Words

featured in the poetry forum August 7, 2015  :: 0 comments

Fragrant stuffed packages,
Scalloped assemblages,
Tiny dim sum dumplings
Honeyed, cute dainties.

Like middens, where
Shells, shreds, lithics,
Other artifacts, rest
‘Til recouped for use.

Wee phonaesthetic branches,
Twisted from moss, trees,
Hang low over city streets,
Are extant during ceremonies.

This passel, that reliquant
Gruff crusts, debt, sunshine,
Penurious bairns with rich
Debutantes, all together.

Words make sennights unlike
Days marked by painting,
Pottery, whistling, yoga;
They trump limited vitality.

Manifestations coined in
Mots turn many lessons,
Cull creative arts’ core,
Form our culture’s epaule.

editors note:

Speak them or eat them, this says a mouthful. – mh clay

White Hairs Dance the Zambra

featured in the poetry forum June 16, 2015  :: 0 comments

Who might have thought that white hairs,
With thinning scalps, could prove old crowns more precious
Than downy, babies’ heads?

Why would wrinkled rapscallions dare thump castanets,
Or dance Fandango, Siguiriyas, Son Jarocho, maybe Zambra,
Instead of sipping soda on the sideline?

Where in the world would faded recollections,
Along with tarnished memories, vibrate like mighty throstles
Among crab apple blossoms?

What’s wrong when our populous lets lock-
Downs be governed by pejoratives, by rigid pigeon-holes,
Perhaps also stupid typecasts?

editors note:

Heads up, Young’uns! Sit this’n out and let some senior Swirlers show you a thing or two. – mh clay

Covered with a Leotard

featured in the poetry forum April 12, 2015  :: 0 comments

A fat lady,
With a red, oozing pimple,
In the middle of her face,
Squeezed one more tomato.
Her brown hands clutched,
Burst that fruit,
Onto her print dress, maybe.

Nearby, a rain-soaked cat,
Curves of muscle,
Visible beneath skin
Covered with a leotard.
Eyes wide, aware, she peered,
Surveyed the shuk,
Witnessed the forced fruit, maybe.

Thereafter, a gang of children,
Skipping
Punctuation, good grammar, manners,
Pinched the lady.
They crowded the cat, while
Merrily stuffing bon mots
Into their coats, maybe.

editors note:

Careful kids, only thing madder than a wet cat is a wet cat in a leotard. – mh

Voguing with Current Federal Bureaucrats

featured in the poetry forum February 16, 2015  :: 0 comments

It avails science writers to try to promote military splendor.
Sucking funding from objectionable parties phases mundanities.
These days, voguing with current federal bureaucrats brings home riches.

In contrast, camping out in theatres’ utility room attracts cockroaches,
Causes pieces of plaster to fuel a need for therapists, warms idiots
Intent on taking over urban pagodas or on spilling users’ viscera in parks.

The worst penury’s easily synthesized by those suit and sunglasses types,
Who yield when declaring all manners of balderdash, slinking toward shadowy
Testimonies, spurred by the likes of cartoon characters, cheap wine, stale cookies.

To sate more than cutpurses, it’s necessary to addend stilted footnotes,
Practice tantra yoga, open one’s palms to starbursts, imbibe bad radiation.
Synthesized electricity’s a tricky matter that constantly acts unpredictably.

Leaning on utility tables, writing copious notes about army experiences,
Promises only to unpack paradigms, not to drive away cats, rats, ravens.
Declining opportunities to leave districts unprotected evokes worse neighbors.

Electing, instead, to smooth incommensurate barbs could bring peace,
Lower tax rates, cause a rise in births around holiday times. Replacing
Spectacles, too, beholdens traitors to piecework, gym exercises, vitamins.

When I grow up, I’ll set sail around corporate illusions, hire pals, eat taffy.
Otherwise plan my day so that martial innovations can readily destroy cities,
After rolling over foreign forces unwilling to pay tributes in gold or fine textiles.

