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"ramshackle" poems
Excuse me, sir, your pants are on fire. Yes, i am talking to you, sir. This is quite a mess you have made, you starry-eyed dreamer. Not that it was perfect in the beginning. Nothing is. When my grandfather got old, he made sure to dress well. If he was to die on any given day, he intended to do it in his Sunday best. My grandfather died in a unisex hospital gown. When i was growing up, Mom always made sure i wore clean underwear. It would be shameful to die in ***** ones. Speaking of growing up, i was raised on Reaganomics. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you stand on these days, because Reagan defeated communism through the clever use of money. When my grandmother was set to pass, she faced the changing seasons with poise and dignity.  She was ready to move on, to reunite with loved ones lost. My grandmother died in a unisex hospital gown. My best friend, Peter, didn't put much stock in appearances. He was funny and sarcastic. We all loved him like a brother.  Peter's mom buried him in brand new Ecko gear.  He died in boxer shorts on the floor of a ramshackle apartment blue in the face from a ****** overdose. Thank god none of these people will ever need healthcare. Mr. President, sir, i am no Republican. i am an American. You do remember us, don't you? How silly of me...of course you don't. You were busy watching your legacy. i would have watched it better, if it had been my name at risk. My name is all i have. When Bill Clinton was president, he lied about getting a ******* But we forgave him. It was just a ******* It's not like it was our privacy or healthcare at stake. Or our economy. Have you dreamed about any of those things, sir? Or just your legacy? Who knows? How well do we ever know anyone? Christmas is right around the corner, and i and others have made you a fine gift, a lovely suit. It's invisible. You probably won't notice. No matter... one day you will have to remove your flaming pants. To try on your new suit. Or, god forbid, to put on a unisex hospital gown. And then you will finally see your legacy.
0
Nov 6, 2013
Nov 6, 2013 at 7:01 PM UTC
Dear Mr. President
Excuse me, sir, your pants are on fire. Yes, i am talking to you, sir. This is quite a mess you have made, you starry-eyed dreamer. Not that it was perfect in the beginning. Nothing is. When my grandfather got old, he made sure to dress well. If he was to die on any given day, he intended to do it in his Sunday best. My grandfather died in a unisex hospital gown. When i was growing up, Mom always made sure i wore clean underwear. It would be shameful to die in ***** ones. Speaking of growing up, i was raised on Reaganomics. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you stand on these days, because Reagan defeated communism through the clever use of money. When my grandmother was set to pass, she faced the changing seasons with poise and dignity.  She was ready to move on, to reunite with loved ones lost. My grandmother died in a unisex hospital gown. My best friend, Peter, didn't put much stock in appearances. He was funny and sarcastic. We all loved him like a brother.  Peter's mom buried him in brand new Ecko gear.  He died in boxer shorts on the floor of a ramshackle apartment blue in the face from a ****** overdose. Thank god none of these people will ever need healthcare. Mr. President, sir, i am no Republican. i am an American. You do remember us, don't you? How silly of me...of course you don't. You were busy watching your legacy. i would have watched it better, if it had been my name at risk. My name is all i have. When Bill Clinton was president, he lied about getting a ******* But we forgave him. It was just a ******* It's not like it was our privacy or healthcare at stake. Or our economy. Have you dreamed about any of those things, sir? Or just your legacy? Who knows? How well do we ever know anyone? Christmas is right around the corner, and i and others have made you a fine gift, a lovely suit. It's invisible. You probably won't notice. No matter... one day you will have to remove your flaming pants. To try on your new suit. Or, god forbid, to put on a unisex hospital gown. And then you will finally see your legacy.
