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Best Poems Written by Keith Dovoric

Below are the all-time best Keith Dovoric poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Fair Game

So many times you’ve shuffled the deck,
I don’t know which card will turn up next
So many times you’ve poisoned the well,
I don’t what lies you’re going to tell

It’s not fair --
Your keepin’ us all in the dark
It’s not fair --
The snuffing out of every spark

So many times you’ve dumped your oil --
A truly dead sea and no arable soil
So many times you’ve tilted the table,
With a heart of steel you made our lives unstable

It’s not fair --
You promise renewal and repair
They’re not there, 
But to you everything is fair 
Fair game
 
Against your false visions
And lying divinations,
Let us raise up our hands
As a unified nation

So many times you questioned our minds
As though it were us and not you who is blind
So many times you’ve tilted the table,
Your heart of steel made the machine unstable

It’s not fair --
The way you shattered our promise
It’s not fair
‘Cause it’s too easy to be dishonest

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Before It Turns Black

A path of good intentions running right outside my door
I never really understood what all the fuss was for
Maybe there’s a Heaven here and maybe there’s a core
But who here has the courage to confront it?

Another night of drinking and a morning of repair
That bottle of your emptiness a trophy of despair
Is this the life you want to lead? The legacy you’ll share?
Do you really need to run among the hunted?

‘cause all you’re doing
Is all you are
You are the highway
And you’re the car
There’s only one light
From that daytime star
Catch it before it turns black forever

My children are around me, and they sleep just down the hall
I wait each night to hear from them, to heed their beck and call
But what happens the moment I don’t hear a thing at all?
Is that the day I give up on the mission?

I thought I was a hero, but it didn’t fit me right
Had the bottle and the message – it was all so water-tight
But in all my great supremacy, my soul was damp and slight
Like the well had thrown up all of the wishing

When all you’re doing
Is all you are
You are the highway
And you’re the car
There’s only one light
From that daytime star
Catch it before it turns black forever

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Threads

I’ve been blinded by a blistering light
An atomic angel in the nuclear night
Have they come to take us away at last?
Have they come to punish us for the past?
 
Let me just hold on
Hold on to these few threads
“Papa, can we bring them
Till we get back home again?”
 
I’m here in the wilderness with my kin
A makeshift shelter from sticks so thin
The kids are asleep so I cradle the gin
Alone in the reeds with secretions and sin
 
When morning comes like an atomic cloud
When hard truths assault you like bombs so 
loud
Whatever happened to once make you proud
Will be crucified like the Face in the Shroud
 
Let me just hold on
Hold on to these few threads
“Mama, can we bring them
Till we get back home again?”

Mother and infant, both hopelessly yearning 
Scraps of subsistence ‘mid garbage cans burning 
Walk up close to them, their cart full of waste
Permanent Babylon — no figure chaste  

Now does the sex of the child much matter?
Will its birthday letters be seen ever after,
From up on some small planet’s observing post
Its tiny embryonic, cancerous host?

I’ve been blinded by a ruinous light
A ballistic angel in the wintry night
Have they come to take us away at last?
Have they come to punish us for the past?
 
Let me just hold on
Hold on to these few threads
“Papa, can we bring them
Till we get back home again?”

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Sunset Town

The lawyer is calling 
Or the Hawk is coming 
But the rockets land the same 
In Sunset Town, 
They all go to ground 
Maybe back from where they came 

The rodents and rocks 
The zombies in socks 
The big gala at the earth's core 
I don’t wanna travel 
And I don’t want no babble 
Can’t take the pressure no more 

‘Cause here we are livin’ in Sunset Town 
The great coup de grace for the West 
Let’s stay up ‘til nine with our moonshine and vines 
Gettin’ tangled in the dreams we loved best 

When the big missile launch
Rears its head around dawn, 
You won’t find me in no basement; 
I’ll be out in the reeds
With my riotous deeds 
No remorse and no replacement 

We all gonna party 
With Thomases Hardy and Pynchon — 
It’s gonna be grand 
And when the Good Lord Jesus 
Both blesses and sneezes, 
The Seventh Lamb will fire the band 

‘Cause here we are livin’ in Sunset Town 
The great coup de grace for the West 
Let’s stay up ‘til nine with our moonshine and vines 
Gettin’ tangled in the dreams we loved best 

Now there’s no desecratin’ 
Or deprecatin’ 
When Satan’s got his people to serve
Let’s go riding with sin 
Since we’re all wired in
To that unified bundle of  nerves 

Yes here we are livin’ in Sunset Town 
The great coup de grace for the West 
Let’s stay up ‘til nine with our moonshine and vines 
Gettin’ tangled in the dreams we loved best

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Other Voice in My Head

A heckler in the audience 
Makes his point out proud 
In an audience of shadows, 
The flesh and bone stand out 

