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Roshni Mar 2014
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
Not everything is the way it seems-
You stole an assumption from me

Caveat emptor, buyer beware
My Innocence had gotten the best of me-
Countless imaginations about you, countless dreams

Caveat emptor, buyer beware
I felt betrayed even without commitment
I don’t know why but I thought you’d be an exception

Caveat emptor, buyer beware
A kiss on my cheek and venom on your lips
Vulnerability at its finest

Caveat emptor, buyer beware
I thought you had committed a sin,
But it was me who had wronged for I hadn’t realized-
Caveat emptor*, buyer beware
Marshal Gebbie Feb 2014
Smart phone paranoia, contagious at best
Has the zombies a stumbling the streets without rest
Transfixed to their cellphones, oblivious to all
By the lure of the Tweet and the Facebook’s enthrall
It’s ironically depressing that with all of this spin
When you download the Apps…the Devil walks in.
They access your contacts, Your banking, your loans
Your credit card details, unravel your phones,
Delve into your Facebook and spy on your life,
Check back through your history and peek at the wife.
They sell all your secrets to bidders galore
And when you go bankrupt… they’ll show you the door.

It’s “Caveat Emptor” or Buyer Beware
‘Cos technology’s clawed onto us by the hair,
It’s the Devil you do or the Devil you don’t
It’s progress with the crowd or resist and you won’t
Compulsion is growing by systems in place
By government, banking and big business pace
Through Google and Apple and Microsoft sway
The data is mined and the marketeer’s pay.
Tomorrow is here and we don’t have a choice
Ya live without Smartphone…ya won’t have a voice.
And the dragnet for data accessed by the Apps
And the sensors and whereabouts GPS tracks,
With the malware evolving to beauteous height
Means ya privacy’s shot and ya turn out the light.*

PS: Beneficium accipere liberatum est vendere
     (To accept a favour…is to sell one’s freedom!)

Marshalg
Waiting for it all to come back and bite me on the ****!
Pukehana
AUCKLAND
21 February 2014
with burnish of false veneer
he spouted words
to thine ear
as an unknowing
dill one listened
one had succumbed
to the warbler's charming
sound
that time honored adage
doth hold so true
be of guarded view
whence a dodgy line
is sold unto you
ne'er settle for a spurious
claim of love
the warbler
unto your heart
states his undying devotion
yet there is no substance
to his currency's
valuation
Pure gobbledygook
Joe public bedazzling
Politician grade
The best that money can buy
Becomes void post election
Tanka
John F McCullagh Apr 2013
The businessman was on the prowl
that soft night in September.
He was looking for a bit of strange
and a night he would remember.
She need not be a ****** queen
but he didn't like them jaded.
A rose bud opened, deeply blushed,
surpasses one that's faded.
Caveat emptor stills applies
He'd do well to remember-
Curvy vendors lay and lie
to those who seek illegal tender
A slightly tipsy businessman seeks a ****** with a heart of gold
Mike Essig Apr 2015
Do not mistake
the poems for the poet.

The exquisite grace
of a panther
stalking the jungle
in blackest night
renders it
not one iota
less dangerous.

Enjoy my words
at a safe distance.

Never, dear reader,
confuse the words
with the man.
- mce
my sage advice
is more sage than wisdom
yet they call me occam
when they seek my counsel
better a devil you know
when advocacy is needed
but beware
this devil has a devil of his own
Yenson Aug 2020
the way gravels taunts diamonds
after-all we are all rocks
need diamond feel concerned or perturbed
aware of the differences between rocks and rock
its really that simple
only the crude, common and of little value
do not know that
caveat emptor
Joel M Frye Apr 2011
we are who we'd most like to be
we are what we project
we see but what we want to see
the real becomes suspect

we read a life between the lines
that may/may not exist
confessional or fictional
the reader takes the risks

readers fall in love with words
and think they love the poet
the poet fills a fantasy
and rarely will they know it

the poet seeks a balance 'tween
their lives, their art, their craft
controlling readers' impulses
would drive most writers daft.

