"I hate it when..." Fill in the blank
We can divine evolutionary purpose for most emotions
Fear, love, compassion, etc...
That rational thought is supposed to leaven
"I hate it when I wake up tired."
When will we grow tired of hate?
I looked at my toes in the bathtub
Imagined them curling around a tree
Gave myself a shoulder rub
Thought about primal ancestry.
The dentist removed my canine teeth
They reminded me of the wolf beneath
And when insurance took me off his list
I growled like a cheetah being dissed.
Was I just a wild beast?
Like a chimp finding a feast?
Like a bird singing with a mating goal?
Like an elk at a water hole?
I ran into a hostile guy
Said I had told a lie
Said I was a snake, a skunk
So I got into a funk.
Didn't I have a spirit higher?
Wasn't there creative fire?
Couldn't I get respect
for my curious seeking intellect?
Tell me someone tell me please
that I'm not a monkey in the trees.
Though there's a white oak in my yard
Its fun to climb, and not so hard.
So I'll embrace my inner critter
I won't be angry, won't be bitter
I'll transcend it when I can
And I hope you understand:
why when I try to sing a tune
I sound like a wolf howling at the moon.
If we acknowledge Mother Earth,
How is it we discount her daughters?
If might doesn't make right,
What have we left out of the world?
What do we make of this world… that was made for us?
If we look up to Father Sky,
Is that why we look down on Mother Earth?
Or have we put words in the mouth of the wind,
When we mouth the words of our fathers?
Have we not learned from whence they came?
across the globe bees
risk losing more than we know
~ endangered species
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
antelopes eat cantaloupes
hellions eat melons
bears feast on pears
leeches on peaches
parakeets eat the wheat
~ leave the chaff for giraffes
Thanks to Darles Charwin for his
posthumous advice ~ gw
In the spring we're hungry
Dandelions are mowed down by the millions
We watch helpless in disbelief
Wordku: 5-7-5- words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Jane learned that chimpanzees are much like us in many ways. They have families and feelings; they communicate and make tools. Chimpanzees actually share 98.6% of our DNA, proving they are indeed our closest relatives.
Regardless of the ethical dilemma, some geniuses thought chimpanzees would be ideal for medical experiments. We’ll never know how many were sacrificed in the name of science… But it turned out their immune system was vastly different from humans !
Thankfully many chimps slated for medical research were able to retire and live out many years safely in ideal sanctuaries. Chimpanzees are still an endangered species but their numbers are slowly rising thanks to Jane ~
Jane looked within
she saw kinship in their eyes
~ reclaimed their rights
AP: 3rd place 2025
To all the male members
of the praying mantis species
a word to the wise you guys
now pay attention to my theses
whether for fun you recreate
or to mate and procreate
it's something I really would not advocate
hold on tight to your pants
love at first sight is not romance
I don't care if you look
but never dare go so far
as to unhook her bra
and whatever you do don't lose your head
as before postcoital dysphoria sets in
the female will kill you dead
she'll make a meal of you
tear you limb from limb
and if you don't believe me
when last did you see our randy brother Jim?
The save vanishing species USPS stamp -
featuring an Amur tiger cub graphic
-----------------------------------------------
Hillborn river, gentle Amur flows east
Embracing enroute a score of besties
Enriching diverse lives, some so unique
She sways towards the ocean Pacific
Warm orange bright Siberian tigers
Left in cold, threatened, dispossessed drifters
Settle along serene flowing Amur
Takes her name, huddle along her, survive
Sad eyes with Blake's immortal symmetry
An Amur cub stamped on clear envelope
Stares at cruel human eyes with pity
Asks for mercy, for marked territory
Great T-rumposaurus meanus!
Adolph and Don share a genus
With teensy wiener
Was Hitler meaner
Or Trump with his weeny p-e-n-i-s?
Humans
are choking the neck
right now.
They only need
to loosen
their grip
just a little.
But humans
cannot even
do that.
Because humans
have never
had it done
for them.
I saw her in a meadow high
Where red flowers touch the sky
Her eyes were mournful, so much inside
I looked within, skepticism died
(chorus)
I'm in love with a big blue cow
And a big blue cow loves me
She don't have a job, but she survives
Without that college degree
She don't take drugs, and she don't drink
We agree about politics, I think.
I used to date a gal, who talked a storm
But I felt cold, I had to feel warm
I wanted a date who understood me
This cow is electric, I touched the fence, and I see.
Now its the wrong species, my parents would plea
But species is what I say it must be
In Kindergarten, they indoctrinated me
with a gender book, for kids aged three
At this point, you might say I'm moronic
But true love is always platonic
over 28 percent of young women say they are gay
I think that society made them that way
So don't laugh at me when I avow
eternal affection for my big blue cow
I'll go to the meadow, and gaze in her eyes
where bees buzz, and the condor cries
You may say I believe what I want to believe
But who doesn't, and love can't deceive.
To be a strong man is a lesson to learn.
We must deal with the heartaches after we are born.
No sorrow, no remorse or making amends;
Everything begin in childhood, where your mind can ascend.
You have to be tough with reality to see things as they are,
To get beaten over and over until you can't take no more.
Fall down on your knees because your heart is weak;
Try not to cry when you're trying to speak.
We just get back up with standards and pride,
Putting one foot in front of the other and don't break a stride.
A smile on our face hides the hurt and pain,
Distinguishing ourselves from the weak man of shame.
No one to comfort us because we won't let you;
Looking straight forward is the mindset we have to go through.
It's a dangerous world if a man lets it be,
Because the man is an endangered species only if people could see.
Peter in the summer morning sun
his cool smile shaded by shadows run
his voice as soothing as coffee’s scent
tell me he wasn’t heaven sent
Peter of Malibu moss and Spanish rose
his lips like light-coral, in kissable repose
his legs slouched akimbo, like a tiger’s limbs
how I long to re-entangle myself in them.
Peter’s quick caress, on windy Tropez beaches
aren’t men the most delightful, of nature's invasive species?
I miss the jeweler’s precision, of his warm and playful hands
and how the sun slowly gifted him, with a model’s golden tan.
Peter sipping coffee under a brittle, New Haven sun,
his rough laugh following something silly I’d done.
There’s no cryptic, localized pathology, happening at the beach,
when the two of us are together, our worlds just seem complete.
.
.
Songs for this:
What the World Needs Now by Tori Holub & James Wilkas
be mine by strongboi
In modern day times since twenty-fifteen
Fifty new species of dinosaurs have been seen
Because new places are being rapidly excavated
Excitement generated cannot be overstated
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