Horses! Poor victims of man's inhumanity.
How many had their lives destroyed without pity?
Drag carts in dark mines without seeing the daylight.
Charge in battles, inhale gases, die in a fight.
Worn out carrying plows for men who disparage.
For the travelers, pull heavy horse-drawn carriage
Under the blazing sun, the rain, or in the haze;
And for silly, heartless tourists still nowadays.
You strongly curse these exploiters, powerful nag!
I read in your dreams, thoughts, even in your fibers,
And guess how you see your heaven ideally.
In arenas, these sinister people, in rag
And despair, join circus tamers and bullfighters
Condemned to kill each other perpetually.
Joe is an old, withered tiger.
Stripes of balsa wood and matches, walking in a burning ring of hellfire
His shameless tamers snapping whips.
From deep blue state shadows
to keep the latest ruse afloat.
Feeding him grade school scripts.
Paraded in front of media buzzards.
Most cultures would call it senior abuse.
Now and again, he stretches the chain.
Gives us a glimpse inside his sinkhole brain.
A rusted-through windchime without wind.
In the maelstrom of a radical-rancid-rain.
Joe the withered tiger in the gloaming of life.
Thinks he's still sniffing daisies.
That have long ago turned into knives...
I have never liked the circus,
I find them very cruel.
Bears on unicycles,
Do nothing for me at all,
Or the bear come to that
And that's a fact
Lion tamers that use whips,
Trying to take command
Of the king of the jungle,
Is more than I can stand
Performing dogs, jumping fleas,
Why do we need to torture these
Poor creatures in this way.
Do we take pleasure in this,
Or does it pay,
The circus to exploit and say
"They're only animals anyway"
The Thylacine, the Caspian tiger,
the Caribbean monk seal…
As these beasts disappear,
the most cruelty-vorous species appears.
They are homologous with humans
but their bearings are too brutal.
Though plenty in Asia,
their habitats are found in all the continents.
They hold the holy books
that they never read.
Tender feelings are scoped out by their tamers.
Empty sensorium.
Even the shattered body of an infant
won’t wet their eyes.
They chew the cud of bloody thoughts in isolation,
entranced by a heaven.
First published in The Literary Hatchet (Pear Tree Press, US).
Undaunted unicorn, the tamers dew leaf,
Auspicious lovers tryst due utopia,
Virtuous sojourn flung upon sublime wings,
dew clump stumps couple...
Date: 06/27/2019
Big top three-ring-circus ferris wheel and sideshow freaks
Ringmaster draws your attention to the center ring
Presenting the bareback rider with a graceful fling
Silly clowns riding tricycles
Fierce animals and lion tamers
Elephants waiving their disclaimers
Cotton candy and merry-go-round
Trapeze acrobats dangling high in the air
Walking the tightrope without a care
No matter how it seems appearances can deceive
Though life is but a circus with its fireworks and flames
Behind the scenes might not always be fun and games
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
A little Bluer
Tales of the great
folklore and the gypsies
pirates all around the state
traveling the seas getting tipsy
mythical witches and their brews
hellish demons and angels too
This world you will have trouble
elves and trolls...wait, I'm not through
fairy's and pixie dust
hookers, temptresses with lust
humbled yogis, monks and shamans
Buddhists, Jehovah's, Amish and Mormons
temples, God's, and holy cows
cheating couples with broken vows
thieves, killers, gamblers and drunks
California with all the babes and hunks
Insecure actors, and glutton hillbillies
**** stars giving old men wet willies
boxers, wrestlers, and samurai
watch out? You might just lose an eye
Wizards, and snake tamers
magic card nerds and all the gamer's
whatever you choose, nothing truer
you just might make the world a little blue
Freedom rides an all bright
white horse with wings,
but you can't see them,
you have to think of them first,
to see them with your mind's eyes
and then put them on, on you.
Freedom is in the mind first,
then in the chains,
many minds melted chains and tamers
and others lock them by themselves.
Some prefer to look the ground
and do as they're told,
the tiger hits the bars
with her head and dies,
the lion doesn't.
The Islanders
We live in an Island
Surrounded by water
Both murky and crystalline
In water we put our trust
To protect us
From the outsiders
Our lives are internalised
We become the outsiders.
We are the Islanders!
Our imagination is pixied
Our dreams not fluid
or solid but shattered.
Our faces closed.
This paradox is not what we desired.
We live in Diaspora in Dystopia!
Therefore the water lets us down
Again and again!
A bridge over it, we build
to reach out to the others
Embrace otherness
To embrace compassion
Afterall the word is the very epitome of the womb
From which we are born!
The healing begins in our core!
No longer are we Islanders.
But we are the tamers of the water
The builders of the bridges!
The healers and the healed.
While midnight bats are gnawing gnats and feasting free unseen,
a toddler’s fed from garbage sheds an elegant cuisine.
Along the trails in distant dales a lonesome wolverine
feigns appetite on fogy nights and days of crystalline.
The circus gongs excite the throngs in nighttime Never Land –
they swarm to see the destiny of Freaks at their command,
while Acrobats step pitapat across the shifting sands
and Lady Fat adores her cat and oozes charm unplanned.
The Dwarfs in suits, so small and cute when marching with the band,
ask crimson Clowns with painted frowns, to lend a mutant hand,
while Tamers’ whips with withered tips, throughout the winter land,
lure minds entranced through hoops enhanced with flames of fires fanned.
White Elephants in big-top tents sell black tusk contraband
to Sycophants in regiments who overflow the stands,
but No One sees anomalies, and No One understands.
At night’s demise, the dither dies, the lonely Crowd disbands,
down dead-end streets the Horde retreats, their threadbare rags in strands,
and Janes and Joes reweave their woes, for thoughts of change are banned.
Continued
Time’s masters, tamers of Nature;
Hunters upon deserts and rocky plains;
Enemies of failure and all the detractors of human stature;
United States; a united people;
Novelties of age but veterans of success,
Inclined to abolish depravities that cripple
The sons of men who with faith profess
Extra-precious abilities of mankind
Denied by the tyrants of ages behind.
Solemn fighters against the recalcitrant norms,
That have separated brother from brother
And maimed the fraternal warmth in homes.
Terrible storms you’ve braved;
Extensive are your boundaries,
So numerous are the paths you’ve paved.
Over division unity of all you’ve chosen;
Fallen are the fetters that bound so often.
America the land of bounty,
Millions are your citizens;
Ever filled with patriotism true and loyalty lofty.
Rich in glory and full of fame,
Invincible on both land and sea; of an indelible name;
Caring for the lame and mindful of the old,
Advanced in civilization; unmatched in silver and gold!
(I dedicate this composition to the dignified people of the United States of America)
Welcome to the show!
Bickering, maddening, lying, carnival of fools.
Circus of family.
Ringmasters of entertainment.
Clowns, and sideshow freaks.
Artists of balance, tamers of Lion's.
All working without a net.
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