Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
The lawyers, Bob, know too much.
They are chums of the books of old John Marshall.
They know it all, what a dead hand wrote,
A stiff dead hand and its knuckles crumbling,
The bones of the fingers a thin white ash.
        The lawyers know
        a dead man's thought too well.

In the heels of the higgling lawyers, Bob,
Too many slippery ifs and buts and howevers,
Too much hereinbefore provided whereas,
Too many doors to go in and out of.

When the lawyers are through
What is there left, Bob?
Can a mouse nibble at it
And find enough to fasten a tooth in?

Why is there always a secret singing
When a lawyer cashes in?
Why does a hearse horse snicker
Hauling a lawyer away?

The work of a bricklayer goes to the blue.
The knack of a mason outlasts a moon.
The hands of a plasterer hold a room together.
The land of a farmer wishes him back again.
         Singers of songs and dreamers of plays
         Build a house no wind blows over.
The lawyers--tell me why a hearse horse snickers
         hauling a lawyer's bones.
Tryst Aug 2015
Quick-draw five card stud
Dealt a bullet on fifth street --
    Full house cashes out.
According to legend, Wild Bill Hickok was murdered whilst holding 2 pairs, aces and eights, in a game of 5 card stud poker.  The remaining card remains a mystery, however given he took an extra bullet to the head, I guess he cashed out with a full house.

"Fifth street" is the term used when the fifth card gets dealt.
A hand with two aces and eights has since been known as the dead man's hand.
Colette May 2014
3AM.
And I am still waiting.

The sunlight shines through my curtains,
giving me headaches.
And I am still waiting.

From summer to winter,
And I am still waiting.

From Day 1 till Day 365.
And I am still waiting.

From tank tops and shorts till wedding dresses.
And I am still waiting.

From receiving cashes to earning them.
And I am still waiting.

From being a child to having one or two.
And I am still waiting.

From my teens to my death bed.
And I am no longer waiting.
Crucifix Dec 2015
Ink stains, and wire frames. Shadows dance in my brain. Cotten cashes in my teeth, the demon breath still stinks within.
A single drop for every sin. In the bile reflecting pool, made up of a broken mans drool. Is what is left of what I was before I took the demon buzz.
Nasty stuff.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Come on down
right on down now,
a brand new car,
deluxe washer dryer
brand spankin' new
& all ready to go,
spin that wheel,
turn that square,
answer that question
& gamble that dollar,
Donald J. Trump
has come to town,

the Dealmaker
the Best of the Best,
the All American
gettin' it done
wise & wicked
grinnin' fat cat,
who'll somehow
keep an eye out
for all you smaller
folks as he swings
those roundabouts,
& crosses those t's
& cashes his chips,

Donald J. Trump
will make that dollar,
dig that coal &
bury that pipeline,
negotiate that better
ditch that failure,
scrap that law,
watch out for
that business
& surely curb
those watchdogs,

& money will be
made but not by
you or I or Shirl
or Bob but those oh so
connected & Sheldon's
& Coke Brother's &
Investors & Directors
& Oligarchs & Overseas
Accounts & the select
few who always,
always, seem to
do just fine,

& the pitiful irony
if you will of all
this Making Great
Again & victory
for the Little Man
is that the little
man cast his lot
with someone
who never gave
the slightest ****
& Earl & Nancy
once more get
the short stick,
the bad apple,
the *******
without
the prize,
the pathetic hat
& the broken
soon faded whistle.
Phosphorimental Sep 2014
You’re too used to your blunted ways
Worn habits of reason is why you stay
So tired of hearing the same arcane
From a heart that cashes in on pain
Grab your Sufi sluicing pan,
Ya Allah, let’s pull the gold of soul by hand
From this parched and grinning desert creek
Sift the dust and graveled speech
Unlearn the ways you understood
Mine the vein, the pay is good.
Trade the bone china we can’t afford
For tin cans, wool, and a Damascene sword.
Ann Beaver Oct 2013
I want to understand
Mechanics banned
From working right
Under a thumb, light
Strokes dark
Mark down another thing
Throw away another ring
Sing low another dirge
Die a little, emerge
From ashes
Another plan hashes
Another man dashes
Cashes in on my desperation
Precipation makes things grow
Throw away another ring
Notice, again, another ding
Mark down anther thing
On and on
All this greets every dawn.
Eye of the Mirror

I laid my obsessed head on the pillow:
Mind raced for the warmer stories;
And the slip of the thought gazed me;
To the diminishing call of histories.