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81
Life can be painless Provided there is sufficient Peacefulness For a dozen or so rituals To be repeated simply Endlessly Your genius does not fail you It allows you to understand the Truth of the situation; Which makes you--at times-- more tragic than ever And your genius, like all geniuses Suffers periodic fits of monumental naïveté Hi-ho Listen: Where is Grace When milk and blood Are about to be added To the composition of the Stinking ping-pong ***** being manufactured In Grand Rapids? Schizophrenia The sound and appearance Of the word fascinates It sounds and looks to me Like a human being Sneezing in a blizzard of Soapflakes This much we know: You made yourself hideously Uncomfortable by not narrowing Your attention to details Of life that were immediately Important And by refusing to believe what Your neighbors believed Hi-ho Let your imagination continue To be the flywheel on the Ramshackle machinery of the truth. But not the ‘awful’ truth The ‘beauty’ in truth Because we are a part Of a system that is very Restless, With people tearing around All the time Every so often, somebody stops to put up A monument Ours is a country where Everybody is expected to Pay his own bills for Everything, And one of the most Expensive things a person Can do is get sick Grace: Because if we stay here We’ll do one of two things (or both!) Build a Commune Or do like Collin Heise did: Make the main thing that we do be this: Move seventy-eight Thousand pounds of olives To Tulsa, Oklahoma Even if we can’t Improve the quality of our surroundings We’ll do our best to make our Insides beautiful instead Piebald Roadtrip-writing, baby Hi-ho You are the turtle able to live anywhere even under water for short periods With your home on your back A particular comfort in Realizing that it so often feels There is no order in the World around us That we must adapt ourselves to The requirements of Chaos instead Remember: We are healthy Only to the extent that Our ideas are Humane To you To me To ourselves To We
0
Jun 17, 2013
Jun 17, 2013 at 9:05 PM UTC
86 Kurt Vonnegut
Life can be painless Provided there is sufficient Peacefulness For a dozen or so rituals To be repeated simply Endlessly Your genius does not fail you It allows you to understand the Truth of the situation; Which makes you--at times-- more tragic than ever And your genius, like all geniuses Suffers periodic fits of monumental naïveté Hi-ho Listen: Where is Grace When milk and blood Are about to be added To the composition of the Stinking ping-pong ***** being manufactured In Grand Rapids? Schizophrenia The sound and appearance Of the word fascinates It sounds and looks to me Like a human being Sneezing in a blizzard of Soapflakes This much we know: You made yourself hideously Uncomfortable by not narrowing Your attention to details Of life that were immediately Important And by refusing to believe what Your neighbors believed Hi-ho Let your imagination continue To be the flywheel on the Ramshackle machinery of the truth. But not the ‘awful’ truth The ‘beauty’ in truth Because we are a part Of a system that is very Restless, With people tearing around All the time Every so often, somebody stops to put up A monument Ours is a country where Everybody is expected to Pay his own bills for Everything, And one of the most Expensive things a person Can do is get sick Grace: Because if we stay here We’ll do one of two things (or both!) Build a Commune Or do like Collin Heise did: Make the main thing that we do be this: Move seventy-eight Thousand pounds of olives To Tulsa, Oklahoma Even if we can’t Improve the quality of our surroundings We’ll do our best to make our Insides beautiful instead Piebald Roadtrip-writing, baby Hi-ho You are the turtle able to live anywhere even under water for short periods With your home on your back A particular comfort in Realizing that it so often feels There is no order in the World around us That we must adapt ourselves to The requirements of Chaos instead Remember: We are healthy Only to the extent that Our ideas are Humane To you To me To ourselves To We
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98
Through water and sand, stands you. Spring breaking at you feet Your breath flicking the pages of a street paper A black crown of nightingales at your head Entwined in leaves and wheat trickling down stones in dew-morning light and thrones in brambles of blackberry pie Rooted to firewood and sheer bliss of kissed moonlight Where herons christen Stars before black velvet blanket Bridled by Rosemary and time, caught with Mary in a dark corner Slumped behind priest less ivy, we permeate the air and through blue blooded command and gnashing of teeth, slants me Outside the ramshackle cwtch I the hangmedown barks of woods, kneels you. And stopped around cockles and foundling sparrows, sings the epitaph of a fallen barbarian. Still through desert and carcass, lies you. JWS
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Apr 16, 2015
Apr 16, 2015 at 7:29 AM UTC
Black Crown
I am convinced that I'm a tourist on this planet, in this body. Things like knowing where my legs are, or existing in the company of a spider, shouldn't be such causes for bewilderment and hysteria, but they are. And this is besides my awkwardness with other human beings. I attribute this to their being tourists too. Why else would they take lots of pictures and leave garbage everywhere? It's like our bus broke down, and we're surviving in ramshackle forts, looking out with binoculars and waving flags made of Hawaiian shirts. It must be appalling, and not a little shocking, to the natives. Quiet and peaceful, the plants and animals watch us from a distance, at once unnerved and giggling just a little bit, as they watch us stumble about and run shrieking from the spiders.
