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Best Poems Written by Joseph Dougherty

Below are the all-time best Joseph Dougherty poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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The Dying Game

The Dying Game 

Joe Dougherty

 
Fleeting images in the fading light
A whispered voice… "it will be all right"
Evening draws and the shadows blend
Another day's fighting has come to an end

Tensions ease around the fire's light 
Brings a calming peace to the gathering night
Cooling embers in the waning flames
Blissful slumber… it's time out in the game

Thoughts of glory now fade away
When brother vs. brother we did play
They sent the young to pay this debt
Of winless victories and blameless regret

Disparaging chiefs of the burial mounds
Spilt our blood upon this ground
For reasons, not ours to know 
They write off, like a bad floorshow

The old soldiers they gather round
Laying wreaths on hallowed ground
Declare the price as freedom's due
Now simply words that don't ring true

NONE FEAR HERE they all proclaim
Willing pawns in the dying game
Now broken souls as home they go
To places they no longer know

The cost they paid in this day's fight
Leave fewer faces in the fire's light
Tear stained eyes that look away
No greater debts could they pay
	
This is more than I bargained for
Shut-up kid, you're in the war
NONE FEAR HERE they all proclaim
Willing pawns in the dying game

6/28/2009

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Oh Foolish Me

Oh Foolish Me

Foreseeable future, 
The curtains are closed 
Today?
Tomorrow?
Who really knows?
But for me to leave here with no words said 
Leaves unspoken thoughts inside of my head 
Unasked questions 
And answers I will never know  
Oh Foolish Me
Oh Foolish Me




Copyright J.M. Dougherty 2016

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Just a Bunch of Words

I have a Dream 
Four Score and Seven years ago
The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God 
With Liberty and Justices for all
Send Lawyers Guns and Money
Follow the Yellow Brick road
Get your kicks on route 66
You can trust your car to the man who wears the star 
Bother can you spare a dime.
In the land of sky blue waters
Please stay behind the yellow line
Coke it’s the real thing 
You have the right to remain silent 
When you’re out of Bud your out of beer 
When I was 17… it was a very good year
Earth Angel…Earth Angle… will you be mine
Please deposit 25 cents for an additional 10 minuets, 25 cents please    
Caution slippery when wet 
Don’t use while driving or operating machinery 
Imagine all the people living for today  
Loose 20 lbs. in 10 days guaranteed or your money back,
See the USA in a Chevrolet 
Free to the next 100 callers, 
You to can make money in real-estate,  
Interest free for the first 60 months
Operator I would like to place a person to person call
Attention, TWA passenger John Doe please pick up the white courtesy phone 
Your satisfaction guaranteed or your money back
Please don’t feed the animals, 
Where have all the flowers gone,
Who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong  
Ladies and Gentlemen tonight we have a really big show 
Give us this day our daily bread 
Now boarding rows 20 through 40 
Membership has its privileges
Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires 
Let Hertz put you in the driver’s seat 
Oh Danny Boy the pipes the pipes are calling 
Rose Bud,

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The Comedic Candidate

The Comedic Candidate 

Joe Dougherty


Down a path through a wooded glen
Strolled the old hapless comedian
His humor now but a memory fading
His life spent merely masquerading

Things are seldom as they appear to be
And the serious life was not for he
Laughter was his gift to give
But a nobler life he’d wished he’d lived

Times of plenty fade away
Hearts of greed now rule this day
No time for fooling or child’s play
It’s off to work there’s bills to pay

So tally up your life in things
And pay your taxes to the Kings
IPOs and Margin Calls
To play the game it takes some balls

They stack the losers out of sight
Those lazy bastards they have no rights
For all of this belongs to me
I stole it fair and square you see

Watching all the shenanigans
Brought a smile to the comedian
And through it all he was quite sad
But the last laugh was his to have

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Washington Park

On a sweltering hot summer night
Neath the dingy glow of a broken street light
In the urban jungle of black versus white
Here staged the final contest for who is right 
Gathered then the desperate men in royal vestments 
Who sit and ponder on those concrete benches
Of all misfortune left upon this field
Where reckless men refuse to yield 
Their broken egos here laid to rest
Some say Bobby Fisher was the best
Knight with Squire, Bishop and Queen
All shall bow before the King
Again they shall contest this day
Some sunny afternoon in May
And then I hope 
I get a chance to play

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Just Change the Channel

And I cried, there was nothing else I could do.
Laughter echoed down these halls, now silent
Wait…you say…Wait for what? Wait for Who?
NO…Now... now is all there is, Now… fading. 
You know the difference… But does it matter?
You’ll understand it altered. If you stand over there.
The meaning changes, a matter of perspective 
Its a raging kaleidoscope of confusion 
This just in to CNN World News Headquarters  
Three Plaid Players shot four Paisley Patrolman.
A Pity Party spokesman proclaimed the possibilities. 
So down the rabbit hole we go with Larry 
Curly Schemp and Mo

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Coal

Coal

By
Joe Dougherty


When the mamma shook she laid them all down
Under the mountain, deep in the ground

All the blood and tears poured into this hole in the earth
Issued forth the riches to gave a nation its birth

But the Barons required a hoarder’s share
indentured the miners to constant despair

The weary the tattered who dare ask more
bound by fear and hunger to the company store

Gasp in the black dust till they’re choked dead
And trade your lives for loaves of bread

Brothers, uncles, fathers and sons
On who’s back’s others great fortunes were won.

When comes the day to fight for what’s right 
Tell those who will come after to follow this light 

Whose truths we accept a dangerous game
But you can’t die form the work and still be to blame 

Nov 8, 2015

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Booze Minus Muse

Booze minus Muse 


Do you know a heart that I can move into 
It need not be a big one a little one will do
A fixer upper maybe a repair or two 

The sky is falling the sky is falling it ‘s piling up upon the ground 
These tracks make it easy to find my way around
But while marching in a circle I lost my way back home 
And when I finally got there I found that it was gone

So now I walking down this muddy path dragging all my own self doubt 
Because the heart where I was living has asked me to move out
Do you know a heart that I can move into
It need not be a big one a little one will do

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Riverview Park

Riverview Park 
	
Long ago along a winding river in the city of big shoulders
There stood a place a magical kingdom 
Once on a summer night when I was young I went there 
I met Abraham Lincoln and Santa Claus and rode upon a rocket ship
I’m quite sure that It was all real, but they tell me it is no more

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Thumbing a Ride

A cold and restless night it seemed to be
This Shadow of man was following me 
He'd come and go with passing light 
Oh what a cold and restless night