symbolic measures
poked and prodded womanhood ~
hysteria rules
If I were a fly on the wall at a DNA office,
I’d see one mama budgeting child support for two maybes,
hoping the high-earner wins the paternity sweepstakes.
A grown man doing a victory dance he practiced in the car,
while another looks stunned like the swab repossessed his last hope.
A grandma wiping tears of joy because her real grandbaby finally found her.
A whole couple discovering they’re cousins and breaking up mid-hug.
Three siblings realizing the middle one belongs to nobody in the room.
Just a fly dodging swats while families get swabbed,
watching bloodlines flip faster than reality TV plot twists.
Is it worth it when you travel
But you wind up getting sick?
Seems like Covid and vacations,
In conjunction, somehow click.
After flying home from Paris,
People sneezing on the plane,
I felt tired, but the reason
Could have choices to explain.
Is it jet lag? Is it Covid?
Well, I took a swab-type test
And in fifteen minutes – Voila!
Just confirming what I’d guessed.
So I’m stuck at home with Covid,
But I really do not know,
If this outcome was for certain,
Would I’ve chosen then to go?
If you can't become a creative quill
to write a poem of my joy and happiness,
be an empathy eraser of solace
to swab the scribble of my sorrow and pain.
Where does one find True Extinction
Long gone into sad extinction?
Know I some doubly soiled magistrates
Clean for their mansions with balustrades,
A wife-beater philanthropist
Who would not pay for bandaged wrist,
A lauded sharp shooter commando
Who fired and missed stalked Fernando
And doctor who called colleague 'Dummy'
But swab forgot in patient's tummy...
And it's second missionary journey
Prompting a bribing of Attorney.
They had for him come in a cab:
Mister Sabinus for short, Sab,
A guy with the gift of the gab
To receive wounds or the wounds grab...
If only he'd leave fast - A Crab!
He'd prevent what handkerchiefs dab,
His movements had often been drab,
For which reasons they could him nab
And over hand him to Wahab...
Luckless chap for Torturer's Lab,
For boxer's blows and waiting swab;
They shall this celebrate with tab.
No god greater than their Wahab...
More and more sweat on Sab's poor neck,
On a spot imaging the wreck:
"Scream after ascending a deck:
I did not a woman's cheek peck;
Men need to know who's being tortured
Plus the guys who had it nurtured".
I'm drawing plans for a fictional realm,
Insightful brinks and a sacrifice-themed helm.
Smoothness clings to a grip, then rots away,
Her ruby eyes are shadowed by a torn sky.
Cold, harsh hands of time cement reality,
Consider a wild parallel to true vitality.
I spot your inner vibe and your groove,
Wait for them until we are told to move.
Ardor pulls me and ousts me at the sight,
aired hands-held dirty web shreds on site.
Are you going to cry away your worry?
Repair the shattered pieces of my fury.
Bind our beating souls jointly raising affection,
Yield the cosmos a color-flowing connection.
Bind me to draw with you as we recite our tale,
Configure the skeleton with a quatrain trail.
Throw pain and swab it away from raw flesh,
From our throat, write thoughts left fresh.
A writer with omniscience named fate rosery,
Ink filled our souls till we were bleeding poetry.
Draft a proud ending and infuse it into capacity,
Sitting on the side of the soul rapt in creativity.
Written: October 06, 2022
Winged Blind Beauty
White swan -
sight gone
A Macaw's Worth
Parrot
Merit
Turkey Oblivious to Thanksgiving Fate
Perky
Turkey
The Odd One
Quirky
Turkey
Present the Roasted Bird
Unveil
done quail
Clean that Skinny Bird
Swab thin
Robin
Bird of the Day
Today -
Blue Jay
Sept. 28. 2022
A Brian Strand Premiere Choice Poetry Contest
Swab
inside
my nose
presses, swirls. Twinges,
twitches, runs like it’s bleeding.
I wait in lobby, till rest home screener
smiles. “Negative! Good to go!”
Grandmother, I only
do this
for
you!
To escape from further quarantine
To escape from further boredom
To escape from further Nucleic Acid Test
People prefer domestic travel
Instead of foreign travel
People believe
Less risk more joy
With SOP they will be safe
Although the sun, the sceneries
And the people they meet
Are the same
But they look a bit different
Because of long absence
And the glory of God is warmer
Because of survival being heartily granted
Once and forever
Breaking news this just in,
Russian medics have just discovered
a vaccine or cure for Covid-19
1 sprits of Novichok
1 cup if tea laced with Polonium - 210
Followed by a weekend mini city break
Taking in the 125 meter tall steeple
above Salisbury Cathedral
A symposium on fake news delivered
by Vlad Putin himself
A beginner's introduction to chemistry on the
periodic tables most toxic poisons
And a crash course in election
tampering
Then lunch a passing out ceremony
and certificate with matching gift set
And proverbial negative swab test resulting
in the all clear nothing to see here
Nostrovia vodka for everyone to celebrate
and toast our success
If I Die, Bury Me With Pencils
My sense of smell is gone.
Acetone is empty air.
The cough
attempts to cut the mucus from my lungs,
expell it from my lungs.
The fibers of the swab penetrated my flesh,
cotton against capillaries;
armies clashed with red and white blades;
sent to Jefferson City,
results unknown for 48 hours
to week.
But, doctor expects it to be
positive.
The x-rays
did not look good.
“Go home.”
“Quarantine.”
“Hydrate.”
“Call 911 at first sign of trouble breathing.”
“Things go downhill fast.”
Mortality rate of intubation of covid cases in New York City is 80%
Obesity increases mortality rate.
I wait for my test,
almost breathless,
but not yet.
Crossing my bedroom floor, I look down
and find an unopened package of papermate mechanical pencils,
the school bus yellow kind,
with the good erasers,
and the turning tip with the spinning spring inside that jockeys the graphite out,
perfect for drawing, writing, geometric constructions,
all the things that free the soul,
all the things where anything is possible,
where good and life flow sunlight
and lungs are worlds away.
It started early for me - using words sailors are supposed to know
My parents had no idea where I got them.
I figured it was my last lifetime
When I was a pirate.
I could cuss with gusto at an early age.
Dhraammit! I would yell when I tried to walk and fell on my knees.
What did she say? My parents asked each other,
hoping it was not what it was.
I got my mouth washed out with a bar of Ivory soap
by the time I was four and was using these words:
SLURP! SMARL! MACH! WHOOOP! CHICAKE
Chicake meant cat, but they thought it meant something else.
They were the parents, and in charge of the soap
So gurgle, gurgle, spit, spit, gurgle, gurle, choke, choke.
I rapidly learned to not swear around my parents
However, I was quite selective in my friend-choosing.
I did not surround myself with the super religious
Or the super judgmental, which were often the same actually.
I surrounded myself with other reincarnated pirates like me.
Dhrammit, it’s not my turn to swab the deck! No swhit?
Trump Swab and Rob Mob Shop
Bumps from lies had to swab and swab,
And Trump all of us would rob and rob;
Loose lipped lousy liar;
Should have to expire;
Be run over by mob after another mob.
Jim Horn
Oh, how I want a job
So no one thinks I'm a slob
Because I don't rob
Too qualified to deck swab
But I'm just a blob
Hitting computer knobs
Taking phone calls, no prob
Makeup on, mascara to daub
Turning key fobs
To interview with snobs
Who don't choose me, sob
Depressed, eat corn cob
My forehead throbs
Where are you God?!
No matter, keep resume's lobbed
Just another in the mob!
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