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Sep 13, 2013
Sep 13, 2013 at 7:41 PM UTC
The problem with tourists
One, two, three, two, five, seven Rhythmless feet clad in branded shoes Adventurous, brazen fingers strolling on wide, voluptuous stalks Towering sunflowers with wide, voluptuous stalks Pristine dandelions enticing pairs of hands Pristine dandelions enticing my pair of hands And I give in, and I willingly give in Summer petals weaken the gullible heart The summer petals abandon the gullible heart One, two, three, two, five, seven Rhythmless feet now bare Adventurous, brazen fingers now dormant One, two, four, six, eight, ten Rhythmless feet clad in cheap shoes Curious fingers strolling on wide, voluptuous stalks Towering white daisies with wide, voluptuous stalks Pristine dandelions spring once more Pristine dandelions enticing my pair of hands And I give in, yet again I give in Winter petals capture the derelict heart The winter petals emulate mirrors after caressing the ramshackle heart One, two, four, six, eight, ten Rhythmless feet once again bare, now calloused Curious fingers now cautious One, two, two, two, two, two Rhythmless feet hesitating to be covered Vacillating fingers mapping the wide, voluptuous stalks Pristine dandelions surface once more Pristine dandelions displaying subtle coquetry And I stall, for heaven's sake, I stall Fall petals demonstrate its desire to the heart The fall petals fall but the bitter heart hangs on a silk thread One, two, two, two, two, two Rhythmless feet discovers a rhythm A rhythm so unpleasant, so abhorrent Vacillating fingers now curl Curl into the palm in resistance
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May 24, 2016
May 24, 2016 at 11:39 AM UTC
Repetitions
One, two, three, two, five, seven Rhythmless feet clad in branded shoes Adventurous, brazen fingers strolling on wide, voluptuous stalks Towering sunflowers with wide, voluptuous stalks Pristine dandelions enticing pairs of hands Pristine dandelions enticing my pair of hands And I give in, and I willingly give in Summer petals weaken the gullible heart The summer petals abandon the gullible heart One, two, three, two, five, seven Rhythmless feet now bare Adventurous, brazen fingers now dormant One, two, four, six, eight, ten Rhythmless feet clad in cheap shoes Curious fingers strolling on wide, voluptuous stalks Towering white daisies with wide, voluptuous stalks Pristine dandelions spring once more Pristine dandelions enticing my pair of hands And I give in, yet again I give in Winter petals capture the derelict heart The winter petals emulate mirrors after caressing the ramshackle heart One, two, four, six, eight, ten Rhythmless feet once again bare, now calloused Curious fingers now cautious One, two, two, two, two, two Rhythmless feet hesitating to be covered Vacillating fingers mapping the wide, voluptuous stalks Pristine dandelions surface once more Pristine dandelions displaying subtle coquetry And I stall, for heaven's sake, I stall Fall petals demonstrate its desire to the heart The fall petals fall but the bitter heart hangs on a silk thread One, two, two, two, two, two Rhythmless feet discovers a rhythm A rhythm so unpleasant, so abhorrent Vacillating fingers now curl Curl into the palm in resistance
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37
So desolate, I walked onward An expanse of sand running mile after mile In the distance the sound of thunder Then as if a mirage at sea a village of ramshackle homes Single story on a sandbank all with gardens of the strangest design A flea farm,  gooseberry bushes and butterflies in net cages Children playing, the voices of grandparents The sea now lapping at my heels and between their twisted porches, where on earth could I be In reality? For I no longer walked the earth The thunder was the howitzers shelling the beach The vilage, that of my childhood For my mind in its last throws had given me a thought of memory,  that of childhood and family that of loving not war The sea and sand being of beauty Now limbless, face down on a Normandy beach drowning. Then darkness Silence Peace
