Upped Poems

Desert Blindness

sand blistering hot
     throat parched I need water
              ah an oasis

where could it have went
     it just upped and disappeared
          it was a mirage

Their memory not gone

True our loved ones have 
upped and gone before us

The memories we hold onto
are the company we keep

Their voices in our head
repeat the words we treasure

We are never truly alone
along this journey we call life

MANIFESTO

MANIFESTO

Three words inscribed on a bullet
Finger on a trigger ready to pull it
This system that does not concede
Free healthcare at the point of need
Or each citizen having their own say
Then they express in their own way

It’s politically influential Big Pharma
That have a different kind of karma
Money not blood, is the circulation
Feeding each medical organisation
Donations keeps it just the way it is
Even when retribution begins to fizz

With certainties like death and taxes
Just where now indeed is that evil axis
Industries may be considered corrupt
As insurance fees are simply upped
What does it really take to lift the lid
Pushing the poor down the pyramid

Social medicine is seen as communist
The truth is diverted and then missed
It’s not capitalism in everyone’s sights
Or choosing to distort human rights
But money makes the world go round
Despite extortion often being found

Yet murder cannot justify a murder
Even in a kind of government purdah
A message has been sent, to be sure
Remember ‘Sicko’ by Michael Moore
And now the sense of injustice grows
From the words, Deny Defend Depose

Can Do May

Can-Do May had a fantastic attitude
she ignored regular naysayers, thought them rude
her own family would say there is no way….
discouraging entrepreneur, Can-Do May

She was the first to find a live dinosaur
caught in a net with a rhino and a boar
amazing antics were Can-Do May's daily agenda
One-upped her family, not planning to offend-a.

Her weird family continued to put her down.
Called her names like buffoon, idiot and clown.
Jealous they were of their own child so bright
Negativity in them was not quite right

Can-Do May lived a life of vigor and vim
Nothing like the pathetic likes of them
But she never made fun or put them down
For she knows what it is like to be called a clown.

It's Supposed To Make Me Mellow

So they've upped my medication
From 10 mg to 20 mg
It's the stuff that's supposed to make... mm... mel... low
I almos... uh... almo... almost nodded... offfff!
Don't think it's strong enough yet... thhh...ough!
Hopefully I'll soon start writing about fairies and pretty flowers
Instead of demons and evil monsters
Some of my best friends are fairies
Hang on... the ones with wings like Tinker Bell
We go skipping through the meadow with gay abandon
Now there you go misunderstanding me again
Well, getting back to my medication
Sometimes it makes me so mellow
I tend to try to stuff my pea soup in my ear hole
Not a good idea... especially in a restaurant
Mothers grab their wee kiddies
Cover their eyes while quickly moving to a different table
I mean no harm... I love everybody
In the whole great big entire world

Health in the Head

That woman sobbed in the library's IT room.
It was the tenth of October,
though that seemed so irrelevant.

Why did this woman upset me?
She was uncanny, eldritch,
and the whole thing was sad.
I almost had tears in my eyes.

Thin and middle-aged, maybe she was old.
She was grey and wore a grey overcoat.
Yes, I did almost cry at that sight.
Something not working on that machine?

That computer seemed to refuse
to do what she demanded.
A librarian spoke gently to her, tried to help.
Did the tenth of October have a reckoning on her?

She was to my right,
a small distance away, her back to me.
I could not see her face.

I think the woman settled
and I do rather hope she's OK,
though I'd never met her, may never see her again.

I upped and left the room for home.
It was the tenth of October.
It was World Mental Health Day.

(10 Oct 2023)

The Fat Man and the Toad

It was a nice day, and a fat man was crossing the road, but he slipped and fell and accidently stepped on a Toad.
He didn’t think much of it and again started to walk to work, but the toad…HE WAS ANGRY AND VERY IRKED!
He followed the fat man everywhere he’d go; it was pretty simple to do that because he would walk very slow.
He pooped everywhere inside the fat man’s house, and the fat set upped traps thinking it was probably a mouse.
But No…The toad was smarter than that, he followed him everywhere he went, pooped on his shirts and even his office pants.
So dear reader, don’t forget, if you anger a toad, on you, he will do, A number two.

And Thats the Truth

what’s my sign

what a fool

‘kick my behind’