so if you think you know someone
by reading line or four
the romans have a line for you
it's "caveat emptor".
There's no group for doggerel, so poetry it is.
Marshal Gebbie Jan 2023
I really didn't mean it, promise I never even seen it  
done it accidentally on purpose instead
when its comes to purpose, I’m renowned for being earnest  
besides you secretly enjoy being completely misled

accidentally on purpose, accidentally on purpose
rules don’t have the same applicability
its only just a circus, when its accidentally on purpose
its a far lower threshold of culpability  

don't do me this disservice, it was accidentally on purpose,
please consider when apportioning blame
when its accidentally on purpose, almost doing you a service    
the blame is not even close to the same

There’s a thing called caveat emptor, its supposedly there to protect ya
sadly not against other’s intentionality  
when its accidentally on purpose, this rule’s completely out of service
tis writ in the annals of human morality    

accidentally on purpose, accidentally on purpose
usual rules they just don't apply,
accidentally on purpose, that’s why you cannot deter us
it permits me to self-indemnify  

Pete Granger DDA
Another from the pen of "Piddles" Granger.
JDK Oct 2014
"This is the last one."
Famous last words.
Caveat emptor;
I think it means consumer beware.

Just one more,
I swear.
He's doing it again.
I promise to buy more beer
tomorrow.
Bob B Apr 2017
Deregulation.
Deregulation.
That's what Trump says
Is going to save the nation.

To hell with the environment
And social media activist memes.
Let the coal industry dump
Coal debris in rivers and streams.

Forget greenhouse gas emissions.
There are rules to rearrange,
Repeal, expunge, delete, rescind…
Who cares about climate change?

Good-bye to banking restrictions.
Give tighter controls the ax.
Down with all consumer protections!
Three cheers for Goldman Sachs!

Who needs the EPA?
Why do all the activists seethe
When factories pollute the air?
The air is JUST something we breathe.

Caveat emptor--
That's the rule that's going to last.
Caveat venditor
Will become a thing of the past.

Benefiting the 1%
Has to be a worthwhile goal.
How else will those at the top
Keep the people under control?

Through rollbacks in regulations
Runs one common thread:
Relief for the corporations;
The rest of us can all drop dead.

Deregulation.
Deregulation.
That, according to Donald Trump,
Is going to save the nation.

- by Bob B (4-17-17)
Kelly McManus Oct 2021
Better watch out space
cause here comes the human race
to claim that your theirs

                               Kelly McManus
John Prophet Jan 2021
Mind.
A malleable
thing.
Easily molded,
manipulated,
fooled.
Constructed.
Scaffolding
erected.
Ma­terials
layered.
Sculpted
to design
specifications.
Desired results
programmed.
Controllable.
Group think.
Garbage in,
garbage out.
Minions
formed,
armies
to be.
Controllers
controlling
pulling
the strings.
Pushing
the levers.
Caveat emptor.
Time, place
thoughts
determined.
Free will
obliterated.
Garbage in
garbage out.
Stabilize.
Stabilize
perspective.
Look
both ways.
Question
everything.
Caveat emptor!
T R Wingfield Mar 24
Dear _,

There's something that I'd really Like to say,
though I don't know how to start,
or if I even should.
In Fact, if we're being honest,
objectively I probably shouldn't;
because I'm worried it might
come off the wrong way;
or worse yet, get misinterpreted,
as something much more than it is-
simply a sentiment to share,
offered unconditionally,
as bookend to prop up a story
that we've shelved.

I AM going to say it,
so please pardon my intrusion.
I know that you need respite
from entangled inclusion in my
desperate emotionally confused conclusion
that a lifetime of romantic love could be hiding
just beyond the horizon,
and it's so near I can nearly taste
it but it's just out of reach.

So if you can wait for a moment,
just a minute,
or two,
before you walk away;
(maybe a day at the most,
i just need time hope)

I could run by the far side of the nearest horizon to see if it is
... and I'll bring as much
as I can possibly carry
to prove that it's there
and there's plenty to share...
on my way back home, to you.