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Nov 4, 2013
Nov 4, 2013 at 8:09 PM UTC
Normandy on sea
NEW neighbors came to the corner house at Congress and Green streets. The look of their clean white curtains was the same as the rim of a nun's bonnet. One way was an oyster pail factory, one way they made candy, one way paper boxes, strawboard cartons. The warehouse trucks shook the dust of the ways loose and the wheels whirled dust-there was dust of hoof and wagon wheel and rubber tire-dust of police and fire wagons-dust of the winds that circled at midnights and noon listening to no prayers. "O mother, I know the heart of you," I sang passing the rim of a nun's bonnet-O white curtains-and people clean as the prayers of Jesus here in the faded ramshackle at Congress and Green. Dust and the thundering trucks won-the barrages of the street wheels and the lawless wind took their way-was it five weeks or six the little mother, the new neighbors, battled and then took away the white prayers in the windows?
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2.8k
Clean Curtains
I REMEMBER here by the fire, In the flickering reds and saffrons, They came in a ramshackle tub, Pilgrims in tall hats, Pilgrims of iron jaws, Drifting by weeks on beaten seas, And the random chapters say They were glad and sang to God. And so Since the iron-jawed men sat down And said, "Thanks, O God," For life and soup and a little less Than a hobo handout to-day, Since gray winds blew gray patterns of sleet on Plymouth Rock, Since the iron-jawed men sang "Thanks, O God," You and I, O Child of the West, Remember more than ever November and the hunter's moon, November and the yellow-spotted hills. And so In the name of the iron-jawed men I will stand up and say yes till the finish is come and gone. God of all broken hearts, empty hands, sleeping soldiers, God of all star-flung beaches of night sky, I and my love-child stand up together to-day and sing: "Thanks, O God."
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2.2k
Fire Dreams
I feel half drunk half Punk and intimidated in this place, toga alley show me your ramshackle best, you also ran, cracked capers has been tested, is no reason to desist ultimate humility.
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Jan 1, 2013
Jan 1, 2013 at 10:22 AM UTC
Pizza unexpress
Her countenance, had long given up the ghost Twilight tried to allay the ravelling . She needed resilience, for those fiery Sunday visits   endured by her confused Son. Trumping by prevarication, until no more, she retorted. Her honeysuckle dreams turn ramshackle. Those plumes of bonfire smoke before and the after, differ now on contrite compost.
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Sep 21, 2012
Sep 21, 2012 at 6:43 PM UTC
Battersea Blues
I saw the rest of my kind scour against the streets, hands calloused-laden, wizened by erratic explosions – nondescript music analogous to silence; terse sleep stiff in wind, homes filled with tension, arrow-headed men quiver through the busy streets as tatterdemalion as stray dogs. inverted triangle, sidereal vertigo, mutilated rose and the beheaded tulip. the ambiguous spiral of the downcast climb. I see all men maddened by wine over the rooftops. choking in dank light – the night exudes its flayed machinery. an empty bottle of whiskey and a body stripped of skin melded with fright raised higher than the maladroit sky. I, whose name is but an algorithm of formlessness. I, whose silence is but the contemplation of stone. I, whose voice toboggans like a tender ramshackle of incantations filling tubercular pockets with spare hope yet none are we but only poorer. whose fingers are but tired girls tousling in bed lacquered by sunsets – whose nails are paler than a ****** of moonlight, whose homes are inflamed hemmed in by petticoats, whose eyes set affixed to no avatars in juxtaposition of parks falling madly in love with everything that glints.
