Short Taloned Poems

eagles

winged predators

surveying their domain

pinnacle of taloned birds

raptors



(Cinquain)


02/12/2020...

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The mountains crumble under the mist
Loss with taloned finger tips hangs
from the creviced wrinkled faces of the lost
Mouths are bent
in unshown emotion
Loneliness stretches over each eye
holding tear at bay
all the words i never used
and those i never say
buried in the grave of yesterday...

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What would you do then pretty lady
Should my passion turn to love
And when the eagle in my heart
Becomes the gentle dove

Do you cage the taloned beast
Before it tears the flesh
Or entwine the white dove
To sing within your breast?

Can you see the heaven
That lives above this hell
And will you lift the soul in me 
To where it longs to dwell

written 2017.09.21...

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Gloaming is wont to quell
the ginger smoke,
expunge the crimson flames
that surround the mill.
Lilac shadows encroach 
to cloak the hull's mossy patina.
Autumn's wild rooster,
struts its brash plumage
among fallen shingles and rotted planks
until a black hawk soars,
eclipsing feral zinnias' embers
just as calliope chimes
of a fallen carousel
disappear in taloned pine air.

5/22/18...

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POLITICS


Propriety demands - we do not speak
Of others, either strong – or weak
Lest in the foray of the quest
Insiders, fall from grace, of safety’s nest
Take residence alongside taloned beast
Intent on making you the winner’s feast
Cloned puppets denying there are strings
Surrendering their truth to cell phone rings.


John G. Lawless
8/26/2014
for Judy Konos
How’s Your Acrostic? contest...

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I love my diet, rich in protein,
Of snakes, squirrels, doves, and rabbits most lean.
I tell you this, and I am on the square,
Furry mammals delight beyond compare.

The swiftest, sleekest raptor in the sky,
I soar wide, circling with the sharpest eye.
As feathered death I swooped upon my prey,
But the rat found a hole and got away.

As Taloned Fate I still search and survey,
For careless critters to feast on today.
...

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In panic’s metered dirge,
           A sentinel of hope;
          Amid a parlous surge,
      One swirling lumened rope.

   Vexed vessels churn and gaze,
         In rabid waves of froth,
       For safety’s tethered rays,
  Through nature’s taloned swath.

 One hopes that through the rage,
      Lost souls will see the light;
   Veer toward that flickered sage
      …Escape Poseidon’s smite.

              **09 Apr 2016**...

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