By Imran Ahmed
The Grave Looms Like A Storm On The Horizon
Its Darkness Wraps Around Me Like A Heavy Cloak
I Think Of It And My Eyes Lose Their Luster
As Fear Gnaws At My Soul Like A Starving Beast
They Say The Earth Below Is A Hornet’s Nest
Where Snakes Lie In Wait And Scorpions Lurk In The Shadows
Their Sting Is The Last Nail In The Coffin For The Sinful
A Reckoning Written In Stone Unyielding And Cruel
Fear Grips Me Like A Vice Shaking Me To The Core
For My Sins Weigh On Me Like Chains I Cannot Break
My Body Is A Leaf In The Wind Trembling Before Fate
Yet My Faith Is A Rock That No Tide Can Erode
He Who Pulled Me From The Jaws Of Despair
Who Put Food On My Plate When The Cupboard Was Bare
Will Not Leave Me To Be A Sitting Duck In The Dark
The Grave’s Night Will Fade Its Terrors Will Turn To Dust
And His Light Will Lead Me To Sleep As Sound As A Child.
Exhaustion sets in
My walls crumble
I’m bursting with sin
Bound to stumble
I can’t stay upright
My knees, locked tight
A royal mess
To my peer’s delight
I plead for a truce
No need to seduce
I’ve given my all
My greatest produce
Manipulative brains
Need not ever strain
To highlight disgrace
And claim you, insane
A sitting duck
What the f***
Given my all
Yet, I’ve been plucked
I’ve been traded
Clearly jaded
Shut down, discarded
My truths sedated
My Irrelevant heart
Has me confused
Just as I start
It’s clear, I’ve been used
on the prowl,
a big cat;
hunger pangs.
oh, the thrill
of the hunt!
unaware...
sitting duck
of a prey,
selected...
from afar,
sneaking up;
creep, creep, creep.
stealthily,
leopard stalks.
quietly
lies in wait;
pounces on
impala.
She was just sitting there, not paying attention.
A sitting duck? I guessed.
She glared at me.
Can I please finish the story?
I knew then I was in for a pouty evening.
So I was quiet.
As long as I could be.
A sitting duck? I guessed again.
I had seen the photo on social media.
She has not spoken to me since.
Angry that I know what she has for breakfast
And what color panties she has on….
I was a sitting duck when the tide came in.
No idea it would go past my chin.
I struggled and I flopped.
I bucked and I hopped.
It took me way out to sea.
I went under quickly, poor little me.
But a dolphin came along and gave me a push.
That old water threw me up in a whoosh.
I found myself all safe and sound.
To say thanks I looked all around.
But the dolphin was gone with a flip and a wink,
And I resumed washing dishes in our old kitchen sink.
I received an exciting soup mail
I’m minted, with wealth off the scale
But I know it’s a fraud
By some bloke from abroad
These fraudster’s should be put in jail
Got a call from a ‘Microsoft’ guy*
His fake story I did not buy
Said he’d turn off my ‘puter
And re-route my router
He told me just lie after lie
These scammers just want a quick buck
They try to find a sitting duck
They’re after our money
It sure isn’t funny
Their unscrupulous actions just suck
We have had several calls from 'Microsoft' saying our computer is at risk and they can help protect us ... I just put the phone down on them. Unfortunately an elderly friend of ours got taken in by their persistence and when it got to the you need to give us your bank account details part he realised it was a scam and wouldn't give his details but he had inadvertently given them access to remote control his PC and they put a password on it so he couldn't get into his files. It took my hubby several hours to sort out, remove the software programme they were using to control the PC and get the computer back to him so he could use it.
7/7/18
His mom always yelled at him,
" Get up, Jed and get to work;
move your lazy butt, sitting duck
and stop hanging out with Kim! "
" Wait, until I finish my gin, mom! " "
He sarcastically replied with a grim.
These silly words were shouted with contempt
by Jed, as he watched Kim play with reddish loam;
yuck! his lips smelled of Gordon's alcoholic drops!
" Let the horses get hungry and thirsty,
I need a minute to get up until dizziness stops,
I'll feed them hay, but they should roam
and eat pasture grass ..that's more healthy!"
" Do as I say, or your salary will be less than you expect! "
His angry mom brandishing a wood rolling pin,
" Get up and tend to the horses! " She ordered with disdain.