Compliance in settling desert development towns equals insanity except
When payola fountains over various companies’ courtiers, dance halls, clinics.
As such, social drives succeed in raising more than the cost of cookies or sunshades.

editors note:

Our current state of affairs, deftly described; affairs of state managed by minions of War, Inc. (KJ has a new poetry book you gotta read, “The Little Temple of My Sleeping Bag.“)

For Arlene: On Condition of a Smile and a Giggle

featured in the poetry forum November 14, 2014  :: 0 comments

Abstemious children make pledges,
On condition of a smile and a giggle,
Particularly to groups of powerful
Individuals tending not to surface.

Given sunshine, also assorted conditions,
Plain folks’ knowledge of astral energies
Can safeguard their entire communities,
Capably thwarting alien armies’ coupes.

Understand, militants’ muckles of wrapped cloths’
Flagged folds, absent creases, frees no fierce
Brothers or local lovelies, plus fails to presage
Inscrutability collected from the obstreperous.

The most dire cases of hostage taking pops eyes
Wide open, culls imperturbable affections, strikes,
Catalyzes the Stockholm Syndrome, suffers naught
After “merely” traumatizing isolated families.

Accordingly, when exhaling peppermint puffs,
Stretching to reach for hinted revelations, recall;
Keep all kemp and rimrock secured, brush both
Jaws twice daily. Plus, if protesting, write smarter.

Else, jackanapes will continue to make patent
Not-so-clandestine alliances with mercenaries.
See, embolden doggies sleep, chase no intruders.
As well, robust defense technologies can belly up.

When we love enough to die, to undergo whole
Tortures willingly, our cousins stop fashioning
Expiries. Even if permanently crippled, we’ll
Live to travel to hope’s more peaceful borders.

editors note:

With a dictionary and this dalliance, we learn once again; everything works out in the end. – mh

The Unsustainability of Bugs Tracking Bread Crumbs

featured in the poetry forum September 9, 2014  :: 0 comments

Shooing away sparrows to make room to dance legs over lectures,
Their paternity, at last’s become the latest celebration, leftovers
Notwithstanding. Physical energy can’t be as ugly as slugs.

If critters can’t help but be servile to predators, it’s best to shelter them;
Cat-loving grandfathers abound; they come a cropper to living rooms.
Fend off insensitive directions, thereafter, remain more than horrific.

Consider the sexist episode of one American professor, an old bachelor,
Caught amidst the abundant pinching of cheeks and noses, grinning
At little girls (alongside some adults, calibrations got regulated).

Accordingly, the door to room six, in that neighborhood of stone, decked
High and higher with lanais, near the parking area closest to boxes, brings
Extended family, other white collar crime, adultery as exercise plus entertainment.

It remains undesirable to allow bugs to track bread crumbs. We’re wiser when
Training roaches, millipedes, human creepy crawlies, the separation of responsibilities
From pleasures. Extra effort’s needed with elders intent on bad goings on.

editors note:

And perpetual perfidy is hard to maintain… – mh

Round, Pop, Shout

featured in the poetry forum June 11, 2014  :: 0 comments

Round, pop, shout over aspidistra jungles.
Pout when adolescents dare fail to coruscate.
Don’t let it show, though, if fire departments,
Principals, even janitors, interfere. Hug social media.

Hovering near chemistry lab closets fetch nothing;
Sowing file upon file of empty advertising, too, lacks.
Only ombre-toned hair, half matted in phony dreadlocks,
Or partially shaved from heads, can resuscitate dead networks.

Nonetheless, dreaming’s still free. Fantasy costs zilch.
Riding up and down department store escalators, likewise
Especially in condemned buildings, where fire trucks’ actions,
Resulted in weak and helpless moments, bring about taffy pulls.

Camphor, lithium amide, sulfur are susceptible to exploding.
There’s little chance nose pickers ever evolve into champions;
The underdogs’ guardians are required to possess clean hands, feet.
Alternatively, they employ katanas to cut down bullies, spread peanut butter.