I look up in the mirror in my birthday suit;
I glanced top down head to toe;
Bring back image to face again;
And I started to talk to that foe;

“it’s been 20 years that I saw you rarely;
You never spitted out a word of seldom;
And you never looked at me twice;
Which made me looking at you boredom;”

“If we ever talked mostly time and time;
I would have clearly known you’d be the one now;
You never called me by my instinct;
Now I feel you are a stranger somehow;”

“You saw me by the barber shop trimming;
Yet you didn’t see any differences on me;
I wanted to smile on the morning of 30th September;
But you never didn’t turn up to see it;”

“7 years back when I fell in love with love;
I asked you how you are feeling of it;
You dropped down your face completely;
And I never got that feeling till date:’

“Before I joined the part of college;
I asked you what should be the motto;
And what should be the force of livelihood;
You ran away from me to your ***** friends”

“Two years back I tried a girl to show you;
How much I have grown into your image;
But you shook your head as if I played;
In fact I just loved her time and now:”

“Why are silencing the words within you;
I have always told you my day and feelings and the fact;
Why can’t you hear my sole voices triggering inside;
I can see your changes all over your body:’

“It’s never too late for my foe to be tagged again as one:
I just wish you would start gambling with me;
With the all in, cashes out…check or whatever;
I just want to read your poker face you have always shown;
And be whatever we can grow up to be:’

And as I woke up by the laugh in my mind;
I wanted to check who I was talking in my head;
I undressed all my clothes and thoughts of day;
My bad….it were you…I never saw me:
Star BG Jan 2018
My mothers in a holding pen before she dies.
Walls decorated with fake flowers
and pictures she doesn't see.
People in corridors in wheelchairs
where smells stagnant from old age permeant nostrils.
Where food severed under heading of meals barely healthy
is thrown on plates by aids trying to end their shift.

And me I see her through bars of her own fading mind.

My mother is living in an institution before she passes.
Waiting out the hours where memories are as distant
as a few and far between hug.
A place called a memory ward that fills her with medication
causing a bed time of 6PM.

And me I see her through invisible bars of an empty stare
and mouth that strains for words.

My mothers living in a old age holding pen before she
cashes in her chips and turns up toes.
A place that helps fill her day with old TV shows
watching with an unfocused eye and restless body.
An expensive place thats situated on tree lined street
she goes out not often.

And me I see her through door with bolted lock
that rings out reminding us both she's imprisoned.

My mothers living in a cell for the forgotten,
waiting for her life sentence of journey to end.
Where one can see inside her distant stare, she misses dad and her hearts wishes to be with him.
A place she's waiting for warden-like angels to free her
and guide her to roam in peace and freedom.
The home in stars where she can feel my love
and see her life legacy was well lived.

And me I just smile grateful for time left to say Mom “I love you,” forgetting all difference. Words I never know will be said for the last time to her longing ears.
Just reflecting on my mother who is declining from memory loss, mini strokes and old age.
JB Claywell Feb 2021
The midwest tundra
swallows super-bowl trophies
and
replaces them
with
black-bottomed **** bubbles.

It dares most of us to do better,
while laughing in our faces,
forcing us to watch
as the kid we’re cheering for
cashes checks
for more money
than we’ll likely ever see,
but we cheer anyway,
as the offensive line crumbles,
the ground game is static,
and the receivers have fingers
glazed with margarine.

Like the zebras,
we throw the flag,
assess and accept the penalties,
and
acquit the insurrectionists
regardless of their guilt or innocence.

The previous commander-in-chief
wrote all those *******
a bison-horned,
organic jailhouse chow-hall
type hall pass,
so why the hell shouldn’t we riot
in the ******* streets,
or the halls of the executive branch
of the local,
state,
and
federal, feral governments
of the ungovernable?


Leave well enough alone
and
Elon Musk,
Jeff Bezos,
and
Bill “Microchip Vaccine” Gates
will figure it all out for us anyway.

Whatever happens,
*******’ Mark “Lieutenant Data” Zuckerberg
will keep us
all placated and engaged online
while the drone-strikes commence.


Social media keeps us
unaware of our socio-political/socio-economic saboteurs.

Who cares?
Aren’t there some cat-vids
on
Tic-Tacky
or whatever it’s called?

How much longer
do you think it’ll be
before we can live-stream
a state-sanctioned execution?

Phillip K. **** called
and
left a message for George Orwell.

He said something about
wanting his electric sheep returned
before Big Brother and The Holding Company
found out it’d gone missing.

Neither the electric sheep itself
nor
Janis Joplin were available for comment,
or hadn’t you herd?

