Staples Poems | Examples

Grandpas

2 men i called Grandpa acting like a Dad when a man walked away
Never batting an eye they'd be there for us everyday
One was out spoken and never left something unsaid
Other kept to himself so you find a way for your heart to mend
They always taught something new to me
Since I was just under Three
Just a girl that wanted her dad 
Grandpas never let her stay mad
Sneaking extra Banana Popsicles when Grandma was napping
Getting into the sweet stash quietly so they didnt hear the wrapping
Grandpas had the joke and skits they played on us
Those new lighters and staples were always a lil sus
Whether it was one sneaking food off your plate
Or the making you open the pasture gate
Being told to not waste time or tears on a man who does show up
What he meant was brace yourself and keep your feet in the stirrup
People always had the chance to let me down
Grandpa showed me how to move on without a sound
Things they did shaped us into the parents we are
They've got the best seats since they became a star

Travelling Light

Dedicated to Stuart A. Staples


I want to break someone's little finger
In three places

Give me strings on a hollow wooden body
Crumpled suits and apprehension

The warbler, the jongleur
The slur, the trill, the quaver

I can only serenade in that way
Without drop z tuning 

Barmonies and mashed taters
Send in the French horn

Alone in the living room
The air conditioner remote 

Engrossed and enthralled in the music
The dog watching me

Bridges

Distance, even for a short while, still is
Whether it’s a river or a stream, you still need a bridge
But bridges burn
And even when they don’t
They weather
They rot
They fall apart so slowly
You don’t notice until the floorboards have collapsed beneath you
And you’re left with nothing
Just the remnants of the bond you thought would last forever
Clutched to your chest in agony as you desperately try to fit the pieces back together
Tape and glue and screws and staples won’t fix it
So you begin to fall apart, too
And those staples and screws and tape and glue
Are never enough
To get you through.

Branded Y2K

Yankee-two-kilo
Yankee-two-kilo
Can you read me?
Y2K
The year 2000's on the way
The new millennium's almost here
To write January 1, 2000 will be weird
Star Trek's beam me up Scottie was
A far out idea
But now the space shuttle goes up
Several times a year
The crew of seven went up that day
(don't look up to watch it burn)
they had no fear, now their view from heaven
Is crystal clear
When January 1 comes will
My computer freeze?
Will I get my money from the
ATM with the greatest of ease?
Did I store any staples and canned
Goods to keep my mind at ease?
Will I be able to trade in the
Stock market as I please?
Y2K
Yankee-two-kilo
Calling all earthlings!
Come aboard
The space center on the moon is
Ready (it has so much more
More than you'd ever imagined before)
Don't look back to watch it burn

Property Of

My pencil isn’t really mine
Because it says, instead,
That it’s the “Property of 
NYC Bd of Ed.”

I taught in New York City schools
And, once I had retired,
There were some school supplies that I
Had suddenly acquired:

Like pens and pencil, post-it-notes,
Some staples, chalk and paper.
It wasn’t quite enough to be
A teacher school-theft caper.

I’ve been retired fifteen years
And no one has come looking.
I suspect my current pencil
Won’t land me in Central Booking.

I Don'T Want To Die

I don’t want to die,
the spring doves cried.

Down the streets and coffee shops
each step in the pavement whittles it down

bit by bit. I don’t want
to die, the flyers say,

through ten layers of
broken staples, of

missing pets. I don’t
want to die, says the cat

on the large wire fence, where someone
has woven it through with leaves.

It meows at me, and I
don’t want to die, the world

spins around with no thoughts
in mind, the people spin around

with their thousands of wishes,
planets of desires,

orbiting each other, and everyone keeps
crashing, the world caves in quietly,

silently so no one else can see
the sinkhole splitting open

I don’t want to die, I don’t want
to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die

Adhesives

Adhesives come in many forms – 
There’s glue and tape and paste,
Including some that double-stick,
If you’ve no time to waste.

There also are some methods
Which will help things to adhere
In temporary fashion
So a page won’t disappear…

Such as paper clips and fasteners
And staples, tacks and pins,
Among the tools that many need
Before their work begins.

Still, unless you have an editor,
There is no easy trick
To remind a lazy writer
To his topic he should stick.

Round As a Balloon

Sugar Frosted Flakes and Trix
    Staples of healthy diets
  Cocoa Puffs and Cap'n Krunch
    My sister said to try it...

