Short Parapets Poems

The gulls are low, not skimming,
but surfing spray
just above
the rise and fall of crests.

Beaks scythe and catch
tracking troughs.
They seek the in-between fish
thrown
between tumbling parapets
of ocean.

Trawling gullets
scoop,
gulp the spew.

Swigging necks
do not glance back
but plow circles of light
upon the water,

then they dive upwards
into
the wings of the wind....

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Esuries (L)

(A lone voice whispers)

Has love's incandescent crimson light bulb
Illuminated your lonely soul yet

To help you forget 
Those quiet years

When you walked upon fragile parapets alone 

You'd rather now paint
Using poetry as your only form of catharsis

Before you are called home

(C)
Copyright John Duffy 

Esuries translated:
Hunger

Image shared under fair usage policy 
...

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We together can change the way
our moral tendencies do stray.
Yet we build walls round our estate
and over parapets berate
the way that others go to pray.

Nation on nation joins the fray
some indignation to repay.
What harmony we could create;
we together.

Sweet dreams the children have who play
oblivious that they one day
will fight a war of unjust hate
their fathers wish to propagate.
It is a fate we could allay
we together....

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