Short Waterloo Poems

    Napoleon had his Waterloo

      I had mine, in a water closet too...

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Massing waves drummed offshore
Above them a partnered wind blew
Together they prepared to war
Against what I once knew
This dark and cold wet vastness 
Brought forth my waterloo...

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Like Napoleon, I was born.
He led the French army,
I made sure the sheep got shorn.
And while I was covered deeply in sheep's doo,
he met his Waterloo.
And when on Saint Helena he died,
none of my sheep cried....

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Azzure night calls
rush blurry eyes
Pigeons came a calling
Waterloo I curse you
morning came a sneaking
The unaccustomed scratch gilded fear
Suited clad 
screeches the acceptable
Strange exiles disowns the Thames...

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There’s a new music fad or fashion
A genre of Swedish/Australian fusion
They play Dancing Queen and Waterloo
On the wobble board and the didgeridoo
I don’t know if it will catch on at all
They call the music Abbariginal...

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There’s a new music fad or fashion
A genre of Swedish/Australian fusion
They play Dancing Queen and Waterloo
On the wobble board and the didgeridoo
I don’t know if it will catch on at all
They call the music Abbariginal...

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The mind
obscure to man
is a Waterloo
ideas, ideologies
desires and feelings
actions of the will
fight and clash
for supremacy
sometimes in vain
oftentimes in reality
with little precision
as man- young, old
are bundles of fragility...

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Napoleon, the Military Commander,
Rose to prominence as the indefatigable French leader.
Stood on victor’s podium for long, but Fate pulled down Bonaparte.
A deflated balloon in Waterloo, with his armaments torn apart!...

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My heart is a deafening tyrant
Eager to bring its horde to bear
At Waterloo . 
Crushing what little resistance 
I offer in hasty retreat 
No quarter given
No white flag flown
Once the carnage is complete
All that will remain
Is the echo of you...

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Gathering by her western gates: jovial....
Their babies while arriving; this sought after
Day and desperation beginning to show his face     
Biospiritual warfare namby-pamby's, pass waterloo ?
Jupiter's, rising swift the pendulum time's guillotine: delta....

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There once lived a general named Custer,

   Well-known for his arrogance and bluster.

      He met his Waterloo,

         By bands of wrathful Sioux.

            Could be said this was his final muster!

Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired...

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I TREMBLE AND SHAKE
COLD AS THE ARCTIC
MY HEAD
FOGGY WITH FEAR
EYES DILATE
HANDS CLENCH
MY HEART HEAVY
THIS NAGGING
AND PRODDING
MY FEARS MADE TRUE
I'VE RUINED ME
AGAIN
I WANT TO ESCAPE
FROM THE MADNESS
OF ME
THIS BUMBLING UNCERTAINTY
THIS HURRICANE OF DOUBT....

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'England is a nation of shopkeepers'
was never said by Bonaparte
but it was those self-same tradesmen
who kicked Napoleon’s arse
and
when at Waterloo they met
as he won the day
to give it a positive spin
one may only say,
"Wellington put the boot in!"
...

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The Spanish had armadas;
the Americas, flotillas.
The Amazon has capybara;
the Andes has chinchillas.
Kentucky has its sassafras;
Madagascar has vanilla.
Napoleon lost at Waterloo;
Frazier, in Manila.
Will a person tell the Mexicans
how to pronounce tortilla? 
...

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They fight to death
Drenched by thirst
No need to resist-
Their Waterloo 
They met

They sip little
And leave the jar
Harmless, they are-
They purge that little
Hope for more, undeterred

Do they last days?
Before they're taken preys
By the erring humans-
This austerity doesn't heal
Their agonies I feel...

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Sue Ellen a wastethrift who frittered her parents’ money
Married off to Chuck, an old goat in need of a honey
Devious Chuck thought he would be rich when her parents died.
They lived to be a hundred, a long well-lived, happy ride.
Sue Ellen never changed, she spent Chuck’s money too.
They ended up in a studio apartment outside Waterloo....

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the madhouses of paris filled with retired teachers
got their point across
song of waterloo
this napoleanic labyrinth stearing
children to the brink 
madame martina martini
academia nuts cracked open wide

I see a few on the cliffs of burndom
harping their humdrum at the gods of charred sea eternity
and wonder about the love they made...

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There lies a field, where mice run and race.
I bought some traps, you know, just in case. 
No risk of finger snaps 
fool-proof, with gluey flaps...
Mouse does not die; but he's kept in place. 

Eyes beg for mercy, what do I do?
rain bucket handy offers a clue.
Mouse caught in sticky trap;
submersion, it’s a wrap.
Blitzkrieg, one gasp; it's his Waterloo.

...

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Massing waves drummed offshore
Above them a partnered wind blew
Together they prepared to war
Against what I once knew

The dark and cold green vastness 
Carried forward my waterloo 
Upon the rocks it did press
Against what I once knew

So when the gray shadowed the land 
It darkened my final view 
Soon the waves crossed the sand
And took all that I once knew...

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I wonder if I’ve lived before,
And what my life was like.
Perhaps I was the boy who stuck
His finger in the dyke.
I could have been Napoleon
And lost at Waterloo;
Or might have been the fellow who
Invented Super Glue.
I do not know about the past,
Nor lives I’m yet to see -
But spare a thought for some poor soul
Who finds that he was me.

for Carolyn's contest...

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Massing waves drummed offshore
Above them a partnered wind blew
Together they prepared to war
Against what I once knew

The dark and cold green vastness 
Carried forward my waterloo 
Upon the rocks it did press
Against what I once knew

Then a gray shadowed the land 
Coloring my thought of you 
And as the waves broke across the sand
They removed all I once knew...

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Massing waves drummed offshore
Above them a partnered wind blew
Together they prepared to war
Against what I once knew

The dark and cold green vastness 
Carried forward my waterloo 
Upon the rocks it did press
Against what I once knew

Then a gray shadowed the land 
Coloring my thought of you 
And as the waves broke across the sand
They removed all I once knew...

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Massing waves drummed offshore
Above them a partnered wind blew
Together they prepared to war
Against what I once knew

The dark and cold green vastness 
Carried forward my waterloo 
Upon the rocks it did press
Against what I once knew

Then the gray shadowed the land 
Coloring my final thought of you 
And as the waves broke across the sand
You stood as I once knew...

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ARCHIVES
She stood captivating
So rustle and dusty
A sign of century of neglect
Here lies great treasure
The array of scroll marvelled me

I hurriedly departed my thirst so intent
The waterloo not as tormenting
Sea of tears danced down my face
I behold much treasure in crude

Time have been invested
Even breath have been laid
I can’t resist her pains
Why is she horribly kept?...

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THE WORLD: A RING

Oh, thou world is a ring
And you oh fate, a boxer
I only a contender
With my milky teeth 

Thou smirked at my ignorance
But now with bread grown
Thou two have given me thou hard’st blows
My fans now fed up

They draw postcards of my waterloo
However, I have fallen
From a blow like Tyson’s
Melting like gold refined

I shall not fail to rise
At least rise to fail...

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