(not my home obviously,
I'm just an wandering fool
who keeps falling in love
with anyone who can prove
that they feel for me
what i feel for them too.
Alas! It is true
you never did say
that you felt this same way
but thats fine
in my mind
i feel confident you
will eventually see I've got enough love for two!

See, my cup runneth over;
the well spring is new.
It flows as if endless
and collects in a pool
at the corner of my eyes
right on cue
when i think about living my life next to you.
So drink deep from this well
from which i am willing to share,
perhaps unsustainable as it may be
in the end.)

But if you can't ...
(and I know that you can't,
I heard you and believed you
but I can't just let loose
without at least trying
to hold on a few
extra moments to gaze
and admire your effortless beauty and poise
and your strength,
before inevitably the reigns are let go
and the horse I rode in on is finally released)

... i understand
and I can easily see that;
and furthermore
you were nothing if not perfectly clear
every step of the way
that this day would appear.
you already knew
you could not commit,
and i was fine with it then,
so I have to admit
that since nothing has change
in the tiny little bit
of time intervening;
that there is no reason for me to expect
that the terms are now different
or less circumspect
So I want you to know
there're no hurt or hard feelings
On my side of the street.
it was delightful to meet you
and spend the wintery-est storm,
the budding early spring
Snuggled and warm in your bed
and your orbit
circling around such a Beautiful view.

I see that you need to recover and reset,
and respond to the still recent personal upheaval
beset upon you by your last lover'sleaving;
that you need time to recenter
and refocus your vision
on your family, and steady yourself
both for them, and for you.
But Forgive me for how
this might sound coming out
- I do not Intend for it to come off rude,
to inspire regret
or review
of the decision you made -
but before I place the ball squarely back in your court,
and walk away from the dreams
I've dreamed of you,
I'd like you to know:
if you do come around,
and ultimately decide
you might like to try me
(and us) again in the future;
I'm open to the opportunity
and just waiting for you.
Obviously I can't know
what is coming down the line,
but if I'm here and still free,
I'll still be hoping to see
you coming back to me.
It might sound suspicious from a man
who appears as I do,
but I swear to you,
I mean what I'm saying,
and I hope you'll believe.

I'm not typically a man
of great plans or delusions
who sees his own future
and wishes it to be.

I've rarely envisioned a life for myself
that is calm and quiet and settled well down. However, with you,
from the moment we met,
I've been prone to romantic fantasies
And daydream of a life
made simple and steady and profound
by the sure hand of a woman
and A family of my own
and a home, (Not alone!)
with the laughter and noise of children at play,
and the comfort of knowing it will be there,
to stay.

Before -
I only ever dreamed of myself,
adrift on the sea, crashing
head-long into oncoming waves,
pointed towards god know where.
Far from land and from people;
solitary,
silent and weathered;
cracked like tough leather
tanned by the sun,
the salt air, and the suffering;
near starving and dehydrated,
quietly desiccating
On the deck of a ship at the helm
sailing endlessly off into
sea foam and brine
splashing up into view
with every sine-oscillating
rise and fall and repeat;
glad to be free
from the people I left
to watch from their widows walk
for the return of wayward man,
longing for their love, long lost to discovery, danger, distraction, and despondency.

Yet now, I've been given a beatific vision
of this life far less likely to be my destiny.
An adventure I never had fully considered;
at least, not with hope of it coming to be.
Perhaps once,
in some barren despairing moment
a half-hearted revery of a wife
and wedding and progeny befell me,
in madness, to lift from me some
unnamed uncanny sadness,
but never without the caveat emptor
of failing spectacularly,
or the derision of knowing
it wasn't for me;

... and this time I'm reminded
by one who knows me well-better than me
- who has suffered my love and still lives to tell - of my tendencies toward boredom
and desperation,
and selfishness of pretending that I can be still, when I know that I can't,
never could and never will.
When I asked her if I should tell you all this,
in response, She simply stated
(in no uncertain terms)
I should never be careless and wonton
with another good heart
just because I've been lonely
enough to promise anything,
even the impossible,
especially if it's impossible for me
to ready myself for the necessary drone
of a daily routine,
and of the imbecile's lust I constantly carry
for an easy end to ennui...

