Yes, I am frightened.
I am frightened of being frightened.
My unsound mind,
dwells among dark shadows quaffing silence,
where the quadriplegic dead beckon,
a sea spewing out skeletal remains
of ancient swimmers.
Sounds of calcified castanets haunt my dreams.
Accusatory cranial eyes stare at me
and bony fingers point in my direction.
My crimson blood turns blue.
Oh! The fear, the fright that one day
I too will become unfleshed like them.
He grinned broadly from the corner
a percussive serrated smile,
cadaverous lips displaying
a rakish scarecrow style.
His emaciated figure chattered
suspended precariously from a hook;
I was completely startled
by his penetrating look.
His wink was disconcerting,
those vacant eyes held wide;
I wouldn’t call him cheeky
though he displayed a gangly pride.
One arm extended slightly
as if inviting my embrace;
it might feel a little morbid
held against that hollow face.
Gothic trends might call him charming
though his apparel seems unique,
one would only see it hanging
in a nudist colony boutique.
One dance was all he wanted
waltzing the orthopedic floor,
that physician’s skeletal dummy
I just couldn’t make myself ignore.
July 31, 2026
Skeletons Poetry Contest
Seth Pina, Sponsor
Nette Onclaud- DROP THE CLICHE
10 Dec. 2025
I sit uttering the common words,
NO GUTS, NO GLORY, but what of me?
What of the bone, the structure,
The planning for the plot?
Why am I denied recognition
For remaining in the background?
I was still here. It was me. Alas,
No guts. No glory
She's an eclipsed daughter, satanic stars slaughter,
as smoked skulls scream powers, dead enchantress flowers.
When it is skeletal peace
An aunt wont want her nice niece,
Of all things Good Aunt could miss,
Certainly not her soft kiss…
All would be to no avail,
The real peace to not prevail
Plain malice was the old nail,
Still with them in its loved veil,
One another’s name they hail
But expect in life to fail…
One had ended up in jail
And the other’s mirth lost trail,
She’d rather die than her bail
Or a relief package mail…
If she get freed time to wail
And at her good lawyer rail…
In the remains of the day
Looking away into the planes
Green horizons void at the end
Of the gray dawn man washes
His façade and the pain
A bitter rain
Pride of a prodigal sun
His beloved the envision pawn
Scream of rage in the FACE of the loss
On sable sand where death had ran
Wondering in his sons lineage
Image of man watching the falling rain
Like golden mana, falling, falling
On the bones of his humanity
Logic twisted tragedy in the opening act
The genesis of the one
The rising gun the empirical sum
The running of the dark dominions sun
High, silhouetted in crosses on a mount of bone
Marking Adams Empire
Seeing the exploding light
Desolation’s Tower rise…
Seeing the remains
The truth like dried flash hanging
Living in a coil of primitive fury
Awash in delicate oils of lives toil
At the corner of an ill creation
Is the corrupted soil
Waiting for the righteous born
On sable sand raise
Fill the wells of the loss
The skeleton remains
Of a dream one once lived…
Golden
Now the runes of the earth
In the fragments of gray daylight
Long buried away…
No if in fact truth be told
On the contrary
Not only am i not only drowning
I am floating aboard a bubble
Whilst simultaneously both airing
and cleaning out my laundry
And don't forget as i am still
a serving politician
Say and throw whatever you
wish but mudd don't stick
As mudd is thicker than water
When it comes to independent
inquests resided over by
The keeper of the secret skeletal
key's locked inside pandoras closet
box or cupboards
The whisper went through the warriors like lighting of the night
Most knew rumors of the beast, but had not had him in their sight
The valiant gathered and headed into the woods, ready to be brave
More actually turned their blade and hid shaking in an everglade.
Is it the skeletal griffin? Someone asked me. As if I was in the know.
We walked through the meadow, trailing the ones whose courage show.
I did not know, but there was an absolute feeling of death in the air.
Being empathic, I could feel it, for to others I always care.
“It is he," the knowing woods breathed into the ethers, in a sudden way.
Without a doubt more than one of us would die before the break of day.
We marched, the six of us, knights sworn to uphold honor and be fair.
Finally saw the monster, he was coming out of a grave like lair.
He hissed and was as terrible as any champion we had ever seen.
Sensed he was here to kill us, was doing his duty, not being mean.
What do you need? I asked as he breathed fire into the night.
He turned enormous green eyes upon me, and I nearly died of fright.
Autumn trees stand forboding
With their skeletal branches,
Silhouettes in pale moonlight,
Like witches fingers.
Written 1st October 2020.
For Writing Challenge - Dodoitsu - poetry Contest.
Sponsored by Constance La France.
The human skeleton,
is made up of 206 bones
By jove, they are hard,
as if made of stones!
The brain you think with
is in the Skull or Cranium,
the Maxilla and the Mandible
are for chewing bubble gum.
It's atop the spine
which has 33 Vertebrae in all
You're sure gonna break it
if there's a nasty fall.
The 12 pairs of ribs
act just like a big ring,
while 10 fix to the Sternum
the bottom 2 are Floating.
The shoulder blade or the Scapula
is joined with the Clavicle
How they organize the movement
Is another spectacle.
The arms have the Humerus,
the Radius and the Ulna,
The hands' have wrist bones
called Carpals (not made in China).
With Metacarpals and Phalanges
we complete our hand,
don't you forget the lower limbs,
upon which we stand.
The hip bones make the Pelvis
from which the Femur originate
If you gyrate it like elvis
the Patella is sure to break.
Tibia and Fibula
are there in the Shin
The Tarsals and Metatarsals
shape your feet as it's seen.
Our journey ends here
Let me take your leave,
Take good care of your bones
for as long as you live.
In the chilled space of time,
There she stood—unperturbed;
There she stood, cold and motionless
As if a victim of death, but not dead;
There she stoically stood—challenging
All of nature; even man himself—daring.
There she stood—leafless—her tall skeleton
Piercing the sky as if a monument to her life
And being—a naked statue with arms spread wide.
If her imaging could speak, standing there, she
Would probably say: “Joy not; mourn not…I shall return;
I shall return in all the beauty and fullness of my being.”
There she stood, gloriously rooted—nature’s most profound
Teaching symbol of the essence of life, death and resurrection—
Indeed, what could be more representative than a wintered tree!
Trump Skeletal Remains
Only thing left of Trump were skeletal remains,
And all water had washed away on his brains;
Disappearing act,
A proven fact;
The same thing also goes for his blood stains.
Jim Horn
The sea summons in unrelenting whispers
haunting the night as waves spin their spliced harrowing tales
Hallowed echoes an unending scourge over tenderness
weeping secrets wait held in bondage’s everlasting kiss
Terrified to speak as translation becomes disloyalty
aching is betrayal and compassion is flammable fragility
One misstep and balance becomes twisted alienated from truth
as fear takes hold from these toxic dissonant words
Scathing reproach becomes buried beneath tidal swells
carrying out its inevitable pilgrimage towards unrighteousness
Cold suspicion scatters on the shores in broken shells
trapped by suffering and tormented by long ago betrayals
Decaying memories never lived once imagined still dwell unanswered
this is not love quietly whispers on the wind of denial's farewell....
Human wreckage
Skeletal wasteland
Void of emotions
Echoes... vague-
Shadow boxing
In darkness
With ghosts.
Over a large cauldron
A lone skeleton stirs up
Some old recipe
Smiling at nearby black cat
Wishing it would catch a rat
For the rat could bring
The concoction to a boil
Leaving the potion
With what the skeleton needs
To finally set him free
Russell Sivey
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