Elsewise, goodie two shoes sandwich themselves on donkeys’ markabs,
Inhale stuff like ketamine, chew betel leaves, belch, perhaps flatulate regularly;
No rescue comes from nonruminant animals chewing phytates, spitting at strangers.
Stumping, though, busies bodies, even impacts those trussed in morphsuits, gives thrills.

Accordingly, legerdemain among natives tired of kissing begets blithe
Relationships, casts off emotions, possibly removes unwanted progeny.
Considers as best actors, those in groups who repeat again, again, again.
Claim others’ words as theirs, hiccup when locked in latrines. It happens.

editors note:

Adolescent trickery absolves good intentions. Sparkle plenty! – mh

Contemporary Coupling (a Ballad)

featured in the poetry forum April 6, 2014  :: 0 comments

Two gals decked in ribbons,
Some gents sporting tails.
Went swirling ‘round the dance floor,
‘til the women swapped their males.

Hi de hi ho,
Hi de hi hee,
The russet one’s
The man for me.

My partner spoke in riddles.
That link, he ragged my brain.
He answered but a little,
So I’d see him again.

Hi de hi ho,
Hi de hi hee,
The russet one’s
The man for me.

We talked until the new sun,
Floated up the sky.
My resistance became undone;
He was a clever guy.

Hi de hi ho,
Hi de hi hee,
The russet one’s
The man for me.

Next, we supped together,
Strolling, shopping, all the same.
My code was growing thinner,
While I hardly knew his name.

Hi de hi ho,
Hi de hi hee,
The russet one’s
The man for me.

My best girl, she thought love was
Coloring my cheeks.
She pointed toward a single cause,
Though we’d coupled just a week.

Hi de hi ho,
Hi de hi hee,
The russet one’s
The man for me.

A fortnight, still together,
The russet one and I.
I might last near forever,
With this the red-haired guy.

Hi de hi ho,
Hi de hi hee,
The russet one’s
The man for me.

editors note:

A swap meet, color-matched mystery – hi de hi ho, indeed! – mh

Conversation

featured in the poetry forum February 8, 2014  :: 0 comments

Two birds, on a wire, talked.
One winged away, not glancing back;
Its partner persisted romance.

Rebels cause much outlier disease.
Flaneauses’ lame narratives,
By nature, possess metabolic speed.

When waking from dreams, finding
Forked tongues smelling our toes,
We ought to consider conceding.

Remember, boulangeries confer samples;
Common plants’ therapeutic benefits normally
Can’t calm our backwater kingdom.

editors note:

Avian angsts hatch kingdom controversies. Best to talk it over! – mh

Certain Parameters

featured in the poetry forum December 18, 2013  :: 0 comments

Certain parameters’ brief fictions might get played out
When undertakings, trounced by sparrows, wrens, select jays,
Surge with songs of desolate places, evil sensations, analytical beadles,
Vast tracts of memorized texts.

Portended invertebrate victories, thereafter, could be minimized
According to rare energy pockets, motes, music, mayhem of the electronic sort,
Glimmering from everything arrayed between parenting and religion,
Such martial visions of discrete goals.

Parts of service chanted from ambos, could blur
Because of life’s demarcations, spreading chestnut arbors, constituent atoms,
Spinning due to computer simulations meant to determine rainfall,
Cups of letters exploded off of pages.

Projects essential to maintaining systematic interaction fail
Despite bright floral carpets studded with burnet, smallage, skirret,
Generating structural modifications, redefinition, other incalculable help,
Uncommon folk’s workaday tapestries.

Chainmail-decked lords, thus get stymied, can’t exercise
Although print editors, peer reviews, SEO gurus, all text families,
Array desired properties, create enough expose’ for multiple audiences,
Magnetic exchanges juxtaposed with pocket money.

editors note:

Repose our ragged rulers, rest our rank rapacity. A lot of everything ensures no value guarantee. Measure that, you captains of industry! – mh