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Jan 16, 2016
Jan 16, 2016 at 1:08 AM UTC
For The Kindred
walking through the big flea market off of highway 19 north of Tampa looking for whatever and something curious and kitsch or campy merchants selling in the parking lot used blenders and old cameras burnt out or faulty devices DVD cases and game cartridges old rednecks shout out opinions in a cacophony of drawled signifiers representing visions of despotic rulers reigning a tyranny of taxes and decline old glass containers and windshields shine scattering high afternoon sunlight in the Sunday sky sitting and resting used and content waiting waiting for the wear and reduction of time the market continues into indoor aisles criss-crossing within a ramshackle structure plywood walls supporting sheet metal roofing an aroma of every greasy food wafting into one people wrapped in worn fashions whites in Ts and denim muslim women in headscarves a black deputy strapped down in uniform the deputy enforces commerce laws around the alternative marketplace a variety of commodities are still available bongs and e-cigs and incense and **** **** parakeets cry out down one aisle a stack of blue aquariums drone a bubbling hum the stench of cedar and rat **** and hamsters reptiles basking in the arid glow of heat lamps all is right in America’s America the flea market is the floorboard of that promise an opportunity for anyone to begin or start again and over and over a liberal conservatism can be guarded well with rifles or tazers at bargain rates a conservative liberalism is applied openly in the atmosphere of everyone for anything and everything the dream of the flea market a black market and a carnival all of America’s cheap art on display its people swirled into one equal in their struggles and desires reaching for resources and derivatives buying low and selling higher stealing and selling short walking through the big flea market on a hot and cloudless Sunday afternoon looking for whatever or something it’s a fun thing to do originally posted to my blog https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com on 4/27/2014
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Feb 17, 2015
Feb 17, 2015 at 1:17 AM UTC
flea marketing
walking through the big flea market off of highway 19 north of Tampa looking for whatever and something curious and kitsch or campy merchants selling in the parking lot used blenders and old cameras burnt out or faulty devices DVD cases and game cartridges old rednecks shout out opinions in a cacophony of drawled signifiers representing visions of despotic rulers reigning a tyranny of taxes and decline old glass containers and windshields shine scattering high afternoon sunlight in the Sunday sky sitting and resting used and content waiting waiting for the wear and reduction of time the market continues into indoor aisles criss-crossing within a ramshackle structure plywood walls supporting sheet metal roofing an aroma of every greasy food wafting into one people wrapped in worn fashions whites in Ts and denim muslim women in headscarves a black deputy strapped down in uniform the deputy enforces commerce laws around the alternative marketplace a variety of commodities are still available bongs and e-cigs and incense and **** **** parakeets cry out down one aisle a stack of blue aquariums drone a bubbling hum the stench of cedar and rat **** and hamsters reptiles basking in the arid glow of heat lamps all is right in America’s America the flea market is the floorboard of that promise an opportunity for anyone to begin or start again and over and over a liberal conservatism can be guarded well with rifles or tazers at bargain rates a conservative liberalism is applied openly in the atmosphere of everyone for anything and everything the dream of the flea market a black market and a carnival all of America’s cheap art on display its people swirled into one equal in their struggles and desires reaching for resources and derivatives buying low and selling higher stealing and selling short walking through the big flea market on a hot and cloudless Sunday afternoon looking for whatever or something it’s a fun thing to do originally posted to my blog https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com on 4/27/2014
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53
Tribes matter more than research, jobs dished on ethnic network, as academics are left to die at the thrones of sadism and selfish megalomania, proffessors more illiterate as reading culture succumbed to death, to pave way for money culture, harvested from parallel programmes, that takes the beautiful and the academically incompetent, to the university at mercy of their wallets, where the proffessors renew their sinews, on the french chicken by parralleley style on the tops of the female parallel students, as they inspire them with new culture, of laziness,twiterature and cyborature, face-booking for unique *** partners, as books are left to be dust ridden on the miserable shelves of ramshackle libraries.
