure
To pay the hospital bills
The monkey bit the doctor
He didn't want any pills

Life is such a grind
With a Monkey on his back
The doctor sued for all he's worth
Now he's living in a shack...

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Why is it so much harder
to lose than to gain?

Why does what we don’t possess
plague us so much, while all we have
is so abundant?

Is it a kind of Darwinian determinism?
Determined to hunger for what we imagine?

Gratification devolves into disappointment 
in an instant.

Like food fed into a grinder,
Pulp recycled into new hungers.

If I could lose my hunger,
Maybe I could lose my loss?

©dbyrne jan 2014...

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In poverty's desperation
She finds the old organ
Where it's stored under the stair.

It belongs to the man who is gone
Leaving her and his children alone,
This cold winter turned into despair.

Frozen air surrounds her,
As she grinds out the tunes
Almost alone on the street.

The warmth of windows watch her,
Their families safely ensconced
As she trudges home.

She knows
Her children will eat only turnips 
again....

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