Diplomatic Immunity?
Mutiny?
Mutations?
Economic,
ergonomic,
erogenous stimulation package?

Where do I sign up?

*
-JBClaywell
©P&ZPublications 2021
*with minimal disrespect to George Lucas
Akira Chinen Oct 2017
War is nothing but a business
that only profits hate and fear
and colects debt on a mothers tear
and cashes in on a fathers pride
and we will pay and suffer
for our own sins
when we allow missles to soar
bombs to drop
bullets to fly
and when we allow our children
to belive that war is a solution
a necessary evil
we teach them that violence
is a means to solve conflicts
where words and kindness
and compassion and reason
are just pretty clichés
when we let our children
march out to the perpetual
beat of the never ending
wars of mans greed
when we turn our backs
on the business of war
we may as well be the ones launching the missles
and dropping the bombs
and pulling the trigger
on the guns
that our aimed
at our childrens head
Duncan Brown Jul 2018
The golden rule never gives change.
And gamblers only drink champagne
Losers can’t afford it
Don’t play poker with medicine men
Doc Holliday's a sore loser
It goes with his obsession
He's a dentist by learning
A gambler by profession
An' a renaissance assassin
A Medici Faustian bargain
Playing the green baize table
Where ten’s the changing sign
The alchemist’s calling card
The card of transformation
A card of changing of beds
And a change of friends
They could even be enemies
Fortune changes for the worse
An’ losing is a winning gamble
When hands like feet change direction
Losing yourself is the smart play
Sooner’s so much better than later
In time the world loves a loser
But gamblers hate a debtor
I.O U’s don’t spell for less than A an’ E
They’re just vowels without provenance
Gambling cashes in on culture
Money is the 'lingua franca'
Of a very deadly silent economy
No really one talks about it
An’ you can’t keep your eyes off it
But sure as hell everyone
Listens to the silence
Ten’s the calling card of consequence
A very suitable number
In Fire Earth Air and Water
They can be quite soulfully pedestrian
You never know what’s in the elements
A good card to keep up your sleeve
But lose your shirt you lose everything
An’ it goes without saying a lot
Not a good card to be found naked with
Be careful with a nine in any colour
It’s the most deserving in the highest
Nines, sleeves and gambling
Are a triple tray of troubles
Heads have been known to be served
On a tray of trays
Nines can be very Trinitarian
And quite John the Baptist
A good card to lose in haste
But eternal if a friend,
There’s none better
Eights go on forever
The Via Dolorosa of numbers
They are a sacred journey
Only the compassionately beautiful
Gamble with an eight in their hands
Eight is a sacred mystery
In any suit it is never cut
And always woven
From a seamless gambled-for cloth
Eight never gambles in suits
Only in garments
Never gamble with an eight
Unless you’re gambling with redemption
Hand life and soul have been
Eternally lost or found on an eight
Truly a gamblers card
And sometimes a calling card
As every gambler knows
A card of consequence and karma
When it calls keep your eyes on the dealer
Sure as hell a deal's been done
An’ all the blue eyes are on you
Sevens like fives are a journey
Good cards for travellers
Wanderers and shape shifters
Seven seas and five continents
Suits those wandering souls among us
Two solitary prime numbers
Indivisible onto themselves
They can be quite pedestrian
Fives can be over confident over land
But they shouldn't try to be seven
Walking on water's a mistake
Unless you’re an avatar
Treading wine is better and safer
Fives and sevens are a journey
Good cards to keep in your shoes
Sixes are sixes by themselves
An’ they don’t go with sevens
They're the card of reflection
A scriptural card if ever there was one
A card dressed in a triple mirror
Vanity and vexation in the curves
A card to turn and turn
And turn your eyes again
The number of this card
Another Trinitarian consequence
Is reflected in the mirror
An image of ourselves
The card has an identity problem
Don’t knock it, you might need it
It’s your friend in need of friend
An’ with friends like that
It's just as well that any three
From any four sixes
Is the sign of a winning hand
In a loser’s smile
And the best part of a full house
A card of Jezebels, angels
And mirrors, on reflection
Don’t you just love sixes
Five is five and let’s not talk about it