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Aug 25, 2014
Aug 25, 2014 at 5:01 AM UTC
ROT IN KENYAN UNIVERSITIES
Puffing profoundly on an old bone pipe.sat the old woman on rickety stool. A white tendril seeking altitude from schorching embers. A wafting spirit casting errant admonishment. Dusty footpath of a million footfalls all on missions of redemption lovelorn weeping allotments of anguish,pain and hope.FULLSTOP. At sunbeaten,rainbleached risers three in number. Splitpea fragrance wafting to greet. Maybe collards too. "What can I do for ?" But having asked,she already.knew. To.walk.out to.the.shack.was.a.profound procession. Made by many,owned by.few Seeking solace from.the.witches brew. "You need.a.poultace ? Cast a spell for.you. ? Fix it so.she.never leave you ? Aint nothin.much.that.I.cant do. Gonna fix.it.for.you. Ramshackle rundown house of dreams,nightmares and stalking horses. Beads and potions.come back lotions. Love notions out the window.like startled ratbats. The little shack of sorrows. Old time mystic.sitting on a stool. Jingle pennies in pockets. Yonder comes nother fool
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Jan 4, 2014
Jan 4, 2014 at 9:02 AM UTC
The Shack
A humanitarian crisis, A situation catastrophic, A sprawl of ramshackle buildings, Now vacated, As masses continue to flee, What’s left of their battered motherland, With operation Murambatsvina at its apex, I left where my house used to stand, Now a rubble of broken bricks and choking dust, Just with the dress I was wearing, And bitter memories of a faceless monster, The prophet of doom, An epitome of conflicted personality, The hardhearted devil personified, I fled on foot, Ran-walked, ran-walked, Swam across the Limpopo River, Ran-walked across Kruger National Park, Met the police, Abused, ***** and sent back, Swam back, Ran-walked, ran-walked, This is the Zimbabwean fate, Our heart-wrenching fate, Exodus after exodus.
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May 18, 2015
May 18, 2015 at 5:51 AM UTC
Exodus
those colors do look fabulous on you   that  old shack never looked so good arm-like branches outstretched with suggestive  swagger all check me out   my  brazen Fall foliage   is what makes   this dirt ditch ramshackle  place somebody's  shabby chic rustic Americana   Home I am green eyed with envy as we pass your piece of the world that  fountain of youth within your  molecules keeps you super  cool   a local  icon   as long as no one chops you down
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Oct 20, 2014
Oct 20, 2014 at 6:20 PM UTC
Bragging Rights
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, that’s what they say any way. Thinking back to my days as a child, I remember my grandmother’s house and the times I spent there with my brother. I remember so many things about those days. My grandmother had lost her husband before I was born, and had replaced him with a bottle of bourbon. The bottle was in every memory I had of that place, like a picture on the wall or a specific piece of furniture and she was always cooking something or canning something for people who never visited. Her life seemed so sad at times, but what stood out were her eyes. To me they always seemed like looking through the broken windows of an old ramshackle home and watching children laugh and play on the ***** living room floor. They say that they eyes are the windows to the soul, that’s what they say any way.
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Sep 15, 2012
Sep 15, 2012 at 1:54 PM UTC
House Burning
I am daydreaming about making a difference in this corrupt, broken world but all I can do is to solve tasks that have already been answered. Second after second, year after year, I sit behind bricks in a ramshackle school where everyone are as prisoners in an alternative prison, where the years disappear in meaninglessness. Let me knock down walls and build them again, help the world instead of sitting as a product on a conveyor belt in the middle of a mass production of individuals that have solved the same tasks with the same answers, behind the same wall, at the same table, just to be able to put a way too expensive student cap on ones head and to call oneself a student. But what does it actually mean to be a student? Are you not just another number in the row, yet a grade point average, another helpless individual who can only solve problems where the answer already exists in a rule book. Let me knock down the world and build a new one, where mass production of students does not take place, but where anyone can build a future of new ideas and not only find errors on the old. But before I'm done daydreaming, tens of thousands of old assignments end op on the table, and I must sit on the chair a little longer as the conveyor belt keeps on going.
