Short Perilously Poems

childhood trauma strengthened her resolve
heartfelt survivors instinct
perilously fearless...

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chaos theory
hoping to figure out
what strange attractor
has placed his toys
so perilously near my feet

Published - American Tanka - Winter 2016...

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The silence of the morning work bells
contrasts the roar of modified Black Marias
to the old and infirm perilously weakened by the virus
it was the sound
of the start
of the beginning
of the end....

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The pedagogue, perched perilously atop his platform
Spouts slithering slander about a certain storm.
Rousing the rebels with rhetorical roars;
He warns the watchmen of worldwide wars.
He asks allegiance from his allies,
And creates chaos with his country's cries.
...

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ice-shrouded tree limbs
tilt perilously groundward
sparrows have cold feet

THIRD PLACE WINNER
written November 15, 2022
syllables checked by PS
for "Winter Haiku Poetry Contest"
sponsored by Tania Kitchin

#20 on Best 100 New Poems List
Poetry Soup
February 1, 2022...

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Perilously dangling, 
One toe over the edge
Dizzily drawn to hover at the brink
Eyes closed and arms stretched out 
Into thin air
I know that I am going to fall, yet I resist
Trappings of stability wrap tendrils around my waist
But they are frail and will not hold…
Leaning forward, against good sense, but unable to reason
I fall....

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.. must self-worth perilously 
   hang on to a cracking crag..

         crag  that is slowly loosening 
         off  the edge of a crumbling cliff..

               cliff of other people's opinion,
               dangerously above the rocks..

                     rocks of subjective humiliation,
                     actually, self-perceived oblivion .. ?...

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God what you done recently
my only fear that death
isn't the end of this 
counting pennies to buy dinner
see i stand
as you stare
from a ladder
perilously position
on top of a chair
without care
thoughts to air
welcome to my lair
where from shadows glare
unravelled eyes stare
and tendrilled fingertips
seem to point
that i am there
there i know i live in here...

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Giving thanks every day
Receiving grace the old-fashioned way,
And pondering how lucky I am
That Jesus came as a little lamb
Instead of a chastening rod;
That this path I have trod,
Unusually rough and perilously steep,
Delivers me safely
Ever closer to blessed serenity.

written January 23, 2022...

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Gigantic pylons of wind-carved granite
Form astonishing pillars of natural wonder
Sculptures to rival Borglum's finest faces
Perilously perched along the winding trail
Punctuating the Black Hills with awesome
Commas of towering mystical totems
Where once the proud Native Americans
Roamed with the buffalo in blessed peace

written August 25, 2021...

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On a large elm tree,
there hung a young broken branch
swaying in the wind
Tenaciously it clung,
as it perilously swung
Hanging on for dear life
by a sliver of vine
And I beheld in nature
something so divine
A broken limb
struggling to mend
Refusing to die ... to give in
Then I understood: I too must try,
fight desperately to live
For a broken heart too can heal...

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You stole my far away kingdom
didn't say what for?
Said I didn't have the jurisdiction 
to grapple my own crown

The ice resurrects steely bacteria 
will our antibiotics endure?


I feel all elephantine
the piper is never paid 
My foot prints are all asunder
on ancient sanded dunes

My ship is sinking
The troubadour sings
The innkeeper perilously on the cliff yelps
some erratum does he detect 















...

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Each night I dutifully latch the door
To keep intruders firmly without.
I retire to bed feeling blissfully sure
I am safe from what they are about.

Then one night, the latching complete
I thought of threats already within.
Stroke, heart attack, foes at my feet.
How to bar them, where to begin?

It quickly became hauntingly clear
That mortality assures no defense.
Lethal outcomes are perilously near,
And latching doors is only a pretense....

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