Thick Skinned Poems

I Have Lived Before the Clocks

I have lived before the clocks were wound,
When silence spoke and stars made sound.
My hands once etched in temple stone,
The prayers of kings, yet slept alone.

I knew the scent of burning leaves,
In Vedic dawns, beneath fig trees.
I sang where Nile met desert wind,
A priest of fire, a soul thick-skinned.

In Rome, I wore the thinker’s face,
In chains of thought, not bound by place.
In robes of law or sacred thread,
I judged the living and the dead.

A scroll, a blade, a feathered pen—
Each life I bled and breathed again.
In Florence I lit minds like flame,
But died unknown, without a name.

In shadowed courts of Genghis' reign,
I walked as ghost through steppe and plain.
I sought the Truth in every creed,
But never tamed the soul's deep need.

Through monks and maps, through ink and war,
I crossed the seas to distant shore.
Each time reborn with memory dim,
Yet haunted by the silent hymn.

Now here I stand, the circle tight,
With one last fire to birth the night.
I’ve seen the rise and fall of men—
But will I walk this Earth again?

I Sea I Sea

I don’t need a gruff, a beard, to point the way.
I sea! I sea!

The silken waves lapping over me,
my memory

of what lies in the deep, in the dark ebb
and flow. I sigh, I glow!

O Captain, I’d lean in.
O parrot, on the thick-skinned.
I sea! I sea!

The moon dives in the water.
The sun cannot

lighten up the oil spill,
the spell of the salt-hallucinogen.

Do the waves themselves swim,
alive, ready to capture

me, in the throes
of an arch-frenemy?

The cool sparkle, the invitation -
I sea…I sea!

Pull me under…

The Girl I'm Infatuated With

The Girl I'm Infatuated With

The girl I am infatuated with
Tells her friends that she ignores my advances.
This flirtatious game she finds dismissive
Still, I stay the course and remain focused.

When I approach or pass her by, she stops
And acts neutral as if I didn’t exist.
Though disheartening, I calmly nod,
Like I’m thick-skinned and do not feel the sting.

For reasons I cannot explain clearly,
Her negative response is challenging.
And so I pursue my heartfelt desire,
Despite the laughter and chiding from her friends.

   Love is a paradox that has limits.
   Fear rejection—then live to regret it.

Stay Salty

Violently mimic the wind,
stay salty yet flow like water;
With an attitude stay thick skinned,
violently mimic the wind;
Keep poetry neat and well penned,
then punctuate it to slaughter;
Violently mimic the wind,
stay salty yet flow like water.

Queen

I’m honoured to be ‘Queen of Poop’ -
My title on Poetry Soup
Themes like constipation
May cause indignation
I’ll never not write on brown gloop!

All poets have got their own style
My humour makes some people smile
Folk may think I’m strange
But I’ll never change
My subjects though may be deemed vile!

Been chastised for poems on wind
You’d truly think that I had sinned
I’ll still write about farting
No, I won’t be departing
I’m lucky I’m pretty thick skinned!

Corporate Poem

There are many treasures hidden
In my sagacious corporate brain
I retrieve them when I need them
Then I place them back again
They are tightly packed together
Like a bunch of thick-skinned grapes
Uplifting affirmations
To which my mind escapes

So when you see me smiling
When you think I should be stressed
When I easily deliver that critical address
When my performance is so strong 
That it causes you to wonder
How on earth it is I do it
With all the pressure that I’m under
When my eyes begin to sparkle
And I give a knowing wink
Appearing confidently competent
And perfectly in sync

That’s because I’ve tapped into
My purpose once again

And there’s no stopping where I’m going
Or knowing where I’ve been

Pando Waits

in Pando's shadow a young maiden sings
wander'd to and fro peat bog feet sloshing
auburn locks adorned in daisy crowned rings
quite unaware that something was watching 

one with thick skinned carion heart at core
to scavenge Middlemist's red camellia
he too delivered from far away shores
a renaissance ratel in rebellion

Leila leisured in shade of quaking aspen trees
treacle honey joys spilled out across her dress
temptation so strong insatiable hunger needs
dark honey badger lept from a tufted hedge

in presence one so endeared, showed no fear
for all beasts, nature's greatest gift bequeath
proffered morsel from open hand as he neared
inquisitive eyes belied soft heart and sharp teeth 
 
forest branches embraced the two in nosh
as trembling giant's rustling now subdued
ladybugs flit from branch to dew covered moss
fingers stroked rough fur nape to back as he chewed

two walked ancestral shores as newfound kin
sniff'g this way and that among tufted pearls
claws tap entranced her soft cooing voice hymn
face framed in rivulets long carefree curls

long past gone Leila's song through far away gates
honey badger' forest friend rests - Pando waits

All, Or Nothing At All

I don’t limit who reads my verse,
only who I answer

Each word thick-skinned and armor-clad
all questions zero-sum 

(To Nelson Riddle & Frank Sinatra: March, 2021)