It’s an assassin’s calling card
It goes with its own territory
A card that doesn’t take prisoners
Fours are strangers at the door
Every one with a Matthew birth mark
In the image of John
Like four seasons they arrive
Like pilgrims then are gone
To change themselves to be
The same again, another season
Another fall of leaving calls
A card for all weathers
And shelter in a storm
You are kind of pleased to see it
But you don’t know why
Also cards of mystery and obviousness
And only fools an’ fours
Can tell the difference
It’s the ‘maybe’ card
You never really know with fours
The proverbial knocking at your doors
But sure as hell
They’ll never ring a bell
A tidy card to send to acrobats
And other kinds of well-balanced people
That’s what fours are for
Commitments tailored to your needs
And the occasional highly wired friend
Don’t go out without them
You never know if you might need them
Threes are trinities and divinities
Fathers Sons an’ Holy Ghosts
And more usually the cause
Of a quick divorce
The world moves in threes
Sattwas Rajas and Tamas
The triune dance of the universe
Light, Action and Inertia
It even grows on trees
Every one’s a traveller
Some are even gypsies
A good card to keep in your shoes
They can be an invitation
Or a visitor from a distant place
They're the taxi cards of the pack
Call them when you wanna go
Somewhere, they'll arrive
They're the calling cards of falling friends
You'll never be lonely on journey
Of five and sevens with a three
They’re the crucifixion card
Unless it suits you otherwise
To be so amused
Deuces are twos, the mirror card
Duality’s their basic business
They really are a wolf card
Always travelling in packs
Not sufficient to be dangerous
An’ just enough to not be lonely
They really appreciate your company
It suits their reflective existence
To travel in togetherness
The faces are places searching for aces
Jacks in a pack never look back
If they can possibly look sideways
Concealing their knavish tendencies
They’re quite the well-tailored card
Fine raiment maketh a fool attractive
In very unfashionable circumstances
Treachery an’ deceit on each turning face
Sure as Clementine’s your long lost darling
An Ophelia never got her hand in time
A gambling Hamlet is a sight to see
Jealousy rage and a ferocious anger
Writ upon a countenance looking back
Beyond the cardboard eyes of the beholder
Dumb broads are never dumb
And seldom abroad
Sometimes they can be
A very home loving card
Two jokers live in every pack
One out front the other looks back
They’re the magpies in the deck
Less in sorrow than in joy
They cover every missing face
The hooded birds deserve their place
Their reputation precedes them
In black and white they are the night
In colours they’re magnificent sevens
And they’ve really got your number
In spades it suits their harlequin fashion
To be a veritable grave digging charmer
In jewels they ***** the precious deck
Two diamonds and they’re everybody’s
The vagrant royalty rules the roaming pack
Their world is another creature’s finery
Gamblers are such snazzy jazzy dressers
If you have to lose a shirt do it in style
Second hand clothes and second hand hands
Aren’t so much a misfortune more an affliction
Desperately seeking a lost occasion
Well-heeled fools engrave it on their heart
Better be dead in your gracious threads
Than kicking in rags of common comfort  
They’re the card that always looks back
The face in every hand smiling at you
Looking at them with cardboard eyes
Then there’s the precisely tailored box
The transient funeral parlour
In a good-looking box like that
You can die an’ dine anywhere
In reasonable style
If you’re tailed a toss head first
Into a losing situation
Cards never call they beckon
And if they speak it’s a good idea to listen.
Lawrence Hall Mar 2018
Does this machine **** Fascists?  Probably not
Unless it bores them to a yawning death
Through soporific clichés crudely imposed
Upon a few poor, battered chords that twang
Like the barbed wire of an Arctic gulag
Where happy comrades
          Shiver in the snow
          Wither in the wind
          Starve on slops
          Burn with typhus
          Rot in the tundra
As they build the future upon mass graves
While the anti-Fascist cashes his checks
ZACK GRAM Mar 2019
fly by my sky rise///
off the helli pad lookin down thank the world///
when my pen sparks it barks an reminesses the sins////
sorrows!!!
witnessed by bygones representation of a villian ///