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Dec 25, 2016
Dec 25, 2016 at 7:37 PM UTC
A school system of mass production
He had never realised that everything was moving until it stopped One pill and the joyous ramshackle journey dug claws into the soil and froze and turned The things he had known as trees began to bend to curl towards him gnarled eyes glaring, tendrils groping The dog, his faithful companion rose painfully on two legs grew shoulders, arms bared fangs and snarled Rocks rose from snoring mountains to grind their ancient jaws at him and the sea folded in on itself in disgust Paralysed he stared as the sky climbed down defeated and the sun pulled back its shining mask to show the grinning, vengeful skull beneath Nothing could touch him but all could see him exposed, brutal, foolish, ridiculous and desperate, desperate for death.
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Jan 27, 2013
Jan 27, 2013 at 10:32 AM UTC
The Immortality Pill
it's been nine summers since we left last off, i never wanted to associate anguish with your face but it hits me that there are certain things i can never forget, i cannot forget, i will not forget, that you made me, shaped me in your delicate hands, wove me under a spell that i have yet to get out of-- you know you gave my childhood magic. we lived in a kingdom of treehouse stories and secret handshakes, our domain behind white picket fences. we left our child selves in your yard, remember? i picked up the pieces of half drowned memories, and put them by your bedside, in case you thought to look and perhaps it was presumptuous of me to say you felt the same way when i am the only one who is overdosed on nostalgia. i'm sorry. i am homesick for the arms i am not privileged to be held with, homesick for the stairs that creaked in your house, homesick for a love i never deserved but always wanted. i'm the old pick up truck your father threw away, the ramshackle closet that got replaced, the old curtains, oh god, oh, but this is not about me, this is about us. we both agreed that we always hated the small town life and planned to run away but why is it now that i'm still holding onto spider webs and your packed suitcase has flown you across the globe? is it sad to say that in my dreams we're still waiting in an empty parking lot, and your head resting on my shoulder, the lights on the pavement, it's already over, it already passed and the cars aren't there, and the moment is gone. maybe it's not the saddest thing in the world to lose your best friend when the love was never meant to be, and maybe it's not the saddest thing to love someone who will never love you as a lover, maybe it's not the saddest thing to lose someone who promised forever, even if forever was only until we parted ways, maybe it's not the saddest thing to lose the first true friend you ever had, maybe it's not the saddest thing to never be able to walk up your front porch and have you come running out to see me of all people, but it is the most painful happiness to see your smile and knowing that i am not the reason.
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Feb 29, 2016
Feb 29, 2016 at 11:07 PM UTC
suburban heartbreak
it's been nine summers since we left last off, i never wanted to associate anguish with your face but it hits me that there are certain things i can never forget, i cannot forget, i will not forget, that you made me, shaped me in your delicate hands, wove me under a spell that i have yet to get out of-- you know you gave my childhood magic. we lived in a kingdom of treehouse stories and secret handshakes, our domain behind white picket fences. we left our child selves in your yard, remember? i picked up the pieces of half drowned memories, and put them by your bedside, in case you thought to look and perhaps it was presumptuous of me to say you felt the same way when i am the only one who is overdosed on nostalgia. i'm sorry. i am homesick for the arms i am not privileged to be held with, homesick for the stairs that creaked in your house, homesick for a love i never deserved but always wanted. i'm the old pick up truck your father threw away, the ramshackle closet that got replaced, the old curtains, oh god, oh, but this is not about me, this is about us. we both agreed that we always hated the small town life and planned to run away but why is it now that i'm still holding onto spider webs and your packed suitcase has flown you across the globe? is it sad to say that in my dreams we're still waiting in an empty parking lot, and your head resting on my shoulder, the lights on the pavement, it's already over, it already passed and the cars aren't there, and the moment is gone. maybe it's not the saddest thing in the world to lose your best friend when the love was never meant to be, and maybe it's not the saddest thing to love someone who will never love you as a lover, maybe it's not the saddest thing to lose someone who promised forever, even if forever was only until we parted ways, maybe it's not the saddest thing to lose the first true friend you ever had, maybe it's not the saddest thing to never be able to walk up your front porch and have you come running out to see me of all people, but it is the most painful happiness to see your smile and knowing that i am not the reason.
