Short Unceremonious Poems

Ultra-conservative
undertaker umpires
upperclassmen unit;
Unique undergrads used
Unceremonious
Underhanded unions--
Uncooperative!

THIRD PLACE WINNER
Written April 30, 2021
for "Pleiades 'U' Contest"
sponsored by Kim Merryman...

Read More

Gluggamous-fluggamous
Grandfather Thaddeus
went to the grocery store
bought him a lime

Home with tequila and
salt coated shot glass he
unceremonious
lost track of time.

Spitimy-bitimy
Grandma Penelope
done with her work early
home she did race.

One glance at Grandfather
mega-monstrosity
Grandma retreated to
Clyde's warm embrace

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

inspired by John Wulf's McWhirtle...

Read More

Today I practiced
tai-chi in front of a mirror
with a dozen beginners my age.
I didn't apologize
as I thought I might.
Strange
to pick out the
reflexively familiar.
Icon I,
seen from the outside.
Some of us
would have commanded
with angry eyes
if rumples were smoothed
but now we listen.
They lined up like this
in many old photographs of
unsymmetric faces
unceremonious bodies,
dignities clinginging to fact....

Read More

Here comes the silence.
Shoving its way through the crowd to greet me.
Like a tsunami would greet a stony cliff.
What an impetuous, impertinent lull...
Settling itself on my head like a heavy blanket.
Suffocating my ears.
Should I scream?
I should scream.
But there's no sound. 
Just unceremonious reverie.
Just silence. 
That raucous, deafening silence.
Until the world turns.
Negligibly.
A motion indiscernible.
Except for the sound it makes....

Read More