Short Gumball Poems

It's a pass 
look and follow me 
everyone that I see
he follow's me with a gumball
his boss agree's
and he wan'ts it back asap...

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We entered the Gumball Rally
My driver was “Backstreets” Tally
With his crazy fast car
We still couldn’t get far
Bad math, no gas, in Death Valley
...

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Chink! One quarter in the machine ...
Crank! Crank! Crank!
Gumballs tumble ...
Plunk! ... I got one! ... Open the door.
Why was it always ...
Never the color I wanted?...

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gumball machine is huge at beauty shop
A trick to entice kids inside
Letting them think it will be fun
I know better
I have been here two hours
And they have not started on me yet...

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The red gumball machine was full of fun
A machine that knew she was number one
Other contraptions thought they were a contender
They were certainly not said my cousin, Sam Lender.

I have had this machine since nineteen-fifty-two.
I know that’s a lie, but Sam is often a liar too.
You were not even born until fifty-six, I say.
He and the gumball machine begin to play....

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I step out from a second-story window,
float along roads of slow-churning lullabies,
raptured in response to ice cream truck’s bellow.
A clear case of cold sugar—wide gumball eyes,
mobile memories wrapped in coats of corn-snow
hugged around a thin wooden hourglass lengthwise,
waiting to be licked clean, gently insisting
that day pay its weight in words worth frozen cream....

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If I had a dollar for every one I wasted, 
If I had a good thought for everyone who ever hurt my feelings,
If I had a nickel for every happy thought I have had in my life,
If I had a gumball machine in my living room, I would be so happy.

I would save those dollars this time.
I would be elevated with the realization that they were hurting too.
I would be no more wealthy than I already am.
I would have gum available all day long, and evenings too.

It would be great!...

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Gumball machine you make me smile an old woman said
With your happy round balls in bright blue, yellow, pink, green and red.
Reminding me of the fifties when I thought everyone was kind.
Poodle skirts a turquoise fifty-seven Chevy, intact families in my mind.
Prayer once a priority, everyone attended some kind of church.
Those who did not were often left in the lurch.
Gumball machine, you remind me of malt shops and such.
Soda jerks and cherry Cokes, and I thank you so very much!...

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