Short Tallying Poems

Silken Autumn leaves
Silently tallying miles 
All roads lead to you...

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Roof we perhaps ignore
is a patient secret listener
hearing laughter and insults
silently doing her things
recording, sorting, tallying
never letting cats out of bags
when storm invites her to go
she flies with all data...

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Game cards for card games
One of Caleb's favorites
"Take That!" we invented

He likes "Go Fish!" too.
We enjoy "Uno Attack!"
He even tried "Spades"!

Daddy and son time
Friday nights with chips and drinks
Tallying up points...

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Follicking Rollicking Roch your world
Tallicking Tallying Tok for tale
Fock it and rock it and make it fail
Frock it and bawk it and make no shail

Ferry it and mock it
and pace what ail
Hope it and frot'h it
and fate be nailed...

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I knew a Luke Banjo,
Who loved to see D’Jango
And often wore bongo…

A Nigerian Banjo
With craving for Tango;
A Tallying Bongo
And Packs of Sweet Ringo:
Guess his dog’s name: Bingo!

So, it’s A Luke Banjo,
In his life lots of - go
And a single lone – jo!...

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YESTERDAY

Peace shrouded on your face
Make me sick.
You used to open a bundle of words
Like water flowing from pipe
Pearls and sharpened crystals-

You have worn a mask of silence
It becomes you not 
Tallying calculations
Complex arithmetic
Narrow time.

I'm afraid to look at you 
Deep silence between us 
Makes me Frightened...

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There are five
perhaps six, maybe more?
There's always the invisible
when observing deer.

A speckled group
braids a tangled grove.
Stippled light shapes,
not their appearance
but their disappearance.

Deeper in the trees 
there are mottles and flecks,
a sun-streaked shimmering.

Deer thread leaf and bough,
floating over
pools of light and shade.

I watch
tallying their invisible sum
on a green abacus....

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In silence, time is astir,
Gathering footprints
From the hourglass of life, taking its toll;
Meanwhile, as if in jubilation,
A large church bell speaks,
Publishing the age of another passed soul;
Tallying each strike,
I'm reminded, that life,
Isn't analogous to the timing of eggs;
Whose timer we flip and restart.
Our sand, once through, completes life,
And absents hope to be rid of dregs.


I remember as a child that
This church bell was rang once for each year of life....

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