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‘Rhymatic’ fever

Have gotten too immersed
in stanza & verse
as if being coerced
Outright prose averse

Struck by rhymatic fever
meant my social death knell
Life under lifted cleaver
casts lonely outcast’s spell

Keeps fumbling the prosody
until turns tragicomedy
which fades in aprosody
until picks up in psalmody

The mere sometimes lapse or slip
or am I losing my grip?

+)
-aprosody = (speech pathology) lack of variations in speech, such as speed, tone, and emphasis
-prosody = the study of meter and the art of versification
-psalmody = the act of singing psalms or hymns
-‘rhymatic’ fever = (license) condition that compels to express us in verse of rhyme

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Sorting paper clips by color

Who might you be to berate?
Hold your holy holler!
My sorting aim simple, straight:
paper clips by color

To you perhaps a clip mere wire
cavalierly curved metal
its ingeniousness won’t inspire
or found lacking its mettle?

While to me colored paper clips
strew paths like do rose petals
May distract like succulent lips
Prove gallantry like medals

But then I, like the clips, I consent
am as well of a peculiar bent

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Mind scatters downwind?

My tepid thoughts shiver
quintessentially
Its conclusions quiver
inferentially

Then like light squall
sweeping gust
in fleeting thrall
comes distrust

Gathering breeze
brings a chill
more ill at ease
than ill will

Is my mind chagrined
by happenstance
scattering downwind
by circumstance?

Or just dueling with dementia
while distracted by dyslexia?

 

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Such is the life of the drunken sailor

Once young, when in Djibouti
Life Herself in the guise
of an enchanting beauty
gave him her deep well eyes

But she feigned not giving a hootie
when while blushing he praised her wrap
She pretended coy, cool & snooty
flustered, he could only tip his cap

Callow, thought he’d been rejected
so he told himself: retreat!
To a dive bar he defected
to nurse his awkward defeat

Under blistering sun in zenith
back later aboard his freighter
with in his sweltering bunk beneath
hangover on the equator

Once again hoists anchor his ship
such is life of the drunken sailor:
Off on another lonely trip
he sails away as his own jailer

+)
-Djibouti = a port on the southern entrance to the Red Sea
-freighter = cargo ship

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Sunset in Fall

Fades away the day meekly
sun rays reflect but bleakly.

On Fall flattened curve
in sky’s metallic shrouds
sets sun with reserve
below cold streaking clouds.

Its rays turn opaque
sun sinks to rest.
Leaving a chilled wake
to West Southwest.

 

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The situation is hopeless but not desperate

Had hoped for another dimension
of roaring and soaring ascent
trying to stand up to convention
been dreaming of dashing dissent

By now I’m better versed:
found species mainly slighted
Human existence cursed
on plundered planet blighted

While the situation seems hopeless
grant me be courageous and mope less!

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One in take-off by ‘afterburner’, other watching blast-off from amen corner

With irrepressible intention
Joyce takes off for an intervention

An ever blossoming head turner
steeply she roars off from the house
as if by switched-on ‘afterburner’
Fades behind: a blown over spouse

who’ll be wobbling, gasping
in turbulent wake
from cheering, voice rasping
uncombed, stare opaque

Lost in irrelevancy’s realm
clasping pale at his flimsy helm

+)
-afterburner = a jet engine power booster engaged to briefly increase speed
-intervention = Joyce works as an (addiction) intervention specialist

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Poise in ubiquitous noise?

Why must I pretend poise
in ubiquitous noise?

Vain the hope that racket turns tinny
so seal doors tight, make walls thicker?
Perhaps move away to New Guinea
or keep numbing up with liquor?

Hold the wild bustle!
Lighten the stomp
Muscle the hustle
Muzzle the romp

Please muffle the clang
and curb the harangue!

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Grinding coffee by hand

The grinder manual
a squeaking jewel
of process natural
zestful ritual

Among machines
manual is ‘end’
that fulfills ‘means’
in transcendent blend

We shall be finding
pure peace of mind
when by hand grinding
New shifts align:

Caffeinated manna
wondrously falls, wends
In pure dulciana
fragile fragrance scends

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On life’s short promenade

Let up on the schlepp:
Unclasp handrails
find spring in your step
Check wind, set sails

Clamor for an upgrade:
Transcend life’s travails
in its daily charade
Forge upwardly trails

Do not indulge in sour grapes
on Life’s short promenade
and above all never traipse
in its penny arcade