Short Self Effacing Poems

Am I really so flawed?
Am I truly that odd?
Crawling like a snake
Into the canebrake
A whoremongering fraud
No wonder you don't like me....

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elevated
        motifs
      the
      familiar 
      intimacy
oft 
the
    everyday:
passive
  eternal   
      verging
  on the
     insignificant
yet
  recognisable
   subservient
   self-effacing
neutral
  neutered
   by
     neglect...

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One with a self-effacing attitude,
he's the salt-of-the-earth type of a dude,
just a faceless face in a multitude;

Apparently low-profile, limelight-shy,
far more timid than a daytime firefly,
and you might want to figure out just why;

I'll let you in on a secret, brother,
with your bragging don't go any further,
him you called a wimp is the Godfather !...

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Ex lovebirds of 
the tamest passion can turn 
so predatory.

Passive aggressive
schoolboys who mock whistle at
ex-girlfriends for spite.

Who scatter book bag
contents in mock accidents
for supposed revenge.

As witchcraft conjured
by the nonbelligerent
to silence the bully

I summon some sweet, 
musical, lascivious
words as orphic spells

In self-effacing 
defense to tame the awful
beast with dirty magic....

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I,
A solitary expression of monumental proportions,
The sum of all parts with extra to spare,
The word and the meaning at once,
Selfish and lonely,
I,
When it's me, I am everything,
When it's you, I don't care,
All for one, and one for one,
The cart before the horse,
I,
Self-reliance, self-sufficient,
Self-effacing, self-indulgent,
Self-absorbed, self-righteous,
Self-made, self-important,
But without you,
I don't exist.

(7/28/92)...

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