And all of a sudden
that tender pool breaks loose
and becomes a great river
and rushes right through
like a flash flood rising unexpectedly soon.
"Hell it just started raining.
It couldn't have been more than an hour or two.
How did this much destruction
come barreling through?
It was just ankle deep not ten minutes ago,
maybe fifteen, but ****,
how the hell did it already rise to the roof?"
Once water gets into the attic
you call it a wash and try not to watch
as the house starts to move
with the current,
downstream
a piece or two at a time
'til it finally lets go of its roost
on that hastily laid foundation you built
and you KNEW
you half-assed it,
its what you do:
you cut corners, take shortcuts,
and skip steps just to prove
that your smarter than everyone else in room
or the world or the nuthouse
or whoever it is you are trying to impress
with your witty repartee
and you smart-*** worldview
while you **** up the task
that they asked you to do.
Now look what you've done,
you stupid old fool,
you weren't paying enough ******* attention
while you were working on something
you don't know how to do.
Well you better get started on trying to fix it,
you know it might not still have all the pieces;
or worse yet, you'll finish
putting it back together
with what now seems
like more than you started with.
****** man, your seriously ******* this pooch!

Sometimes you can manage to salvage some bits
you can put back together
with whatever sticky goo that you happen to use.
(I like duct tape and super glue
but epoxy will do
even good old white Elmer's can prove
priceless in a pinch,
when you need it to stick quick,
if you got nothing to lose.
it's called field expedient,
when you use what you have on hand nearby
and you don't waste any time
trying to find the perfect solution,
you just stitch a quick fix to get you through
until you have enough time
to go back and re-fix it
with the right parts and knowledge
and a proper set of tools.)

Sometimes you can shape
those scraps
into whatever gaps
or holes ultimately show through
when you do finally manage
to get something done,
and have something to show
for all your foibles.
Sometimes they'll stretch a bit further than usual,
sometimes you gotta reshape the whole profile
and shave a bit here and there to remove
the evidence you ****** it up
in the first place
to keep up the ruse
that you knew what you were doin
when you told em you knew,
despite not having any ******* clue what to do.

Fake it til you make it
only works if you make it,
otherwise your just faking
your whole way on through.

And as you spiral around
outing fires you literally lit
and then wandered away from,
you often get lost and confused and forget
why you changed venue
and what you were going to do -  
so you're just vacantly searching
a burning house for clues
'til you get where you first had the thought
to move for whatever unknown reason
and then you remember
in flash as you enter the room
and re-see the trigger that set you in motion
but that summarily refused
to remain in your mind
more than a step or two;
so as soon as you walk through a threshold
its gone
like a ghost that can only haunt one certain room.

As you relight the fuse
on the sparkler that you
stupidly chose to use
as a torch to light your way
around the maze-like encampment
you constantly have to maneuver through
because you seem to bring it with you
wherever you go
whether you intend to or not,
and there's not a whole heck of lot you can do.

So instead making
these conflicting things a matter to consider
when thinking of me,
I've composed this letter to you
and now I'll seal it and send it to oblivion,
free of the burden of bearing
my lovelorn palpitations uncertainly felt
but certainly in need of a longer gestation
in the pit of my stomach
to see if I can stomach
the simplicity,
and the shattering specter of losing it all
even if I did give my best efforts
and try to do the good life honestly.

So I bid you farewell,
and bon voyage to me.
I hope you remember me well
someday long from now and think
back on our time together
ever fondly.
I know it was short
but for me that means more
it makes everything stand out
more poignantly.

Kind regards and true love,
though I never confessed that
and revealed the true nature of my feelings
to you - fortunately.

