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 Feb 19 Rob Rutledge
rick
it usually leaps like a swordfish out of the ocean
and I’m able to harpoon it,
but as of lately,
I’m stuck with pond ****
and the tuna on my bad breath.

it’s nowhere to be found;
not in the parks,
the libraries,
the liquor stores
nor the circuit clerk’s office,

I tried fishing it out of the swaps of
spitfire and melancholy
but found nothing

I tried to ****** it with an excessive
amount of trouble and *******
but found nothing

I tried scooping the guts out of myself
like a hollowed out pumpkin and
splattered it with a wet slap
against an old newspaper
but found nothing

there’s nothing here;
no spark,
no imagination,
no ingenuity

what I’m I suppose to do?

as I sit here petting the black
velvet fur of my dog,
my toes won’t stop curling,
my nails are bitten down to the nub
and the stink of aging soars past
like eagles on fire

I have nothing to write about:
no unpopular opinion
no peculiar viewpoint
no bludgeoning over
the banality of
extinction

the only logical thing to do is
head out to see some local
band at a Chicago bar and see
where the alcohol takes me

I need the ammunition
I need the fuel
I need to make
something happen

the hard days of labor have diminished me
through attrition and lack of euphemism
but for right now, no matter how
saturated I am of feeling and thought…

whether I’m
drunk on sleep,
salacious on vulgarity,
grieving with quills,
vacant of *****,
dreaming of gout,
reading Géza Csáth,
listening to Sass Dragons,
burrowing under empty houses
or fixing the plumbing for the woman down the hall.

I still
can’t
coax
the word
out.
 Feb 18 Rob Rutledge
R
i would like to bleach my eyes
although they are a mature umber
the darkness in them has not come from slumber

rather from bittersweet tales not obliged
and far too mature for my young mind
penetrating my innocence
in favor of creating unnecessary indifference

to sacred matters of ***
belonging behind formal doors

as someone who is blunt
i wish people would say what they mean
instead of the flirty front of double entendres
but let the people say what they want
i have already been corrupted to be crude
****** expression (i mean in both ways) is a double edged sword
a factor in society's obsession with shattering young people
to box them in with contradictory nonsensical concepts of what should be
i love it when it spring it warms the heart in me
lots of spring time flowers there for us to see
crocus and the daffodil and the snowdrops to
showing of there blooms in the morning dew

trees begin to bud to grow there leaves once more
now theres leaves again like there was  before
the robin on the fence sings morning song
bringing in the dawn as he bobs along

a lovely time of year with so much to view
mother natures beauty for every me and you
if the world was full of wishes i would wish for this
a happy world for everyone with nothing else but bliss
there would be no fear or people getting killed
no shooting or no stabbings no more blood is spilled

just a world of love as peaceful as can be
we could live together in a world thats free
if we all wished together one just might come true
the world would be a better place for every me and you
They closed their thoughts.
Genuineness is unwelcome in this world.
Their purpose and cause remain hidden.
Smiling ironically with their sharp hearts,
they tied disappearing ethics with golden threads.

Now they invite you to the feast.
The milky blood of a thousand voices is served,
at the table's abundance of emptiness.

Who are they? Survivors,
shaped by silent consent,
walk through the vast field of lost values,
tainted with soulless conformism.
They are afraid, so afraid of their dark shadows…
 Feb 18 Rob Rutledge
nivek
hands reaching in to grasp some of the fire
spun from stars and suns
- a tribal dance
-drumbeat hearts
-woven songs of creation
-light in minds
-fire in souls
-eyes witness love
- the changing seasons
-hard fought understanding
-wisdom of the ancestors
-a living out traditions.
You snort at the sword, at the sabre’s grace,
Turn from the art of the strike, the feint—
Call it pretense, call it restraint,
but some beasts grunt where men engrain.

A boar’s tusk slashes, crude and mean,
quick as a thrash, dull as a scream.
It wins mud brawls, not campaigns,
leaves gashes, but never names.

You think the sword takes patience, fear?
That form is shackles, weight severe?
But steel that sings was forged to last,
and skill, not slop, makes deep wounds fast.

See, butchers love their brutal art,
blade to sinew, meat to cart.
A tusk, it tears, it ruts, it chews—
but lacks the hands for sharper use.

So charge fast, strike low, gore deep—
but tell me, when your blade runs steep,
did you sever thought from bone,
or only flail where swords are honed?
give me-the bowie knife of repartee,
nothing more satisfying than the
quick stabbing, a good blood letting,
in your genteel face, no hellish
moderated pace, the energetic plunge
of a quick lunge into the woebegone,
long after you count the meter tempo’d
use fingers and toes, but needing to hold
your nose, to include that extra
grace note, that belies denies the harmony
the tules and rules of calling order
to control the roost,  sine-one
is a victim of a
down and virtuous ***** verbal slashing!

count my syllables, never,
let my stanzas run free,
like an African tiger,
with the goat of format
mounted in between his teeth,
bloodied and dripping dead,
the squealing of hyper innocente,
silent after cries of, kind sir,
me thinks thou protest too much!

we can squish and twist our holy words,
into formal tuxedos of cantankerous
arrowed arrogance,
but know this,
roses are read, them
violets, blue, have
turned millions of children to avert their
eyes from anything thereafter that was classified, notarized, canonized, sanctified
as the write rules of poetry

peals of pearls are born with parentage
of a lousy
grain of sand,
the words etched in the
lines upon my hand,
are lifelines of sidewalk cracks,
discarded candy wrappers,
the twisted ends cigarette butts,
used as proof that ash and dust are the
genetic source material of uncommon
great composition, given to those who
love the common touch of leaves of grass,
thstbeneath the heat of the sun that
exposes the nothingness of bitterness

know no one can run from the golden
visibility, of a sun, talent in pursuit of
egoism is a long road to a short history

yeah.
(faster than a speeding bullet)
boring…
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