peter without the pan ////
fried!!!!
robin the hood takin names of towers /////
dust!!!
like the biggie trades your trump ain solid
~take it down~
a hollow, a don, an real g, pelly pell, gran perrier-
ZACK’S 5TH….
OFF 5TH AVE…..

im fearless the fakes an jews think they can run sum'n ////
ain finna ruin sum'n on me ill take over the ufo's ////
run the skie's!!!!
you cant compete-
the whole illuminati bow down to me an my aryan race////
HAIL ******!!!!

put you on faith like the country-
hope this ain a dead end road  **** we private-
took my flag but not my gun…….
its official got the key////
to the citt an the carr-
got shot 5 times stuck on the roof lookin down the stairs-
heaven ain around me///
where they at now???

all i see is demons its cashes turned to a mask….
on/off///
how the cast played an compared casket-
buried…….
in the dirt for 100 years steppin stones we timeless
pour out the pint list……
the finest/////
central spoke, tone in ya ears, the waves moving, radio-jamming ////
got my song on play till the streets ain safe an witness a heathen-
like 2 quarters im barely breathing for 1 reason////
its shooter-season, its a cold world the war on earth-
on your doorstep pay a tax-
tax evasion………

im scrooge an we eatin smoking that crank speakin scars in sleep ////
dont wake me tired of being around sinners fax thats a copy /////
cat put that ***** on the map make the whole colombus collapse///
watch the bails stock…….
descend to the mathematics an structure —
built in this binding that copys the realest!!!!
infinate mortality
Where were you when I was down and couldn’t stand again?
It’s hard to eat twice a day and my chick is getting pale
Where were you when I suffered this pain?
Through trial and tribulation; there was no one to pray
When I was offered admission and couldn’t do the pay
You were out doing your thing and you don’t have a clue
As long as you’re cool; you don’t care if I loose
You were a million miles away; I try but couldn’t reach
You were lying on your sofa bed fuming in your sleep
When my sight was filled with tear; and all I see is black and blue
And in my hood I felt useless like a knot without a *****
Now I could see you clear; you’re like a shadow on the wall
That’s how it all started; it’s how our love began to fall
Where were you; I couldn’t reach, all I do is yell
But you were deaf to hear my call; you don’t know how my name spells
Well, I’m getting better; your hurt has made me stronger
Now I’m independent; coz we’re a pair no longer
Oh! Now your heart smashes; your mind flashes
And now you could picture my image in grey ashes
How you make my bone cashes
You belong to high classes
And you threw outta your life like I was just a mere trash(es)
Nirvana awaits dada dear
thine paternal parent,
who helped sire yours truly,
a widower these
last fourteen plus years,
he laments absence,

and sorely misses presence
regarding scatterbrain spouse,
single word description,
he would readily concur
appellation linkedin with
bubbly headed just legal bride

born November thirteenth
ninety thirty five
learned thru the grapevine
(I must telephone him...
before the curtain call...,
whence his spirit

exits stage door left,
cashes in chips
gives up ghost
kick the bucket
et cetera, cuz
heavy sadness still pronounced

since me birth mother (his wife)
departed about three years
following grim terminal prognosis
metastatic uterine cancer
sabotaged her vivacious person
doggedly die hard zest

Arthur Murray ballroom instructor
unbridled questing nabbed,
(albeit flirtatious ******)
husbanded coy demeanor
snookered young, tall, slender,
handsome, athletic bachelor

unwitting prime ketch
female instinct pheromone scented
bewitched, enthralled, intoxicated...
pretty thang wrought yoked
without resistance ohm mat tickly
generated electric charm

crackled, popped, and snapped
synapses nsync between infatuated pair
future groom invoked flying colors
courtesy maternal grandmother

marriage spanned approximately half century,
not entirely wedded bliss,
yet each swore fidelity to the other
..."until death do us part".
Vitruvius Feb 2020
How sweet, to have no purposes in sight:
Those wandering can never lose their way,
Captured by the unmaking of the day,
Swirling towards the center of the night.

Mad men parade in endless roundabout
Across the clover tables and red glows,
And the ghost thread of time just barely flows
Till the last broken gambler cashes out

But sticks around, still looking for a chance
To tango to another kind of dance
And they smell so good, the midnight flowers.

Come look for them, beyond the neon haze,
Sink into their unquestioning embrace,
They will love you forever for an hour.
Cyclone Dec 2019
What was laughable, practical, was my tactical, impacting my only known past, with stashes flash-able, lasting through, to only be radical, trash able as it was casual, the stackable cashes are gashes masking as attractable, asking retracting from packing, laughing was reply, really they serious, tears of this had left my eye, the tough guy sentimental, rental was my fall, choosing my sequential, naw this meant to be my all.
Bard Nov 2020
I've been dead inside don't even care if life gets better
Even if problems were set aside I know I wouldn't get better
Even these poems are just the dregs of someone I don't remember
Someone who cant feel attached not a spark to be found on tinder
I have drowned underwater below the sea and all I do is flounder
Sometimes I keep goin hoping that one day I'll have found her
Then somehow I might hold on and escape this water
Until then LSD gives it all a little color

Drugs make fake emotion like swells in this ocean
So don't mind me when I mix up a potion
Just need something to imitate passion
Something to slow the corrosion
Never touched a drug for the fashion
Just needed the chemical compassion
So when I come round the dealer cashes in

— The End —