Short Kafka Poems

A castle that can never be entered.
A village I can never leave.
Snow covered and stifling....

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The older I grow the more I’m thankful for Franz Kafka
Who…I’ve read…and I’ve been told
Said:
Anyone who keeps the ability to find beauty
never will grow old...

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Dead as a fallen log,
but turned into a human.

A gutbag of small pumps,
red rivers and spilled salt.

Drains, curves and arches
as in a Roman town.

Forced back into life,
stranger than an insect.
Less noble. Lock the door....

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she woke after
a night of
tequila

sunrises and
suprised to
find her

penguin feet 
were no longer 
on 

the ground but
had turned
toes

curling as if
a witch in
the Wizard

of Oz but
instead of
shoes she

had a fin
Kafka had 
his beetle

she had
become 
a mermaid...

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What is this creepy thing
Infecting my body?
Busily digesting my flesh, melting,
The first stages of the blob.
End of my extremities
Swell ominously, wriggling,
Undulating like giant worms
Busily digesting my tissue
I’m becoming what I fear most,
Mistaken for castings
Shoveled up and thrown
On the compost heap....

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I shall take my morning walk,
communing with the birds and talking
to myself while reading Kafka,
glancing at the latest headlines.
Dear Stravinsky's 'Rite' is slighted,
(he'll be back when ears are righted.)
When I smell a rose I'm prompted 
to recall a certain lady, gifted with
a strange perception, I must sadly 
take exception, for the moment anyway....

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"Women are traps
that lay for men
everywhere"
said Franz Kafka,
"in order to drag them into the infinite."

Maybe.
But why not,
Women are incense
that invites men and other women
and all genders in-between everywhere
into the infinite

EarthMother incense
invites infinite
enlightened mind
empowered body
of FatherSun
MotherEarth 
integrity

Lighting fragrant dawn
powering fertile dusk....

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They crawl into your shadows
Simmering in the quiet
Lanced in the heart by the world
Swirling in automatic-stop emotions

There in a cab somewhere in Detroit
Out of money and full of mind
A thousand thriving theologies
Dancing in their brain
Unable to open the door
Unable to pay the man

They are kicking invisible cans
Down the aisles of libraries
Burrowing like Kafka into
Any and every trail that
Holds the false promise of salvation...

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This is the Ho Manifesto, let's pray,
What is the first rule to say?
Never volunteer today!
What is the next rule to say?
Rest up while you can each day!
What is the third rule to say?
Any love is good love at our age!
What is the fourth rule to say?
Say: Never mind, blip happens always!
What is the fifth rule to say?
Kafka, you're fabulous today!
What is the sixth rule to say?
I must not participate this day!!!
This is the Ho Manifesto!
Read and learn, now off you go!...

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Powerful, these blitzing beams -
Scorching rays that gleam 
Upon raging surf.

Collision of wave and rock -
Resounding, hissing spray:
The fireworks of the sea. 

These waves halt for no one. 
I am a speck...
A miniscule spot of corroded sand 
Nestled within the endless shore.

But that I were a slab of stone -
Fiercely contesting the tide:
Foam and algae markers of will. 

Odysseus strings his fatal bow 
While I await my metamorphosis:
Where is Kafka when you need him?...

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