Short Tines Poems

Weary whist of blight
Tenacious tines of winter
Stabbing my slumber...

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paprika-stained tongue
passion of the Magyar —
sweet rose tingles tines

10/1/2018...

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or peaceful vines
to turn a fork to tines

fluffy kisses guessing
without dressing

on occassion
pink ovation

to feast and dine
on a ripened vine!...

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So far, I tried apple a la mode
Trained my tongue to catch sugar's festoon
Upon tines, losing sweets I was owed
A fork won't cork my dessert boon
Now I eat my pie with a spoon.

11/26/19...

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Kalimba notes drift out
To my delighted ear
As if the Matobo plains
Were conveyed from afar.
The tines - reverberating -
Complete an ethereal bar.
Each bar - artfully plucked -
Speaks kindly to my heart....

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Timothy Tolliver Tines
Taught tax topics twenty times
Touting tax tips he tried
Till terribly tongue-tied
Twisted tongue tending to twine







***
November 28, 2019
F G I series 17 tongue twister
Brian Strand, sponsor...

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Ancient river, passing song
always here forever gone
rippled by flirtatious winds
disappearing round its bends.

Crooked fingers drawing lines
tributaries, twisted tines
counting coup on drum roll stones
ancient rivers heading home.

John G. Lawless
©7/6/2022...

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Today a Poet needs to cast
  a hook with many tines

To reel in those who’re lulled to sleep
  with cautionary lines

These days a Poet needs an edge
  much sharper than before

To cut through all the excess flesh
  —that blocks the metaphor

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2018)...

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Time Has Finally Reached
Years Gone By
Toiling Tines Passed and...
Great Memories Made

Ladies of All Genres
Ladies of Substantial Value
Ladies with Charisma
Though We Had Clashes

Though We Faced Troubles
My Batch of Sisters with Perseverance
We All Made it Through

In My Heart, Will I Always Remember......

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SUFFERINGS

stabbed at the dumpling…
   cut the head off the chicken
...kitchen staff impaled*

Harker’s tipsiness...
   ruddy wine blushes on neck
...teeth marks like fork tines

imagined in dark
   mind of Dracula...scheming
closed lips...tongue beating

5/2/2018

*to fix in an inescapable or helpless position...

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The Fork said to the Spoon,
I want you for my wife.
The Spoon said to the Fork,
I just got married to the Knife.

The Knife said to the Fork,
Best keep your tines to yourself.
The Fork said to the Knife,
Don't try to put me on the shelf.

The Spoon said to them both,
Can't we all just get along.
So they all laid side-by-side,
And together made a Tong....

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Mediums of Winter parse
translucent runes on the tines 
of sloping firs basking like mallards 
in March's brusk sunshine. 
Arctic oracles echo on the lake's hard sapphire 
with pearl crests punctuating 
Spring's arrival while cat tails exclaim 
nascent umber banks. As teals float 
in a tarot of amulets tanagers preen, 
imbuing remnant frost with scarlet omens....

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Once the “go to guy”
I linger, ever hopeful
Of a need to fill.
Long for the
Tickle
Of long grass
Crackle
of fallen leaves
Scent
of the garden.
I am older
my handle
slightly splintered
my tines
bent
several missing.
Mocked
by motored newcomers
I wait
knowing 
there are still times
that situations
will call for
The “go to guy”

John G. Lawless
©1/8/2023...

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The tines of the rake
comb through a dispersing blow.

Some heaps hold, 
ocher clumps form random hillocks,
most slip through the iron teeth
dancing drunkenly away.

I was called out into the rushing air.
Physical work with the dead and dying
is indeed a calling.

Meanwhile the dead keep falling; 
my arms shake a cerecloth
into the vivid swirls of an afterlife....

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like vultures and yet
like pigeons on the vine you made for thee
the branches crack over the open fire

yet, how to thee
i relinquish all thought
i can't stand on my own two feet without help
like locusts you feed on my cadaver
don't speak yet
i speak alone in whisper

tines strike threw my night
the sky blinded
by only the illusion of despair
don't regret to walk
take your time...

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He was so charming, but never a prince.
Sweet words he chose to mix and mince.
How could my mind have been so dense,
To let my heart rob me of common sense?

It's true, I fell for many of his smooth lines.
Love pricks like a fork with sharpened tines.
Wounds causing me to need a defender
From the one I call the great pretender.

Or am I the pretender? 
Aren't we all great pretenders,
at one time or another?...

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The tines of the rake
comb through a dispersing tumble.
Ocher clumps form random hillocks,
most slip through the iron teeth
dancing drunkenly away.

I was called into the rushing air.
Physical work with the dead and dying
is a ‘calling’ isn’t it?

The newly deceased keep falling.
Maple leaf bones crackle underfoot.
I scoop their remains,
brush an autumnal cerecloth,
shake the dead into swirls of afterlife....

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GREENY MIX OF VITAMINS AND PROTEIN

clenching my fork —
in my garden of leafy
goodness,
                      a ladybug

salad sweats,
running
into the trash heap.

forgotten tines and teeth
release voluminous vitamins and protein
to sow what they reap,
bottom of bowl weeps…

but I’m okay with that!

4/20/2018

*greeny (defined by Merriam-Webster):
of the color green; marked by a pale, sickly, nauseated color...

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DINNER CRUISE

water feels good, bobbing up and down,
in the light thunderstorm downy rain, with
a gentle candlelight and moonless appetite.

a buttery seduction sizzles,
provoking lusting lips, for
fried lobster and shrimp,
served up on two scalloped plates.

the quiet pitter patter,
the rocking of the boat,
where melodic music sways,
with voluptuous vibe,
the tingle of ears and tines
are divinely entwined.

10/26/2017...

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Why raindrops drip and drop in time,
not timorous; divine.
A splash, playful
in a pond of koi brass.
Tines of Sankyo, priceless precipitation;
A plink and plunk, Chopin;
“Till the End of Time,”
that is why raindrops
hold their gravity,
until the fruit
of their musicality
must be mined,
be longed
by great golden fish
with open lips
excited by the weather
without human palms
to catch, a catch
that croaks and grunts,
that fills the pond....

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