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  Jul 2015 Aver
Jedd Ong
Your children roam the gridlocked streets
hand-in-cardboard, feet firmly on uneven ground,
eyes heavy with the rubble of their foreclosed homes.
They live in grocery carts.

Forget Fifth Avenue, or the Villages,
or the cobblestone streets of young and old,
or the unseen gates of Striver’s Row.
Your heart lies by the subway stations
that ring with the songs of a lonely old man,
his teeth yellowed, but voice golden,
asking not for introductions nor coin,
but for a listener.

New York, they cry for you to hear them.
(Your poor, your tired, and your weary)

Bowery, 6.13.15.
  Jul 2015 Aver
Estherzz21
I see poets,
And read poems,
I can't understand,
Why I understood,
In words I wished to write,
Yet never once I truly wrote;
But darkness and brightness,
Are honestly meaningless,
Because I'm surviving,
And not living.
I don't understand.
Aver Jul 2015
One
well father screams out  through the window screen
daughters nothing but an empty dream
yeah just keep on walking down that road
never wonder where the hell it goes

on and on

brother sinking down in that stream
creek runs red with blood I've seen
washed out in the sink to keep me clean
oh what a thing

a thing that keeps me awake each night
the thought of you here
well my hands tied
and my heart blind
to you

sister sister well i almost missed her
lined her dolls up before you kissed her
and knocked em down
right to the ground

well my brother he called just yesterday
heard the news said you;ve gone crazy
well was it you who's gone astray
well aint it a shame

and this thing that sings me to sleep all day
the memory of you running away
from all the things you held so near
creeping out like a frozen fear
as i hold my tears

and oh how the seasons go
winding on along this sorrowed road
and oh how the torture blends
with the sound of my heart beating
the sound of my heart beating
with yours again

i see that tower standing tall
and my soul climbing on up that wall
and through your heroes pride you'll see
that tower crashing down on me

mother oh the one i pray
seek to save us all each day
we tear ourselves apart you see
searching for some hope beneath

but oh here we go
and oh we never know

father will your will be done
let me know when kingdom comes
  Jun 2015 Aver
Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may **** me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
  Jun 2015 Aver
Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my *******,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
  Jun 2015 Aver
Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.
  Jun 2015 Aver
Mary K
it surprises me that all of this was once not thought to pass. with the rising of the tides and the hastening of the wind, and then all life seemed to disappear suddenly. and yet the warning signs were overlooked and everyone continued until the water levels rose slowly enough that they didn't even realize that they were drowning until it was too late.
does this count as a poem?
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