And stumbling on logs and branches
Jed complied by sticking out his moist tongue,
" I am as stubborn as a spoiled brat...
nobody can change me with tools and threats:
a cowboy's habits are hard to break like his image,
I comply and put on this straw hat! "
As I lay sleeping, I dreamed of a caravan
Chased by a hydra and a ten foot bogeyman
As I slumbered, I saw a desert moon descending
Monster lumbered as my arms were extending
In my quiescent state, I murmured inaudibly
Then I defended the procession most laudably
In my night fantasy, my strikes had no strength
My fists had no speed and my reach had no length
My nocturnal imagination had surely run amok
I lay awe struck like a sitting duck with bad luck
Was it something I ate? The residue of the day?
Was it guilt of past mistakes or something I didn't say?
As my nightmare unraveled and I awoke
I ruminated on all the feelings it evoked
As I shook loose the cobwebs and gathered my wits
I raised a middle finger to my internal abyss
My Lost Love is Fine
her rose petals once pluck
by some other muck
it made me once want to chuck
being run over by her truck
my heart twice moon struck
at the muckers running amok
her audacity rises and suck
for those deflowering schmuck
yet here i now sit in near pond, stuck
escape being her sitting duck
my love for her once awestruck
to a sad effect of her potluck
dear, winds now howls my good luck
connie pachecho
1/03/18
Have you ever been stuck life Chuck in the muck?
Feeling like a sitting duck, always getting plucked.
Can never hold on to a buck. When you look at other people you're awestruck.
When they look at you they see a schmuck. You start thinking, bad luck is the reason my life is running amuck.
Until you look in the mirror, it's not bad luck, I just suck. Then you look at your life you want to upchuck.
Well when you're tired of saying yuck, it's time to get off your duff and truck.
Because there's no such thing as luck. There is a reason for the seasons.
Caught in a thicket, concrete among the rebels
Hit with hard metal and then showered with shrapnel
Shots fired. Get on the ground
But I'm brick dry and the ground is my foundation
So I am in no position to be taking such action
I'm grounded. Man, I feel surrounded
Disarmed and hung out to dry, a sitting duck
Caught in a thicket, concrete among the rebels
Cause lost and found, but found in tatters
This isn't cause for celebration but all the same
Loser takes all; lost all but emerged a sage
I had stepped out of the scene for a shut eye
Came back to find the scene completely rearranged
And there hardly time to marvel at how strange
I drowning man will catch at straw, and I'm flailing
Trying hard but failing to grab my bearings
You know how you can get a concussion
In a freak accident and come back completely different?
Yeah, that's the report I'm filing
REFUSAL TO DUCK
Tucker sits on lawn chair sipping his pop.
Two bullet holes like flies land on backdrop.
A retired mechanism.
He’s done with tourism.
He’s a sitting duck in front of a shop.
8/16/2017
You can see it when a man raises
his collar, and his shirt
is partially unbuttoned. A burning desire
to reveal his presence is evident.
World War I and World War II
was lost and won by men;
children of mothers who raised them
to take charge of themselves,
rather than taking the world. No man
permits himself to be a sitting duck,
as his property is taken.
A man hides his fears when he goes out
on a date. He controls his anxiety
by controlling his breathing and speech
during the interview between souls.
No one else you'll see getting thrilled
by life's challenges like a man;
it's his nature to set the problems
in front of him like pawns
in a chess game....
A man indeed is a creation that was designed
to struggle, survive and triumph!
Unpunctuating ,
fear will slice the time,
and you will be a sitting duck
in the hands of brutal clock.
Drink, Apollo,
with round eyes and
limbless torso. He walks on
the curves, reciting mantras.
There was intrigue and blackmail
in return for not telling
the indiscretion of celibates.
A damp squib. There was lot
of hissing sound, but no
explosion. Procreatiom will
stop without fire.
Wants to return to pines.
The cones, the pricks and
swaying hips of splendid suggestion.
Satish Verma
When it rains it pours
Bad luck soars
You're falling apart
Behind closing doors
When the lights go out
You're consumed with doubt
Your losing your voice
But dying to shout
The domino effect
Your life is a wreck
One wrong move
And you sprained your neck
A stroke of bad luck
You're a sitting duck
You try breaking free
But your body is stuck
In sets of three
Inevitably
You aren't superstitious
But begin to believe
Will it relent
Your last penny spent
You bang on the walls
But can't make a dent
A thud on rock bottom
Devouring a crumb
The sound of silence
A high pitch drum
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