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Ah, today I was called to do
the saddest thing:
an old couple had died
in a car accident
and it was my job
as their executor
to open their separate wills
and fulfill their wishes
and the other lawyers stood around
moaning: Aren’t they the divinest couple ever?
40 years together and they died together


And I read their wills, and the Old Man's said:
This I crave be inscribed on my wife’s grave:
Cold As Ever

And in her will, the Old Woman said:
*This I crave be inscribed on my husband’s grave:
At Last, Stiff Like Never
...another in my series of poems based on existing jokes...I do find this an exciting and challenging exercise, transforming a joke into verse, for a joke in prose online or even a joke that we might exchange at a pub or a social function seems suddenly to have other dimensions in verse...they're not quite the same...
54

If I should die,
And you should live—
And time should gurgle on—
And morn should beam—
And noon should burn—
As it has usual done—
If Birds should build as early
And Bees as bustling go—
One might depart at option
From enterprise below!
’Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand
When we with Daisies lie—
That Commerce will continue—
And Trades as briskly fly—
It makes the parting tranquil
And keeps the soul serene—
That gentlemen so sprightly
Conduct the pleasing scene!
He loved her and she loved him
His kisses ****** out her whole past and future or tried to
He had no other appetite
She bit him she gnawed him she ******
She wanted him complete inside her
Safe and Sure forever and ever
Their little cries fluttered  into the curtains

Her eyes wanted nothing to get away
Her looks nailed down his hands his wrists his elbows
He gripped her hard so that life
Should not drag her from that moment
He wanted all future to cease
He wanted to topple with his arms round her
Or everlasting or whatever there was
Her embrace was an immense press
To print him into her bones
His smiles were the garrets of a fairy place
Where the real world would never come
Her smiles were spider bites
So he would lie still till she felt hungry
His word were occupying armies
Her laughs were an assasin's attempts
His looks were bullets daggers of revenge
Her glances were ghosts in the corner with horrible secrets
His whispers were whips and jackboots
Her kisses were lawyers steadily writing
His caresses were the last hooks of a castaway
Her love-tricks were the grinding of locks
And their deep cries crawled over the floors
Like an animal dragging a great trap
His promises were the surgeon's gag
Her promises took the top off his skull
She would get a brooch made of it
His vows  pulled out all her sinews
He showed her how to make a love-knot
At the back of her secret drawer
Their screams stuck in the wall
Their heads fell apart into sleep like the two halves
Of a lopped melon, but love is hard to stop

In their entwined  sleep they exchanged arms and legs
In their dreams their brains took each other hostage

In the morning they wore each other's face
This guy was So smooth
even a fly
would have difficulty
gaining purchase
The spirit that moves
through all things is in us all.
We are tied as one.
Copyright Barry Pietrantonio
Sometimes in life we feel so depressed,
but unlike you, someone somewhere is not so blessed.
Somewhere in Burma a Muslim weeps,
while the rest of the world sleeps.
Somewhere in the west, Muslims are labelled as terrorists,
after the turn over events of the 9/11 twist.
Somewhere in a country a Muslim struggles to follow the Islamic lifestyle,
while its government gleefully smile.
Somewhere a Muslim brother dies in the midst of  war
while he has nothing to do with all the deaths galore.
Some where a poor dad cries,
when he cant help his family to a bowl of rice.
Somewhere, a Muslim mother painfully sighs,
for his child the last time it closed its eyes.
Some where, a man ponders if Muslims are to be blamed on themselves.
After all, these are their countries and their affairs dispersed on the shelves.
Somewhere the hypocrisy and double standard of the super power countries
towards the Muslims is indeed shocking to see.
Somewhere someone in the world believes people are trying to destroy Islamic values and the Muslim Ummah,
which is  against any human law.
Somewhere, someone is praying "Oh lord! Save this Ummah! and save this people"
from this killing needle.
Somewhere in this world some one must see that Muslims in this world are not totally free
which every suffering soul shall sadly agree.
A child draws the outline of a body.
She draws what she can, but it is white all through,
she cannot fill in what she knows is there.
Within the unsupported line, she knows
that life is missing; she has cut
one background from another. Like a child,
she turns to her mother.

And you draw the heart
against the emptiness she has created.
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