In the final weeks of Summer, let's have some fun
Instead of getting baked to a crisp in the sun.
I played video games and swam in the pool,
But I'm still bored and that's not cool.
What should we do? I'm about to flip!
There's one other thing we haven't tried: ROAD TRIP!
Make sure you load your car with snacks and gas:
This is an opportunity that we will not pass.
We could go to Philly or Phoenix, Arizona,
While we're listening to, "My Cherona".
Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois;
A trip to Las Vegas, Nevada brings me joy.
There's Denver, Colorado and Memphis, Tennessee;
Or the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
In Florida and California, don't be tardy:
I hear that these states know how to party.
Next up is Boston for their awesome cream pies,
And maybe a Big Mac with unsalted fries.
We'll go to Texas on a shopping spree,
Or visit the White House in Washington, DC.
But it doesn't matter where we go or what we do,
As long as I take this road trip with you.
Quote By Poet "Nuts are not just for the squirrels. I love them too."
When one thinks of snacks what can you find,
nuts may not come to mind.
Nuts are a healthy snack your teeth can grind,
best when unsalted for all mankind.
Their crunch can make a sound,
your gums will be spellbound.
Vending machines or at a fairground,
you can find nuts as you walk around.
Great when added to candy or pie,
add them to a wonderful stir fry.
Squirrels find nuts for free,
then run up a tree.
You see,
I love to watch them flee.
Nuts for you and for me,
maybe we need a cup of hot tea.
Mild obscurity
At the local supermarket, a woman not a day over seventy-five
asked me where she could find unsalted butter spoke
with an American accent.
What do I know, perhaps, she was related to the Kennedys?
By the butter- shelf we stood, there was a spark between us
like the Ronson-lighter I once bought in Liverpool, a heavy
lighter, I always knew in which pocket it was; now that smoking
is a sin the lighter ended up in the garage, only to be used
in extreme perseverance,
I had seen her before, in Trieste in 1962 she was a spy for the CIA
Smoked posh Monte Carlo cigarettes through a long holder
while drinking creme de menthe.
My wife stirred; leg cramps switched on the bedside lamp
and I was brought back to reality.
I fell upon the darkness and slept upon a scream
The light of day and dire night divided in between
Seeing the light beguiled by night enhanced a morbid dream
Surreal a shadow of thyself below above the green
The wind the whispers of the world rewinding in a wrath
Unsalted by the tastes of time to know thyself unseen
To be the bee who can not see the sea to take a bath
Accompanied with misery and luxuries of sin
Maybe I've crossed and am at loss upon a frightening path
If memories massage the me, thus how shall I begin
An infant in an idol place to share the curse of breath
Living along a war of worlds whose woes I cannot win
Enchanted by the light of night defines the dawn of death
Conceived deceived believed to weave against the undertow
For it is that
permanent plight that ends the height of breath
Forgive me not, tied in a knot, it is my plot to grow
I fell upon a darkness and slept upon a scream
Perchance I give myself the blow to meet the cautious crow
Seeing the light beguiled by night enhanced a morbid dream
An Original Terzanelle
L Milton Hankins
4-28-2022
2/22/20
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2020
Canine teeth that glimmer with the moonlights gaze
Open mouthed to taste unsalted tears of dripping clouds
Howls are gargled as they swallow the forlorn
Straw men sit and sift the spaces
that make their shifting frame
Wheat whips splash across the backs
as yelping oil dogs
turn to puddles black
Straw men slowly hack
at chaff offspring
that seem to laugh
Obsidian flame burning in the acid rain
as shadow ghost murmur
their stolen names
I do not eat salt, she says haughtily
Making me want to pour a salt shaker into my mouth
I appease myself by devouring a family sized bag of potato chips
Unsalted? Ha! Right!
Chocolate does not agree with me, she says in a superior way.
I pick up the twelve pound box and set it by my recliner
Ready to eat each and every piece while I watch
one of my favorite movies. I do not deprive myself.
I am watching my weight, she says.
Making me laugh and feel I have one-upped her
as she weighs less than eighty-nine pounds
and has no boobs thanks to no salt and no chocolate.
Dark crown positions an imminent moon,
while the car benign a simple swan tune,
by a male world-renowned steady croon,
quaffs from a sweetheart, abrupt swoon,
as twain souls dissolution, way too soon,
while a solo spirit on, strangely immune,
limits another whose heart is now hewn,
of an unsalted berry to a strained prune.