Smiles, Best wishes,
And lotsa hugs and kisses,

Love,
Yours Truly, (for now)
(but not later, not anymore)
(Nevermind, never say never)
(Yours forever)
(And a day)


Ps. This message is set for combustion
as soon as I finish rambling aimlessly.

Envisioned: 3/21/25 10pm
Composed: 3/22/25 6-10am
Revised: 3/24/25 12-4am
Published: 3/24/25 4:03am
Edited: 3/25/25 2:30-4:30
Destroyed: pending...
Sometimes a letter is much better left unread.

Make it a poem; Don't make it her problem.

She doesn't need this worthless ****.

She needed space.

and I just hate to be told I can't have something want
David Hilburn Nov 2018
Names we can choose?
Family if fairing all, ask and ages
Of direction seen, is honor to loose...?
The host of compromises, that seldom, is, rages...?

Patience we can afford, tomorrow in love...
When superiority has its abundant cares
The opulence of vice's more and many, to hear am's covenant
Of wishful reason's, if not relationship's of sense, where?

In the land is a waiting eye, made for us...
The vicinity of kinds and nary come, to welcome the dream
Of history to a general heed, moments of open discussion
That save the challenge of unity, to give sense a new freedom...

Names we know have a choice
Till with a presence of mind, well worth once and ought
The ordeal of a chance with its first and last, calling of a voice
Are we the sparseness of guidance still, the liberty of notion sought?

Caveat emptor, buyer beware?
Callous simplicity in affirmation's of youth and couth
To wizen at the need's of other's compared will's, urbane as worth
The frailty of shares of possibility, we kept, for a silence who'th?
To heat these lovely bag of bones
more so than required to generate clones
aging musculoskeletal physique groans
kvetching synonymous nsync with exactly
indistinguishable among where generic
garden variety alter kocker and/or like
mummified Pharaoh moans.

Hence, I will beg, borrow or steal,
as profound philosophical thinker
oh no... no... no, this
non smoking bandit, nor drinker
will explain to police officer,
that me willingly doth plead
guilty as freshly showered stinker

without spectacles yours truly
can only blinker
if nabbed do time inside
state of the art clinker,
where ample heat warms hoodwinker
covering mine rickety musculoskeletal,
while escorted to attend requisite
appointment with headshrinker.

Token Doubting Thomas here
resorts to life of
petty crime without fanfare
for this common man
dirt poor bloke who doth air
(not that anybody
will rat's a$$, nor care

a jot regarding me
squalid financial welfare),
but analogous to Scrooge
grossly dislikes Xmas time of year
not always the case, cuz as lad din
Southeastern Montgomery County
one cute little boy with

short cropped hair,
(a 'curse unbiased
opinion), aye declare
Santa Claus and shopping amidst
madding crowd no living nightmare
like today December eighteenth
tooth how sinned nineteen

bajillion people angrily glare
with livid rage expect
whistleblowing thru air
courtesy bull-let-in aiming crosshair,
whereat vendors pushing merchandise
hooping he/she can scare
up brisk business, hence

caveat emptor i.e. buyer beware
aside from aforementioned
hypothetical scenario - won't ever
occur within glorious land
of bilk and money
America, the home of the free..., where
distribution of wealth very unfair.

Yukon still enjoy of beauty,
this po' witless can bet
dollars to donuts without
spending yourself silly
garnering mountain due of debt
subsequently weeping
(think guitar coming
unstrung at every fret),

thus... ya gotta get get
aware simple pleasures
experience mindfulness, such as
zipping across globe on private jet
hobnobbing with rich and famous,
then swing by utmost secluded un convent
chin null monastery, and meet...
nun other than one cell bated abbott.
Vice linkedin to carnal flesh this writer,
(a married heterosexual ******, –
whose alter egos
named and highlighted courtesy
Gallant and Goofus) attones
to heat these lovely bag of bones
amazingly graceful human specimen
more so than required to generate clones,
whose jibber-jabber feeble poetic words
crafted for no particular rhyme nor reason
analogous to babbling drones
aging musculoskeletal physique groans

