Normal childhood    

As I receive more rejections
Of my nostalgic poetry
I must apologize
I wasn't molested, neglected
Or abused in any way
Well maybe I got spanked a time or two
And sent to my room a few
Yes I had my own room
We went on great family vacations
My brother and I were taught right from wrong
Family went to church some
Mostly Presbyterian or Lutheran or such
It was just important to listen

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Number  One  reviewing

Bath powder on your *******
That I caressed
You felt like silk

So surprisingly timid was I
Our first time you so gently
Helped lead the way intently.
Did you hide your experience
While letting me seem victorious ?

We parked so many places
We could have used a valet  

Win Schular's was class
But mosquitoes in the Michigan woods,
They made love bites on my ***
No room in the canoe even for that

That house I hitchhiked down to
A warm bed of your softness
Football weekend at a brothers place; times too few
Where your scent lingers after you

Memories are sometimes fleeting
But not your first love
I cried after you.  ........  still needing

After ten years strong and vivid
After two decades still exquisite
After five they begin to fade
Just flashes here and there
A whiff of your scent somewhere
A lingering synaptic flash decayed

Copyright 2013
Richard L Ratliff


Win Schular's is a famous restaurant in Michigan

Over grown field      

Untended and overgrown
Used to be a field of wild flowers
Sunflowers, daylillies and daisies
Purple sage, crocus and lilac  
But they needed more attention
Than I was willing to give

Took them all for granted
Let others tend the weeds at times
Weeds creep so slowly
Unnoticed until they have overrun

Few showing through now
the fog of weeds prevails
Some butter like flowers
Planted long ago still pop up
And surprise me
Am I ready to resume
The cultivation of this field?

Thoughts of colored petals
Race across my mind
Oh all the effort needed
Will anyone notice or even care
If this field blooms again?

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Pillow

You have been the pillow
I lay my weary soul upon
A soft cradle for my woes  
Molding to my needs
While supporting my dreams      

Copyright 2017
Richard L Ratliff

Pillow

You have been the pillow
I lay my weary soul upon
A soft cradle for my woes  
Conforming to my needs              
And nurturing my dreams  

You are the night light
That reassures a fearful mind
Giving guidance in the dark
Keeping demons at bay
While guiding in angels

The blanket that warms  
And comforts me    
That soft cocoon of love  
Protecting my tired wings  
For tomorrow's flight

You are the morning dew    
That cleanses a new day
That kiss of morning light
That offers promise  
For all that lies ahead

Copyright 2017
Richard L Ratliff

Two lovely Pink lips
Two big brown carmel *******
Really great ***

Copyright 7/12/19
Richard L Ratliff

Plans for Christmas ?
Expect me to seep into your dreams
When you are napping I’ll be there
While trimming the tree with thoughts of me
Or rapping presents I’ll be in your mind
This season is your reason to remember me
And all the time we have shared
Decorating each other’s lives

Copyright 12 - 9 - 18
Richard L Ratliff

Python

Python got tied in knots
Pulling Eve's leg about an apple

Adam tried to get a word in edgewise
All to no avail

Who got that apple
After the first bite
Ah that's a tail for later

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Rail road          

Making love to the rhythm of the rails

That big locomotive traveling on the rails
O whoosh o whoosh woo woo woo
Clickedy clack clickedy clack clickedy clack
And the bouncing of every joint
Whoosh o whoosh o whoosh
A big base drumbeat as the motion
Gets faster and faster
Making its own sweet music
The journey has its own lyrics
A duet of balanced motion
Whistling along woo woo woo
Pulling into the station

Pulsing pushing pulling pounding prodding
Rumbling chugging moaning in the night
Through the dark night chasing the morning light
That headlight streaming white through the night
That squirting light
Quivering just before the dawn
Slender rails long want to ride
Down the mountains and valleys to the flat lands
And in the dark tunnels
Woo woo woo woo
Panting, wailing huffing .
Struggling up the hills
And roaring coming down  

Copyright 2017
Richard L Ratliff

Ripe

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Ripe old age: *******
Sounds like you'll spoil if you last much longer
You're done, ready for picking
That's a bunch of crap
I'm not ready to quit
I'm quite alive and kicking

Copyright 2013
Richard L Ratliff

Sand bag

Life is a sackcloth bag, helically stitched    
And filled with earth and sand

I've carried my self like that sackcloth bag            
Firm yet shifting subtly as it moves    
With small flaws at the bottom stitching  
Leaking a little here and there along this path
Unnoticed for years: mental incontinence