I’m willing to hear you out — 
That other voice in my head 
The benefit of the mightiest doubt — 
No difference at all 
Between said and unsaid 

A puppet on the heartstrings 
Can’t dance by himself 
Just like the way a castrato sings 
You’re glad it’s someone else 

I’m ready to tuck you in— 
That other voice in my head 
One out of two of us sure to win 
Here’s hoping it’s not
Some third-party instead 

Oh no, not you again 
I’ve heard all you have to say 
You’re nobody’s king of conversation, 
But some genius said  
You could join the fray

That heckler in the audience — 
Just so happens that he’s right 
He’s the kindest of all my assailants 
He’d walk me thru the most bitter night

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Prolonged Life

I wanna live to a hundred-and-three
A minor footnote in history
Oh yeah

I wanna live to a hundred-and-six
They’ll bury my bones among the sticks
Oh yeah

I wanna live to a hundred-and-nine
My blood just like fermented wine
Oh yeah

I wanna live to a hundred-and-twelve
Baby I’ll never kill myself
Oh no

I wanna live to a hundred-fifteen
Ride in some futuristic limousine
Oh yeah

I wanna live to a hundred-and-twenty
Food for flowers in the Land of Plenty
Oh yeah

I wanna live to one-twenty-five
All you gotta do is survive
Oh yeah

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Last of a Dying Breed

(for M.T.) 

Some days you wake up
You look in the mirror
You’re afraid of the fire
Afraid of the furor
Your heart skips gaily 
Over each error
Like the bumps that curb your speed

You’re waiting for Friday
Waiting for June
That plan ‘round the corner
That golden moon
Cracks in the leather and grease on your spoon –
You’re the last of a dying breed

I used to know what
To say to my friends
Dusting off jokes
Or making amends
What do we care
which language offends?
The garden should welcome its weeds

But they’re retiring jerseys 
And burning books
TV won’t age you
If you hold on to your looks
You’re a man called Horse
Swinging from their hooks
Yes, the last of a dying breed

Isn’t it strange?
We were here just a short while ago
The petals of sweet innocence
Immune to the wind

Isn’t it strange?
You forget everything that you know
And the altar of experience 
Demands a list of your sins

Time’s a tilted table
Time’s a thrown fight
Time would have you go gentle
Off into the night
But time don’t bear in mind
Your deep appetite
And the force on which you feed

In the Army of Stagnancy,
It’s “don’t ask, don’t tell”
Just think of those ladies
at the poisoned well
And greet the humid weather
And bid fond farewell
To the last of a dying breed.

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Public Display of Affection

Public affection –
Where did it go?
There’s an infection
Nobody knows

Loving in secret
Guilt meter’s on
Telescreen watching
Privacy gone

They’re lockin’ you up
For a public display of affection

The children are snitches
The homeless are spies
Watch in the subway
Their schizoid eyes

They’re puttin’ you down
For a public display of affection
They’re sellin’ you out
For a public display of affection

Sex in a strange room
Along a brass pole
The dancers are working
Shoveling bullshit like coal

Warmth was a legend
Your passions are woes 
The fate of the last friend
Nobody knows 

They’re pullin’ your plug
For a public display of affection
They’re punching your ticket
For a public display of affection
They’re cuttin’ your battery
For a public display of affection
They’re snapping your cord 
For a public display of affection 


(2017)

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I Grew Up On Youtube

It's a feeding frenzy
But there are no sharks, Bess 
It's a moonlight sonata 
In total darkness 

It's a parallel region 
Brought to breach by a browser
It's a swollen moment 
With your miniature schnauzer 

I grew up on YouTube 
You can watch it unfold
The stages of childhood 
Caught in a scroll 

When you're doin your homework,
Don't believe the hype
Leave all the planning
To the God in the Skype 

There's no such disorder 
As the kind in your soul
I wished I had met you
Further up in the scroll

But I grew up on YouTube 
It charted my path
I've had more engagements 
Than the Wife of Bath

Details | Keith Dovoric Poem

Appointment For Love

I turned to my wife
With desire in my eyes
And my loins a little disjointed
Forestalling sin,
She asked with no grin,
¨Kind sir, do you have an appointment?¨

You'll need to make an appointment
If you wanna have a shot at love

I was having a chat
With a sweet bureaucrat
Whose curves nature had appointed
The moment seemed right
When up came the red light
And a billboard reading, ¨Make your appointment¨

In the future, you'll need an appointment
For love, for kindness, for care
Some justice of the peace
Will preside your release
Or decide on your fate of despair

In time we'll be damned
To a hostile land
Ruled by gods we ourselves anointed
Hey, you get what you give
So don't ---- where you live --
Or at least not without an appointment.