kvetching synonymously nsync
with (metronome like) tick tock
where alphanumeric, esoteric, and generic
garden variety alter kocker
(eons ago a foo fighting
beastie boy baby boomer) and/or like
kin himself to famous mummified Pharaoh
ala King Tutankhamun's moans
wrapped in long strips of linen,
indistinguishable among rolling stones
netting sometimes wrapped

each finger and toe individually
against many future unknowns
as the soul of mine traveled across cosmos
temporarily filling black hole sun,
and kerplunked across space/time continuum
easily mistaken for
pinteresting soundcloud virtual xylophones
providing an x uber rent lyft
along the edge of night
amidst dark shadows
to the outer limits of many twilight zones.

Hence, I will beg, borrow or steal loot
and make a fair trade
with a paperback writer,
who exudes profound wisdom
as keen philosophical thinker
oh no... no... no, this
non smoking bandit, nor drinker
will explain to police officer,
that me willingly doth plead
guilty as freshly showered stinker

without spectacles yours truly
can only blinker
if nabbed he
submissively relinquishes freedom
to do time inside
state of the art clinker,
where ample heat warms hoodwinker
covering mine rickety musculoskeletal,
while escorted to attend requisite
appointment with headshrinker
with the icy name of Mister Rinker.

Token Doubting Thomas here
resorted to life of
doggone petty crime without fanfare
for this common man
dirt poor bloke who doth air,
(not that anybody
will give a rat's a$$, nor care
a jot regarding me
squalid shiftless schlepper
bereft of a place to call home

anemic checking and savings accounts
with Citizens Bank
describes my financial welfare),
and similar to Scrooge,
(who mutters "bah humbug"
grossly dislikes Xmas time of year,
not always the case with yours truly,
cuz as a lad din
Southeastern Montgomery County
one cute as a button little boy with

short cropped strawberry blond hair,
(unadulterated, accursed and unbiased
opinion), aye declared
papa tricked out as Santa Claus
divine and stood bug eyed
while shopping with mother
and siblings amidst
madding crowd
(at the King of Prussia Mall)
then no living nightmare

not like today November twenty ninth
tooth how sinned twenty four
bajillion people angrily glare
with livid rage expect
whistleblower shrill shrieking
against crass consumerism thru air
courtesy bull-let-in aiming crosshair,
whereat vendors pushing merchandise
hooping he/she can scare
up brisk business, hence

caveat emptor i.e. buyer beware
aside from aforementioned
hypothetical scenario - I won't ever
overspend credit cards,
which profligate net spending
occurs within glorious land
of bilk and money
Amazon qua America OnLine,
the home of the free..., where
distribution of wealth very unfair.

Yukon still experience
enjoyment of beauty,
according to this poet
of Perkiomen Valley
with less sense and sensibility
than a baboon, or other naked ape,
cuz his pride and prejudice got in the way
while seeking love and friendship,
nevertheless he can bet
dollars to donuts (with glazed eyes)
without oneself spending themselves silly
garnering mountain due of debt

subsequently cue sax and violins
gently weeping (think guitar coming
unstrung at every fret),
thus... ya gotta get get
aware simple pleasures
experience mindfulness, such as
zipping across globe on private jet
hobnobbing with rich and famous,
then swinging by utmost secluded
unconventional monastery, and meet...
nun other than one cell bated abbott
cost 'ello to thine reverent Mother.

* - The exact origin of the British Thermal Unit (BTU) is unclear, but Thomas Tredgold, a British railroad engineer, is the closest person to being credited with its discovery. Tredgold's definition of the BTU was the quantity of pounds avoirdupois that would raise the temperature of a cubic foot of water by one degree Fahrenheit.

- The word "humbug" has been used since the 1700s to describe something or someone that is false or deceptive. It's also been used to describe a trick played on unsuspecting people. The word's exact origin is unknown, but some theories include: For example, you might say "Bah humbug!" if someone won't let children play catch on their lawn

— The End —