they thought me

a tool

scalped by the scalpel 

forsooth

the sore truth

the eyesore 

galoot

the prophecy foretold

as they pinned

the tail-on-the-donkey

hee haw

the jokes on them

as i was peeved

they were

pie’d

this fool

ain’t 

no fool

fee-fi-fo-fum

i

one-upped

‘em

as Edith Ann*

rocks

in her rocker

with

a raspberry roast

“…and that’s the truth”*

6/6/2023

Edith Ann character of comedienne Lily Tomlin

Pishposh Hodgepodge

The truest of the truthful dukes who chooses to amuse the fuse of the groove to let loose /
So soon a bloom that is to loom over any gloom /
Forget bigots they’ll never get big like shots or lots /
As I’m aloft through the roof of this joint like I smoked your top locks off /
It's time to prove a hue of stooge slew anew over the slop and open up shop /
This is just my hop to jot through rot like I’m laying sod around the job /
Lost a corn cob as I jogged and juiced a hog in marinade across the log /
Sogged the mob and their pishposh hodgepodge /
Lobbed a rock at her wishy wash lodge she thought she had locked /
Got a troth full of suave to unlock and dislodge /
As we opt for a broth onslaught to loft all the costs /
I mopped the spot of rot sought after by maggots /
We hoped not to botch what my hero’s fruition brought us /
But a lying jont of stop watch witches forgo wishes and forge a lot unjust /
Upped the ante of the pot and ended with no loss just profit /
Stunned the evil planning in a trot as we tended to our cause

Famous Ii

He was famous for being famous,
Nobody knew what he’d done:
But he was famous for being famous 
And that was good enough some.
And he was there at every function
Party, Birthday,  Bar Mitzvah, barbecue
In fact if he wasn't there 
It just wasn't considered a do.

When asked why he was famous
He’d give an enigmatic smile
And the question was forgotten
In a very little while.
And then the police arrested him
On suspicion of a long past crime 
And some said they’d had
Their suspicions all the time.

And then the police released him
With not stain on his name 
People said no smoke 
Without fire just the same. 
He put his house Up For Sale
And then he was gone,
Just upped and packed his bags
And so very quietly moved on.

For weeks it was the topic
Of our quiet village life
Until a certain worthy was found 
In bed with the wrong wife
He'd been famous for being famous 
Nobody knew what he’d dome
But he was famous for being famous 
And that was good enough some.

Son of Sam Lady-Killer

I can only just imagine you and Sam

Whilst working close together on
the butchery counter at your local
supermarket

At the site of both of your 1st job's at 
the tender age of just 17

1 day somehow however whilst
putting out the ham on display

Locked eye's and figured out she's 
the 1 for me as he is the 1 for me

And then you became childhood 
sweetheart's for thee foreseeable 

As unfortunately and to your cost
you found out much later 

He was in fact sadly a real lady-killer
in reality not merely just actually playing
the role of 1 as an act

Until the day you told him you were
pregnant with me and then he upped 
and left the both of us behind 

Well that all now makes perfect sense
to me 

And I am so sorry for not only just for me
my mummy but for you as well 

As he sounds like a lowdown dirty filthy pig
of a man 

But thankfully I am lucky enough to be your
son and proudly call you my mother 

As opposed to ever having to admit even
to myself

I am the Son of Sam himself

Core Upped

My ballot arrived in the mail
Like a skull & crossbones in gaol
But what gets my goat
If I do not vote
Then the GOP will prevail*

*For the Trumps to escape prosecution,
only the number of Republicans
elected to Congress matters;
quality, issues, and the future of
the USA are irrelevant to the GOP!

No Wait In Vain : Poets Meet

 
No Wait in Vain : Poets Meet


For decades I waited 
and you did not come 
to listen to my rude insertion 
finger a sound at back of my throat
and the vibration of my name

For decades I wanted to meet
a small mountain as I read her 
plain words in innocence
a bell in her Heart rang deep
with children running sweet

For decades I longed to touch
a struggling mottled moth
as he ached for new wings
smooth ebony cheeks
passionate with letters of adoration

For decades I watched for
a painter to mirror my songs
uncover a talkative witch who 
still trampled from place to place
broken shoes echoing my silent breath

For decades I wanted a smooth ride
where conversation was free of tasks
words on both seats of equal length
with ripe apricots for the scoffing
almond chocolates wrapped in red

So I upped my thumb to a veteran one
who read from his leathered collection 
notepads and pencils strewn about
space in warehouse oozed slivered glee
No wait in vain !

Strangest Lunch Date Ever

We moved six times she tells him.
I moved nineteen times when I was a kid.
She stares at him.  “That must have been rough.”
He shrugs. “I am better for it.”

She had told him that she was an assistant manager.
He used to have that kind of job before he became a vice president.
She told him about her car wreck. He had been through three of them.
Her hobby was flying a drone airplane; he was working on his pilot’s license.

This lunch meet up has been uncomfortably strange so far.
She told him she had four brothers.
He said that he had eight brothers.
He one-upped her every which way but loose.

“I just started the heaviest period,” she imagined herself saying.
She started laughing and she could not stop.
He begged her to tell her what was so funny.
She was laugh-sobbing now.

Visitations

*Image of Driftwords by Pixabay.
Visitations

Yellows upped,
humble shanty forms beyond verdant meadows.

Animals resounding,
quivering grounds,
championed zephyrs penetrate leveled jealousies.

I knocked,
the whitish doorway opened,
neighborly xenial exchanges.

*Free Verse/Abecedarian

2021 October 17

• Short Upped Poems
• Famous Upped Poems
• Best Upped Poems
• Read Upped Poems
• Long Upped Poems
• Upped Quotes