.
my left eyebrow
it's ear's edge
up
it queried
'long with mine
lip's left
their ear's edge
up
'long with mine
left eye's squinch
it's ear's edge
up
mine first ever
to the hers query
"would you be my girlfriend"
mine leg'z nervous
instinctively
flex'd
mine trembling torso
up
Left
thru those
revolving
glass doors
Grinch Finch
I once was hired to use a winch
to wrap it’s chain around a tree
a tree that held a frightened cat
I knew that this would be a cinch
for nothing ever worried me
I didn’t know there was a finch
who nested there and what a grinch
and then I felt a little pinch
an assault that made me flinch
my facial muscles gave a squinch
who is this angry bird so meek
to threaten me with its small beak
the cat was saved and I had vowed
to wear this moment like a shroud
and never speak of it out loud
no more to use a winch and flinch
or squinch because of a small pinch
by anger of a grinchy finch
who woudn’t even give an inch
What Makes You Flinch Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Julie Leigh Rodeheaver
June 16 2019
Treading lightly through snaking,
muddy trench
Squeaking boots with slippery
grooves synch
A mass of matted flesh bares its
rotten stench
Thirsting maggots, doting flies
cannot quench
No rustic accoutrements adorn, not
even a bench
Deep longing for warm touches of
caring mother, practiced wench
But only cold, rancid rain does
shriveled limbs drench
In crowded hovel, selfishly hoarding
space, miserly grinch
On the perimeter, attentively
guarding every blood-soaked inch
At the sound of concussive fire,
conditioned body doesn't flinch
Chiseled teeth in tandem solemnly
do clinch
Only my spent gut, as churning
butter does wrench
With dutiful vigor, watching every
strand of demarcated pinch
At the slightest, forward motion,
my hawk eyes squinch
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