Ventriloquist
It’s just creepy noises.
Turn out the lights before bed.
Maybe it’s a curse.
A scary doll going berserk.
Coming alive.
Moving its eyes.
Looks so real.
Someone made a deal.
The doll comes alive.
Don’t be afraid you might die.
Look under the bed.
It’s just a nightmare in red.
Someone opened the box.
A ventriloquist can talk.
A puppet with no strings.
It’s only a bad dream.
Every doll has a story.
Call out their name, it’s gorry.
Blood runs down the mirror.
Don’t hold on to the fear.
Check into a hotel if you dare.
Don’t be scared.
Dead silence 1941.
Your next, there is no place to run.
A creepy doll lives in your closet.
Take it to the grave because you must bury it.
It lives through your screams.
It survives through your dreams.
I am your ventriloquist dummy, and you use me however you want, I don’t even have the will to speak until you decide to talk
And then the only words that I am able to say, is whatever comes out of your lips as you place me there on your knee on display
You paint on my smile or else there wouldn’t be one there, and you have filled me up with cotton inside after you destroyed the vessel of what once resided in there
You wanted me to obey you, and do as you say, so you found a way for this to be, and you made me just this way
I can’t disagree with you, I can’t even fight, I am at your mercy, your will, anytime of the day or night
When you want to make others smile you do it at my expense, and I have no say in the matter, but I am truly sick of it
I don’t wish to be your puppet that you masquerade around anymore, I want a life, a heart that can beat, so much more
Please just stop treating me like the dummy that you take me for, you’re the one calling the shots can’t you see these tears are real that pour
But you callously laugh as you wipe the wetness away, and you whisper into my ear that I am yours forever and always I shall do as you say.
Where is the voice
that once spoke here
in this ancient amphitheater
of weathered rock. Now, there is
only the wind muttering prayers
along the wall, nothing
more than the sound
of absence being squeezed
through stoney lips.
The gods are silent,
entombed between the pages
of books or paralyzed in marble
to grace the halls of history.
This is the age of the ventriloquist,
manipulator of the image
that gives animation and succor
to the need for talking gods.
We are not tuned to silence.
The noise of the self
deafens the soul
with its constant chatter.
Having torn down the temples,
we kick the dust of our endeavors
into a soundless void
as if trying to fill the infinite.
Wooden mouth eats word and threat.
Frozen eye stares through vaudeville glaucoma.
The master is mimicked, masked, and mocked.
Doll tuxedo stretched from neck to crotch.
Head swivels to whiplash punchlines.
If it’s all in good fun, why do I want to die?
Neck telescopes and voice screeches.
Tears spurt from stage to footlight.
Two are one, yet double of what cannot exist.
It’s nearly there, nearly a man, a malformed thought.
Hanging on the edge of another world.
A fleeting spectre in a funhouse mirror.
Curtain lowers beneath dying lights.
Gathered terrors are delivered home.
Yet tiny footsteps follow behind.
Remember crimson rictus.
Lips move, but words never come.
On cue the final joke falls flat.
Thousand thoughts rummage the grey fluff.
Gloomy, godawful voices thump in self-talk
"I'm an idiot, a loser,...... it's all my fault".
Autopsies of the past, tear my flesh,
Regrets of a decade, devour my heart.
Rant of betrayals suffocate my breath.
Capricious sentiments egg me to a wreck.
Loud conch shells stalk me in heavy weight.
I sink in the abyss of "What'll people think?,"
I wish I could not hear what my mind says.
Isn't that echo the shadow of my sound ?
With a mind of steel, the Ventriloquist vowed,
I'll flash away that swampy dummy puppet..
I'll end the endless sabotage of that parrot..
It's my journey, .. my thoughts, ..my dreams.
PLACED FIFTH IN THE CONTEST
13th January, 2019
Plucking the Poisonous Parrot Contest
Sponsor Maureen McGreavy
With absent breath, I perch my gaze upon
The pulpy bow of lips that frame your smile ...
And tho each word they part with is a pawn,
I'm nonetheless enchanted by their guile,
While each one like an arrow, pierces, vile.
So throw my heart away without a choice ...
If you could only throw, instead ... your voice.
~ 4th Place ~ in the "Number 460 Any Form or None" Poetry Contest, Brian Strand, Sponsor.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Hey, ventriloquist -
try putting words in my mouth...
these lips will not move
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
06/21/2018
He walked on stage, the puppet in one hand
as the audience was clapping, for they knew
the act of this ventriloquist was grand!
His puppet was a sailor dressed in blue,
and quite a sailor’s mouth that puppet had.
As long as his “sailor boy” had a joke,
the puppet master’s show could not go bad.
Such ribald words his lips, unmoving, spoke;
however, the ventriloquist was shy!
Without the “boy,” he had no words to say.
One night a lady winked and then said hi.
He said, “Let’s get together the next day.”
The gal fast came to the realization -
sans puppet, he had no conversation!
June 21, 2018 for Anthony Slausen's Ventriloquist Contest
a ventriloquist
his voice dangling in midair
waiting for tipoff
Ventriloquist Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Anthony Slausen
20th June, 2018
What was that you said? Was that an expletive I heard?
I’m the dummy here, ask yourself, that’s absurd!
I distinctly heard you say a naughty word that rhymes with fit.
Then you heard incorrectly what I said, and that’s not it!
There you go again, with that word that rhymes with bell
Wow, this is mixed up today, are you not feeling well?
Sit and tell are what I said, I am in charge here!
Next, you'll be accusing ME of drinking your last beer
If you don’t watch it Buster, you’ll be so much firewood
Then just where would you end up, without me, you’re no good
Well then, you had better watch your words, now don’t be dumb
Says the man with dental work and whose mouth is numb
Corky Withers was a Very talented performer,
leaving audiences Excited and mystified
with his magic acts Night after night.
More mesmerizing Than the sleight of hand
was his sidekick, the Raucous, rude dummy, Fats,
through which (whom) he Illustrated his ability
to speak through dead-still Lips. All eyes were on Fats.
Then—well, Fats took Over, so to speak.
Corky, by then Quite mad, ended up killing two people.
Seemingly unassuming and shy, he was Under the spell
of the evil, controlling Fats—Corky’s true Id manifested.
I vividly remember some Scenes from Magic (1978)--
to me, a truly Terrifying movie.
Magic starred Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, and Burgess Meredith.
June 17, 2018, entered in Anthony Slausen's Ventriloquist Poetry Contest
Six friends met for seance
brought their dolls
placed ring-a-rosy in the center of a table
dolls holding hands.
Lights were dimmed
and seance session started
guests cast their voices
as ventriloquists to the dolls
without moving their lips.
The dolls gossiped among themselves.
No one knew who made which doll speak.
At first it was a fun
a round table chat.
Some tried different voices.
But then, the mood shifted
as strange new voices appeared
spooky and sinister,
with more serious tone and subject.
First one, then two people left the room
too eerie and sinister by far.
Still the conversation ran round and round
between the chatting dolls.
Then someone noticed
the look on the doll's faces changed -
their eyes moved, they frowned a little.
Their demeanour became angry and bitter.
By then all friends had left the room.
But still the dolls chattered away
with strange voices flung afar
from ghostly six ventriloquists
chatting amongst themselves
in the dark.
Sitting on a rustic chair
Under a dim green light
Discloses behind a wood puppet
Truths concealed with lies
********
glue coloured gottles
glue flies glow flies gurning gright
stage manager... duck
********************
06/16/18
Ventriloquist Poetry Contest - Sponsored by Anthony Slausen
traveling teeth in cosmetic bag — silent partner
1/26/2018
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.