Short Zippo Poems

Taking notice under bridge
Spying on waterway flow
Peeking ahead below
Beholding what zippo
The old sod so...

Read More

"We the unwilling 
Led by the unqualified 
To kill the unfortunate
Die for the ungrateful"

A motto of the troops
Who served in Vietnam
And wrote it on the back
Of a chrome Zippo lighter.

© Paul Warren Poetry...

Read More

War is such an awful thing, 
insanity can sometimes bring, 
like my cousin the zippo man, 
who burnt the huts the squealing and,
 came home and shot himself... 
poor John was damned...by Vietnam.


sad and true and tears the heart,
war is deadly, the aching part,
they go away, do not return,
just leave living heartache burns,
no delight...Don Johnson...

Read More

A black powder 1868 colt revolver.
Dad’s rusty Buck knife.
A few old Zippo lighters.
Ivory figurines haggled over 
with an illicit trader in Shanghai,
same for a two hundred year old
silk rug never trod upon.
A tin box with a broken clasp
containing some things 
I cannot now speak of.
A few other keepsakes
that when I look at them
remind me of how I got here,
and how I sometimes
lost my place....

Read More

I’m tired,.. shot, ..got nothing’,.. zippo,
Feel like I’m dragging a big ole hippo.

I want to do all kinds of things,
But I’ve just got no springs.

Ain’t it terribly awful … to feel like that?
Feel like spit... that’s just been spat.

But I’m sure there will be many better days to come,
When I’ll feel like the cake instead of a crumb.

Hope dictates …the tide will turn,
I’ll be the bird, … not the worm.

Wisdom dictates I’m bound to learn,
Feel the faith baby!… Stay firm!...

Read More