I often see him panhandling on the main streets.
Ranting at things only he could see.
He once surprised me at McDonald's drive-through.
Banging on my car window, barking incoherently.
I quickly jerked away from his fifty-caliber eyes.
Didn't spare him one dirty dime.
While eating my supersized meal off to the side
I silently justified that he looked too clean to be in need
and that he wore better sneakers than me.
They say angels sometimes crisscross our paths.
Fully disguised, to measure the size of our hearts.
Caitlin Clark this, Caitlin Clark that
your name is magic, you're the Cat in the Hat
You’ve got folks so mesmerized
they don’t see you’re undersized
In a tizzy, fans shell out their dough
Don’t they know you’re skinny and slow
Over you the media's ablaze
all they print's effusive praise
Yet not a word about this corker
~ your new pro team is mediocre
Insufficiency holds sway,
Dawn chauffeurs meagre segments,
In this ambience, the children play,
Anticipating their paltry fragments.
Homes wear a sombre look,
Nothing delightful to cook,
The furniture is worn out and spent,
Dilapidated and bent.
Vacation is too much of a luxury,
Hands are dutiful in domestic drudgery,
Children wear undersized and patched attire,
At nightfall, with these, they retire.
Opulence is seen as an illusion,
A treasure hidden in the deep,
Out of reach until they go to sleep,
Away from the world of seclusion.
March 28, 2023.
Writing Challenge - 'P' Words - Poetry Contest,
Constance La France.
I spot you writhing
in your shell
undersized however
you possess an ocean
tally and release a tide
bestow your
tenderness to distinctive
forsake, further
vacuous chest
until slender bird
abandons nidus
his feathers come to
craft a verse of reliance
what a precious devotion
It's a ballad that...
I always create for you.
Written: September 30, 2022
Always the last to release his spoon,
Still thinking it rather soon
Or hand in the kitchen’s key,
Now letting the poor thing feel free!
The Unlikeliest to pity his jaw muscles,
In all restaurants, a piece of eternal puzzle;
Clearly prematurely visiting the pot
To pointedly pounce on it on the spot.
Often times, after a full tank
Euphoric about a freshly served meal,
For which his congested bowel doesn’t him thank;
Rather ashamed of his food-seizing zeal…
The mouthfuls mirroring a python’s swallows
And straight gulps for which in penury he wallows.
Fast becoming undersized are his shorts
Spotting tens of tears in their flaps;
To be soon discarded the recently bought
By no means obliging him the gaps.
While for him labour waits in a repository,
Now and then charging into a lavatory
To later surface at the sewage department
All in a fleeting moment
For the predictable muffled discussion
Minus future precaution.
The psycho inside me will strike you when lively
the stupid inside you shines through brightly
you fully believe your actions wisely
never disguised or ghost but sightly
Believe the advantage
expert understanding
Deceive and be candid
ignorant standing
Don’t take in
no knowledge expanding
the stakes win
champagne downing
20’s lot try and play games
30’s lot a decade trained
20’s lot shall we explain
we’re grass you’re a grain
When we don’t care
you think we’re unaware
we see without stare
match you’re a flair
Lit up exposed
think no one knows
not just obvious
but fully glow
undersized psychology
sighted astrology
smiles and jolly
unworried to sorry
it’s an untraveled board
you’re yet to explore
of which we became bored
and will always no more
You have big thoughts,
About little things(all)…
You made promises,
You never meant to keep.
That made you small...
You believe your way is right,
About little things (all)…
You push people,
You bully them daily.
That only makes you smaller.
You chase rainbows made of paper,
About little things(all)…
You make up lies,
You cheat and steal.
That reveals your true, tiny nature.
You are all about you,
It is all(all) “a” little thing…
You put yourself first,
You want it all your way.
That shows your microscopic heart.
Tiny Man,
You are undersized.
The world is big.
Yet, you are ever lesser still.
What's fair and right we oft dismiss
While clinging to our prejudice.
But biggest biases of all
Are aimed at us, the short and small.
What's tall or towers people praise,
But opposites get no bouquets.
Short applicants are shown the door,
And folks the undersized ignore.
You call us names that really hurt
Like small fry, shorty, shrimp, and squirt.
And pygmies, peewees, half-pints, runts
And dwarf and midget are affronts.
You should not judge on size alone.
James Madison could hold his own.
Attila was a little Hun.
Napoleon was number one.
I look you squarely in your knees
And ask politely would you please
Become a bit more circumspect
And give to us our due respect.
To terminate this diatribe,
If tales some heroes would describe
As "little, dark, and handsome," then
Perhaps I'll not complain again.
(But pale and homely people might.)
At the bus stop the other say brazen remarks
terrible things,from outside their hearts
The boy hangs his head,day's a bad start
As the little boy walks into the classroom
they call him dumb, stupid and a goon
the other kids point and laugh at him
they’ll never know how his life is so dim
In holy shoes he treads on the wet sidewalks
coat undersized and soaked are his socks
Greasy and pimply peers eye him like hawks
saying the next insult in their little talks
Father returns home and now things are worse
This boy -these children they live with a curse Dad punches, kicks and beats them bare
and from behind mother’s eyes do stare
His brothers tease him he is a dud
This boy is hated by his family, his blood
So he decides he can’t handle anymore
He grasps his Fathers shotgun lying on the floor
Difficult it becomes, the secret of
the judgement and metamorphosis of
the painted cotton into a stained truth.
To save the present tense. A dangerous
crowd of vowels to express the incomplete
moment of watery teeth,
so hung, while misspeaking painfully
in dyslexic manneo. I would not
understand the hour-glass proxy.
An undersized leash to walk
with a giant: the magnitude of tragedy
overwhelms the path !
SATISH VERMA
Difficult it becomes, the secret of
the judgement and metamorphosis of
the painted cotton into a stained truth.
To save the present tense. A dangerous
crowd of vowels to express the incomplete
moment of watery teeth,
so hung, while misspeaking painfully
in dyslexic manneo. I would not
understand the hour-glass proxy.
An undersized leash to walk
with a giant: the magnitude of tragedy
overwhelms the path !
SATISH VERMA
Without conspiring, vision sees through truth
the affectation multiplies exclude,
as if a band notorious were sleuth
and fought together, undersized by youth!
The victor sees through eye of victim's brood
did hesitate it not to challenge rude
and stir the violence, needed interlude
while assuage estimated is the clued!
The battle rages, trade for trade, life's mood
of right and wronged, forever vengeance hood
does the hide the engine, men not understood
are teamed like puppets dancing ~ erstwhile tuned
Observing through the tear is wasted stood,
like moment opens once the road untrod
that look at last, its seeing cleansed by rod
does witness in its era, holding nod!
I see it now, not last ~ some vintage loved
so deep within man's soul, its battle had
does trade his being, leaving something clad
in justice . . . while the trade remains still sad!
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