  Now I'm round as a balloon
    My arms and legs stick out
  And when I try to take a breath
    Sugar cubes come out

As the Mirror Photographs Eyes

As the mirror photographs eyes, 
Tongues running laps read glazed signs,
Broken phone calls your label
Talking fire cuts fixed cable,
Voices piling in rooms behind. 

Snapshotting darkness as I dine,
Mailing timepiece's vessel skies,
Painkillers rocking the cradle, 
As the mirror photographs eyes. 

The brain's carcass sees the sun rise
Rotating roads, token trails sigh, 
Step on streets in staples, 
The deck of cards on the table 
Covers stained face, breaking disguise 
As the mirror photographs eyes

Duplicity of the Wind

The wind seems a song of placidity
As it passes through the meadow near
But I know it’s a harbinger of treachery
Soon, from sudden blasts of Arctic air.

They say a snowstorm is imminent
We must quickly prepare for the worst
A drop in the barometer is prominent,
And folks in our area are well-versed.

The grocer’s shelves are nearly bare
Of staples like bread, milk, and cheese,
The wind has begun to pick up there
In the meadow and through the trees. 

written January 16, 2022

Dancing With the Wind

Across great plains and in rich soiled valleys
on tall and slender stalks, they dance.
They sway to the tunes as Mariah plays,
Her flute whistling notes in wind songs.
They bend and dip in choreographed allegro.
Amber cobra's hypnotized by gentle breezes.

Mighty Sun, Ra, smiles down upon them.
They praise him for his fatherly warmth,
helping them develop to maturity.
Deeply rooted children, fed by the soil
Elements blend to nourish the golden crops,
nursed at the breasts of the Goddess, Rain.

Harvest reaped and grains thrashed
sacrificed as staples for mankind's need.
Now the plains and valleys lay bare,
replenishing their cupboards
to feed the next seedlings
implanted and given in to their care.

Estate Sale

Advertised as an Estate Sale
Which I took to mean
Not just yard sale discards.

Here are some 
Of the things you could obtain:

Aluminum baking pans
Plastic punch bowl
Four segments of track from a train set
Discolored tea-towels with embroidered edges
Christmas themed throw pillow
Velvet painting of sailing ships
Flimsy dollar-store wall mirror
Cheaply framed picture of Jesus
A used tire with "free" sign taped to it
Tupperware, a bit stained
Tiny shelf for back of toilet
Chipped bowls and plates
Mismatched spoons
Wobbly lawn chair
Book club mystery with coffee cup circle
Bread basket, slightly crushed
Half a box of staples
Cookie tin, rusty inside
Fragile teacup with handle glued back on
Melamine resin plates
VHS tapes in sun-faded boxes.

The leavings of a life
Can certainly be sad.

Of Thanksgiving and Thanks Giving

on food-filled tables

folks display horns of plenty

prayers unspoken. . .

in other homes, souls bow heads -

grateful for life’s mere staples


Oct. 31, 2021
For  A Thanksgiving Tanka Poetry Contest
Sponsor: L Milton Hankins

A Halloween Fable

It's halloween I'm babysitting, little horrors crawl from their cradles
I'm not a happy chaperone, these kids are becoming quiet unstable 
Frankenstein's unscrewed some bolt, his head's hanging by a cable 
Dracula drank five Bloody Marys, now he's talking complete babel 
Wolf-boy's climbing walls, I nailed his paws rendering him incapable 
Wicked witch's making potions, with soiled diapers and sugar maple 
The crazed Mummy's eating bandaids, he looks even more disabled 
Evil twins are slashing each other's faces, I'm running out of staples 
Skinny skeleton kid's choking to death, stuffing his face with bagels 
The exorcist cannot stay still, keeps spinning her head on the table 
Johnny's home! chopping doors, I'm outta here my heart's not able 

Halloween Monorhyme Contest Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Caren Krutsinger 
10/30/2021

Comic Book Hell

The fires of Hell took to the comic books,
And danced with the best as the pages shook!
Bill and Ted, Godzilla and Hellboy grew,
Amongst ash clouds while demons violently flew.

Hellboy smoked his cigarettes,
Bill and Ted played with an abysmal death.
Godzilla battled Kaiju leviathans,
While readers prayed their foes would wan.

Demons, witches, monsters; hard to beat,
They are used to mangling souls in dusty heat.
Though time and again at the crimson seat...
Our heroes achieve the impossible feat!

When we realize... just paper and staples,
We grab one more of unearthly fables.

1-September-2021

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