Avocado

I am mother goddess warrior
protector of the sacred Nisqually water
and the people of this land
I am native crow

I am also avocado
nice to eat and soft 
soft to my seed and thick skinned
or is it thin? I don't know

all the time I 
shed my skin
feel sweet and feed something

and then regrow

I am an avocado crow

In Our World

What is it about us and our kind
Quietly sitting there
Not calling out the bullies
The liars the cheats the fake
Taking it passively from that
Whole class of degenerates

We’re just interested in being happy
In our little world of art and whimsy
We don’t have it in us to push back
Be it thick-skinned politeness or
Delusional optimism on our part

Is it anything less than our way
Of nodding sheepishly heads in approval
Not daring to retaliate and take a stand 
For fear of speaking out of turn

Is it just our way of perpetuating
The bloodline of victims
Of pushovers and doormats 
For fear of getting involved
Wallflowers not wanting to stir the pot

We want to carry on in fantasyland 
Where lighthearted our type treads
Believing life can and should be fair 
With everyone wanting to live in harmony
In our little world everyone gets along


AP: Honorable Mention 2020

Posted on March 7, 2019

It Is Not So Easy For Me

you think it's easy
maybe your heart
doesn't bruise as quickly
maybe your mind
is a bastion of confidence
thick skinned indifference
maybe it's easier for you
could be true

As for me? Well…
I like to stay clear
"once bitten"....20 times as shy
the reason why?
it's not so easy for me
this survival thing, you see
takes a lot of hard work
and my heart is replete
with burdens and cares
my gut wrenched poetic wares
only incite unfeeling stares
the reader unaware
apathetic animosity
guised in hilarity
isn't for me...

No, it's not as easy for me
to pretend I don't care
when my soul I bare
so I don't dare
let anyone come back round
who has  ground me into the ground
once before
well….not now
not anymore

it's not as easy for me
so just.....
just please….let it be.

Eileen Manassian

Burlap and Satin

I was Burlap, you were Satin
your smooth against my rough,
you diamond, 'gainst my red hot coal
was never quite enough.
You tulip in the April sun 
fair lady of the field
me cactus, thick skinned, dominant
how easily you yield.
You fought till you had little left,
you tore so easily,
Burlap, Satin, no warp or weft
were ever meant to be.

February 11th 2018
For contest 'Burlap and Satin', sponsor Anthony Slausen

It Won'T Leave Me Alone

You told me something so horrible it keeps going
Through my mind.
When will it repose? 
My brain feels like it's an electronic game
With my thoughts moving fast through a kind
Of fiber light wire that just won't close
I can't end the game.
Thoughts are now intertwind
And run wild through my head. Please,
Some one help me. I don't want to impose.
Look at what I became.
I thought I was thick skinned
With a purpose.
Now I don't even remember my name.
To late I learned I' m thin skinned.
I even have to watch the time for my next dose
Of medicine that is in a glass cabinet frame.
I am here to remind
People that there are those 
Who love to play mind
Games.
Watch out for their kind
For words they transpose,
And transfer blame
On to some one they have confined
Hoping to bring shame 
On a mind
They tried to rescind.

To Day

I allude subjects dressed as 
black memorials. I hate attending 
gray eulogized gatherings filled
with stereotypical colloquialisms 
dressed in puke hued green. 
Why? As a prose freak of lines, 
I engender christianese choking 
the very life out of hope. There aren’t 
any reliable daydreams charismatically 
afloat, just biding time until the next 
dark cycle. I did however attend a 
meeting of the minds as the sun rose
unimpressed with the vintage of earth.

Let me defer to yesteryears when
love was tender and life was aghast
with yucky booger eating boys and 
their ghastly bugs and critters. And
dark thirty was the right time to steal
kisses, just inches shy of streetlight
shadows of the opera. 
While harmless caveats of thick skinned 
and doting elders dressed in shades of 
white buckled shining armour, riddle us
life’s never promised thorn-free, hybrid, 
organic food for thought. 

Experience, however, promises fields
of sown seeds ripe with a harvest of
our good, bad and ugly. Look past gone,
accept now, and race to tomorrow.

The Eskimo's Song

Up in the northern hemisphere,
Eskimos inhabit.
There,a certain Eskimo is.
Fair and thick-skinned,
particularly short- heightened.
Agile,brave and enterprising.
Clad in a flurry jacket,
this Eskimo dashes out into the snow
through a route he plies daily,
whistling, la,la,la....la,la,la!
Soon,he returns with a trolley,
a trolley filled with fishes gasping for breath.
Right behind his igloo,
la,la,la.....la,la,la! ,this Eskimo whistles,
as one in a high spirit,
whisking one egg and then,another.
La,la,la...la,la,la!
This Eskimo whistles
 as he fries his fish sausages.
La,la,la....la,la,la!
This Eskimo hares into the streets,
parading the lanes,
knocking at one door to another.
La,la,la.....la,la,la!
"Come buy my hot sausages",he sings.

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