Parts of me here and there left behind
Carried  myself with seeming ease
Unconcerned of the trail I left                
Grains of sand that were hard to follow    
Nothing more than moral flatulence

Just a bag of sand
Slowly leaking as my life moves on
A trail for others to follow or avoid
Grains of wisdom and lunacy
Who am I to judge
Now just a bag of bones

Copyright 3/14/19
Richard L Ratliff

She Is
  
She is supple and soft
Slowly quick and taut
She is here – yet not
Elusive and still to touch
To touch --yet not
She is embraced yet free          
Expressive and quiet
She is lucid and opaque        
Earthen yet a lark
She is a smile in the dark  

Copyright 2001
Richard L Ratliff

Shower built for two
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Got into the shower to explore.
Come in, please close the door.              
Rubbing together making soapy bubbles
Four hands at work with rapport.
        
Hands chasing bubbles all around
            
Slippery Soapy bubbles washing                    
Backs, shoulders, sides and bottoms
Lubricating warmth is splashing

Hands chasing bubbles all around                    

A downpour of warmth
Washing away the evenings dew                  
Grab the bar, foot on the bench
Legs to wash and more we knew

Hands chasing bubbles all around  

Slipping together face to face
Let me be your wash cloth.    
And you mine, guide me to that place

Rinsing bubbles down the drain

Copyright 2014
Richard L Ratliff

Sliver bridge
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As the sun sinks
It casts that silver bridge
Across the lake
If I run fast enough
I'll reach the other side

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Strutting Out

I love wearing a well tailored suit.          
Strutting in my sartorial repute.              
Crisp spread shirt collar, matching tie                
And dimpled half Windsor knot
All with puffy pocket square to eye.                                                                                

Dark navy with a faint pinstripe                    
Two button coat and Four button sleeve
Blood red silk lining type                            
British tailored elegance to perceive
Slacks cut just a half inch to the back
Stepping out lady on my arm



Copyright 2014
Richard L Ratliff

Check out my books www.amazon.com/author/richardratliff

Summer Heat

I'm on the deck                          
Sticking my head into August's oven  
Only to see flowers hunched over
Gasping for air
Tree leaves clinched
Holding on to a last bit of moisture
It's as if something is ******* them dry      
I spit and it never reaches the ground
Perspiration doesn't happen but should
The sun like a laser blisters the sidewalk
And melts the souls of my sneakers

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

There are days

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There are days I feel
Myself slipping away away
Like a watch running fast
I'm slowing down

A contradiction in time

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Thursday Morning  
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Morning comes now
With no alarm no razors edge
Splash of warm water and a brush
Yesterday's slacks are clean

Instant coffee then
Inhalers, pills stool softener
Morning news email and Facebook
Breakfast from the drive through

Trash set out at the curb
It must be Thursday
Unless yesterday was a holiday
Have to ponder this

Must exercise on the treadmill
Twenty minutes slow walk
Some days more some less
Just keep moving is a goal

Guess I'll work on a poem
At least for a while
Till its time
To get my poppy seeds
From television for the afternoon

Evening news
It is Thursday
Better bring in the cans
Before harvesting the poppies
On tonight's cable

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Treadmill      


I recite poetry in my head
To pass the monotony
Of my sore knee
While I exercise anyway          

Words tumbling in my mind
To be or not, it still aches
It's like I'm caught in Finnegans wake  
Surfing words, beginning at the end

Ending at the begining for now
Just time consuming rhymes
In my head, told by mimes
Useless mental gestures

Great words insulted
By walking, iambic strides      
Just to count out time, besides
It's just repeated repetitions          

Copyright 9/23/17
Richard L Ratliff

Twenty again

I wish we were twenty again
I would ravish you
Anoint your ******* with honey
And languish in their sweetness  

You would fill my navel with cream
And ravish me
Like a lioness lapping up the night

And you would ravish me
And I would ravish you
Our world would be new again

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

When I was 5

When I was five years old.                                
Mister Johnson lived next door.                      
He talked to me at the fence, I'm told.                
He thought it was necessary
To test my growing vocabulary                    

Can you say "****"?
No no it's a bad word I admit

How about "****" ask Sam                            
No I don't think I can say it

How about "*******" he ask.                  
I don't know about that
                            
Better go ask your mother.    
He said with a laugh




Copyright 2014
Richard L Ratliff

Your words    

Your words are the fingers
That massage my aches away
Soothing the worries of the day

Your wisdom the arms
That hold my world together
No matter my mental weather

Your laughter the drug
That cures my emotional infection  
And becomes my new addiction

Copyright 2017
Richard L Ratliff