Short Tight Lipped Poems

For Dad I struggled like a slave

Being clean-cut and tight-lipped

I hope he's happy with my grave

Cuz the grass is always clipped...

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A tight-lipped President, Calvin Coolidge
Never prone to very much verbiage
   He kept his interviews brief
   Causing reporters much grief
Now we pine for his kind ~ That's a truage...

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Steely-eyed
tight-lipped
she mouthed the words
'It's over'
twice,
so they'd sink in all the way
no tear in her eye
nor gulp in her throat
guarding her pounding heart
as she cleaved his
in two...

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Fail-safe.
Crap-shoot.
Bait-and-switch.
Luck-of-the-draw.
Matter-of-fact.
More-or-less.
Helter-skelter.
Loosey-goosey.
Honky-tonky.
Wacky-taffy.
Lucky-ducky.
Tight-lipped.
Land-locked.
Turn-key.
Safe-and-sound.
Fail-safe.

3/4/22...

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Tight-lipped, transparent, and stuck in a mono-TV
Am I alive or dead? I don't feel pleasure nor pain
Numbness is all I can sense under the pretense
"This is for my sake"

Square-shaped deceptions bind me
A soothing night-sky dimmed the spark in my eye...

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lengthy white scars

along pale arms,

dark circles

beneath swollen 

tear rimmed eyes

tight lipped smiles

and never ending thoughts

silent wondering

and screaming insecurities

silent pleas

screaming within

end it all

end it now

end it here...

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A poem is not an effort by a tight-lipped genius
Gripped by the setting failure's fears,
Or the penning of those furious about defeat,
Who are not under the grip of it;
It's the flower of a gracious soul unseen,
An idyllic utopia that has never been; 
The splendor of a life unperceived,
And the thought of faiths unbelieved!...

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I light
this flame, during
winters of my mind.

I etch your
fingertips into my own.
This is naivety, or
tight-lipped behavior, like
sparks consuming coal.

I long for you,
like embers and chimney tops,
or chimneys and skies.

If I lit the clouds,
with this flame,
would it pour,
enough to bring 
summer in my heart?...

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The wrongs are now righted
The Beatles have re-united
for that I expect to be knighted
but the queen might get frighted
so my lips would have to stay tighted
I must not remain unsighted
my soul may feel blighted
if touched by the mighted
the disiilusorily prided
whose tans should be hided
I don't need them or their fight!

©John-Ovan.P.Hull...

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Poor Claire with arthritis she’d battle,
Her bones would shake like a rattle,
She was always tight-lipped,
But her dress she finally zipped,
Relieved she would go on and prattle.


To Ireland, Claire went on a hop
And promptly was caught by a cop
Her face was so red
For in drink she was bred
Till they fed her with milk and a sop....

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On drowsy hamlets mobile hordes descend,
From tight-lipped forests rises a babel. 
Wanderlust is to distant wonders sent,
As fleets of long-haul birds skyward rumble.
Where massed footprints to virgin lands extend,
And sights are packaged for all to sample,
Coy beauties in nature’s bosom held dear
From between heaven and earth disappear....

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Like those last
luscious faintly
enfeebled breaths
bitterly breaking
through my
limply lifting lungs .
Fervently flooding
my tear filled
eyes. Tenderly
tottering into
those timidly
tight-lipped times .
Who wistfully
whispers
their coolly
cut cards of
kindred conversations.
Carefully kindling
their heart-crossed
corners of compassion....

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he called it
raw, or something rare.
i called it overkill.

strike, like lightning-tips
murder and naivety,
tight-lipped, bloody entertainment
for you
and for your hands.

it will smell,
and stain your stripes,
drip

like falling bullets
which melt
long
before it kills.

you called it routine,
i called it tight-lipped, bloody,
entertainment....

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Tight-lipped, tough, the spy
  lives on the cool edge
one side is death
  the other, still breath

He's sniffed the danger
  sensed its pulse, wild
felt its noose slipped over his neck --
  repulsed by its cold wet muzzle   

A-twitch in the shadow of a grave
  heaving up torrents of tears
Each one a mocking witness to how scared
  as hell he is of death and dying...

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She wore a big yellow ribbon in her hair
Sarah did not walk, she danced or skipped,
From place to place, from here to there
She wore a big yellow ribbon in her hair
She was a little girl with an exuberant flair
Always singing a song, never tight-lipped
She wore a big yellow ribbon in her hair
Sarah did not walk, she danced or skipped.

Written August 26, 2022
[for my oldest granddaughter]...

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Taken



Unexpected excitement consumes,
Overjoyed, overwhelmed, terrified.
From love comes life,
A miracle.

Raw emotions, dumbfounded,
Tight-lipped preserving uncertainty.
Outside sources causing strain,
Nauseated with nonsense.

Camera shy, gender concealed,
Gestation ceases abruptly.
A  heart with no beat,
Wails of mourning.

Inconsolable emptiness, 
Souls take flight.
They held my hand,
Not meant to be....

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I nodded towards him
Over the plums
Dark red and sweet
He nodded back
He looked so sad

We met again, aisle three
Between canned corn and flour
He told
I gave my condolences
He looked so sad

He picked up a bag of flour
Said he had lost his appetite
He told
Picked up a bag of sugar
He looked so sad

He made me think of my tight-lipped grandmother:
“No parent should have to bury a child”
He told
Picked up another bag of sugar
He looked so sad...

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Keep it Zipped
By Tom
10-5-2019

Things told in confidence should be held tight lipped,
Communicating it to one friend it routinely grows.
But sometimes our lips just seem to come unzipped,
it goes friend to friend until everyone knows.

So if you have things you’re just dying to tell,
Please don’t approach me with a thought to plant.
Just so I don’t leave you with doubts to dispel,
“I can keep a secret its those I tell it to who can’t.”
...

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Cruelty and indifference
gallops away with the winter's 
chill
tight-lipped determination and 
venomous fragrance
jostles excitedly to escape
affection and scorn rips me 
apart
i want to feign sleep or death
i want to rise up
look my best
bring back the charm
of lost love-tickled days
shriveled by cold
looking harmless or arrogant
in intoxicating promises
he's always true to fickleness
i rise and fall
 every time i see him
every time the doorbell rings...

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Standing in the cold
Bare-foot: soft spoken
Hiding underneath street lights
Trying to shelter the sinister truth
I've kept locked inside

Bare-foot: empty handed
Sleeping on cold pavement
Trying to drown out the sound
Of whores & politicians

Cloaked in obscurity
Lulled to sleep by the depravity
Tight-lipped: open fist
I dare not depart with a Judas kiss
For my heart is poison
My lips soaked in vipers blood

Please don't invest in me
For I am full of uncertainty....

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