Short Recoils Poems

Low, darkening clouds
flashes fly and life recoils
thunder drums the earth...

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lips purse,
face frowns, mouth sucks,
cheeks implode, tongue recoils
head snaps back - disgusting taste - sour
lemon
...

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     Is persecution a sign of weakness
        prosecution a sign of strength

     To the victors go the spoils
        from might makes right 
            the world recoils
...

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Throughout our lives we sometimes blunder
We assume our writings are received with humor
A failure to understand
The reaction is unplanned
The recipient recoils at the humor off-color...

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why can't you see me?
i'm calling out 
but my voice echoes into silence
where did i go?
why can't you hear me scream?
i reach out into an empty void
my hand recoils at the burn of a lone star.
you were never there.


i never did find you that day....

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self, be not overly full of yourself,
as fragile as crystal in a glass shelf,

             which, at the slightest imagined offense,
             recoils, sulks in resentful, vain defense

of your self-image that easily shatters,
so effortlessly tricked by flatterers....

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The dense stratus manipulates the sunlight
Rugged heath fades as day turns to night,
Solitary tree recoils
Unaware embroils
In respect
Toils,
Self respect
In winter’s turmoil's
Evokes and then disembroils,
When with groans of naked limbs doth fight
Sees off the weary wind on its way in flight.

© Harry J Horsman 2021

An Andaree form...

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As we lay down our swords, we open ourselves to more
For the world unfolds before us all as one captive viewer
As we take up our swords, we close doors of opportunity
For the world recoils in fear of the lack of thought we exhibit
Let us destroy the swords, piercing the armor of hatred and mistrust
Freeing us from the bonds of ourselves and allowing us growth under One...

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Winter scatters moth bones.
For a while,
it refreshes the turgid and lax.
Then the chill legs of small dancers
pirouette over warm bodies.
Flesh recoils, lungs curl around 
each breath.
Hedgerows offer their huddled masses,
to the underground and hidden.
The light is going color blind,
Wind-crones whip rabbit hair
into wickiups 
for the newly dying....

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Morose, hollow cheeks
Crumbs blown by the wind,
An unknown badge on an old cap,
Hiding brown wisps, flattened to the skull. 

Bare walls, ugly colour.
Skin worn thin
Sunken eyes on a radiating screen
Faltering fingers on keys.

Hating breath, cracking voice,
Tung on constant display
A glance to the window,
A bird caws.

Plastic cap on fresh laces,
Rustling by my side,
My soul recoils,
A man, the death of god.

A faultless bottle by his side....

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Lovely, you’re lovely—
Your heart is full of lovely.

You are growing within my life;
All without of you just pines.

My lovely, my inward gash before others recoils so tight—
Only you can veil my heart in your lovely sight.

Your known Rosetta failed my dark—
Colored you instead on every scar.

Rending is the undone kiss—
Left, in the pain, alone this.

For the chains I’m bracing under this mask—
Please, save me forever, please stay, please last....

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A magic knight coursing on in brilliance

On lean hack in clanging, cleaving aegis,

Crunching incantation-dark, blunt, and grunt.

So light illumines his cold, whiskered phiz

And it predates the warrior in night hunt.

Chase is stashed by shade then stir lulls to prance

When periphery is gorged by a mist.

Pitches of bolts burst ahead ere he cries.

His corpus recoils from cuffs in the breasts;

Wide-flat nose lights down to the ground; he dies....

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“The fog may come on little cat feet”*
But Autumn eschews silence
The thick crunch of crisp fallen foliage
Hastens the homebound honking of gaggled geese
Soft whispers of falling rose petals
Fade into the haze of hoarfrost
Cold winds whistle wildly through naked Maples
Flags snap loudly to attention
A brutish barn cat recoils from the touch of snow
Squawking ducks slowly slide across an icy crust
Chattering children board a school bus
Winter awaits its curtain call



...

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