2019 December 31
my eyelids
are pyramid
stones too heavy
to lift so i read
the hieroglyphs
behind my lids
like a black
and white
silent movie
my mind provides
the music though
i dream in color
but must shush
the others
that rudely
keep talking
during the main
feature
(meanwhile trying
to digest my movies'
plot while eating hot
air blown pop corn
with slightly unsalted
butter a dash of soy
sauce and parmesan
cheese topping
obviously a
subliminal
message
placed be
tween every
eighth REM)
it seems the film
is about a ka
that can't
find its
way
so
is spirited away
by memories
that are supposed
to be clues
to help one
find one's self
so different
scenes show
different things
that are meant to
mean one thing when
the pieces are put together
the house lights
come up as my
eyes open but to
find i am in
darkness
perhaps
a tomb
The new year now is creeping into view
with resolutions, hopes and dreams galore,
so this year what I thought that I would do
is get off on the right foot weeks before.
I've upped the rate I pace at when I walk
to burn off calories and trim my waist,
and breakfast times now need no knife and fork,
it's Muesli , hope I get used to the taste.
Brown bread instead of white, meats are lean cuts,
tins of mackerel ,more omega threes,
for extra protein there's unsalted nuts
and tons of fruit to help stave off disease.
It's great to know that as the years go by
I will be really healthy when I die.
A dandelion sun floats in a
Ty-D-Bowl sky, and
dewy young girls with hair
like shining copper pennies
and unsalted butter
bathe beneath it.
With faith born of MTV,
they worship Ocean---
her heavy metal fury,
her power ballad calm.
But Eros interrupts,
sending her own virile priests
with Bowflex bodies and
Energizer loins
to defile the idolators.
Ocean rebels
and paves the lazy sky
in asphalt clouds.
Sharp quills of rain sting
both priests and congregants
as they run for cover.
Eros laughs.
Ocean waits for another day. -5/16/2015
The business of Cuisine
Two tins of Swedish meatballs in cream sauce.
The Swedish export their soul even if it is hidden in tins.
Unsalted mind stem and a heart of creamy white gravy.
The new world is about buying and selling, and that is ok,
Chinese dumplings bought at a pavement cafe it took days
to settle my stomach
So you think I know nothing I have been dining at a posh
Chinese restaurant with rotating tables
I said then, but not too cosy up to the host, Chinese food
was leading in the fields of cousin.
That was when I had the misfortune to go to Paris.
excellent food but served with an arrogance that was
off putting. I thought is there nowhere were people serve
food without prancing trays about. Finally, I did in
Alentejo (Portugal) where food is served without fanfare,
because the food is natural, wholesome and good.... and
if you are not driving, try their superb red wine and avoid
a French philosopher whose vanity is shifty as Libyan sand.
Senryu Series
~seasonal serpents
slither in unsalted seas…
reasons unseasoned
~serpent, psychosis
permeate unsalted seas…
carnal enmity
~emotion’s ocean
many reasons unseasoned…
thoughts expendable
For and in Honor of Brian Strand
And contest
BEACH PICNIC FOR TWO
Calm and tideless,
Warm and timeless,
Unsalted, undeep –
Warm Baltic half-asleep
Hot sand, hard pebbles –
Dark sparkling crystals
Heated and sunlit,
Ancient and granite
In the tree’s glad shade we rest.
Sand and branches make our nest.
Seeds fall on us in a shower
From the bird-cherry’s fragrant flower
Hungry from the happy day,
The bright and shady, lazy bay.
Cool aroma in the dark –
Cooking fire’s smoking bark.
Sandy sandwich, melting cheese,
Brush the breadcrumbs from our knees.
Afternoon of scented air
For a carefree laughing pair
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(Description of an actual picnic for my wife and myself.)
Written for Carol Brown's Contest - PICNIC TIME
Ya'll took this heart of mine and made it pump faster than it should -
I tried to slow it down the best way i could -
Talking about i love you , i love you -
How could ya'll love me and do the thang's you do -
Physically destroyed my emotion's but , now im wise -
One after another broke my heart and still i rise -
Open up my arm's and excepted each one of ya'll hurt -
But , who was it left behind with the storm full of dirt -
Put me to the side like some unsalted fries -
Traded this unconditional love in but , still i rise -
I made some time to wipe away ya'll depressing tear's -
Even though i had my own i handled ya'll with no fear's -
Now nobody want's this left over heart that cry's
Yeah , this poem is sad but , through it all still i rise -
Look at all this time i wasted on ya'll -
I could wish ya'll the worst but , i wish ya'll the best because
i can't stand to see nobody fall -
Yeah , im still standing or ya'll suprised -
I hurd one of you say , it is what it is i guess so because still i rise -
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