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54
In the murky clots of consciousness between sleep and awakening we clung to an icy overpass railing spitting down on graffiti camouflaged train cars as their charging rickety boom carried our uncontrollable laughter toward destinations unknown Our spirited tenacity was matched only by turbulent winds whipping us into submission Forcing us to brace ourselves to avoid getting swept away You tumbled backward off the slick rounded bars of the overpass rail and bit your lip so hard I thought you would need stitches but you kept on smiling as the blood plummeted dripping all over the tracks in a sanguinary frost Feeling arrogant and invincible like two avante guarde dog soldiers we marched past our old urban battlefields and grimy fast food cattle fields closed in on a ramshackle bar and drowned our taboos and inhibitions in foam drenched pitchers until we closed out that ramshackle bar We gleefully stumbled wearing hazy street light halos back to the duplexed squalor of my doorstep Sloppy kisses stained with the scent of cheap beer completed the night as we tore into each other and made love on that ratty creaking mattress in the front room All I had at the time to rest on was that ***** old bed and you until several months later when they confined you to pristine hospital beds instead Intravenous deceptions and false hope blood tests followed but even with all the motions of our modern medical drama we couldn't avoid you getting slowly swept away I regret never having the strength or honesty to visit you just as I regret never telling anyone about you and I I go hang on that overpass railing sometimes remembering the knock-down-drag-out-reckless perfection of that night knowing that my agonizing love for you should have been something I proudly proclaimed to the world Now the trains carry away my atrocious wails as the weight of my shame nearly pulls me onto the tracks and spills my insides in sacrificial testament to all we've lost
0
Jan 15, 2014
Jan 15, 2014 at 5:04 PM UTC
Mystic Fibrosis
In the murky clots of consciousness between sleep and awakening we clung to an icy overpass railing spitting down on graffiti camouflaged train cars as their charging rickety boom carried our uncontrollable laughter toward destinations unknown Our spirited tenacity was matched only by turbulent winds whipping us into submission Forcing us to brace ourselves to avoid getting swept away You tumbled backward off the slick rounded bars of the overpass rail and bit your lip so hard I thought you would need stitches but you kept on smiling as the blood plummeted dripping all over the tracks in a sanguinary frost Feeling arrogant and invincible like two avante guarde dog soldiers we marched past our old urban battlefields and grimy fast food cattle fields closed in on a ramshackle bar and drowned our taboos and inhibitions in foam drenched pitchers until we closed out that ramshackle bar We gleefully stumbled wearing hazy street light halos back to the duplexed squalor of my doorstep Sloppy kisses stained with the scent of cheap beer completed the night as we tore into each other and made love on that ratty creaking mattress in the front room All I had at the time to rest on was that ***** old bed and you until several months later when they confined you to pristine hospital beds instead Intravenous deceptions and false hope blood tests followed but even with all the motions of our modern medical drama we couldn't avoid you getting slowly swept away I regret never having the strength or honesty to visit you just as I regret never telling anyone about you and I I go hang on that overpass railing sometimes remembering the knock-down-drag-out-reckless perfection of that night knowing that my agonizing love for you should have been something I proudly proclaimed to the world Now the trains carry away my atrocious wails as the weight of my shame nearly pulls me onto the tracks and spills my insides in sacrificial testament to all we've lost
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55
Some once called him a Grand Old Man, Others called him a slime, You couldn’t get a consensus that Was even, all the time, For some kow-towed to his money, while Others fell by his sword, His life was overall sunny, while His victims quailed at his word. He lorded it over his children, He ruled their kids with ease, A sullen look from beneath his brow Would bring them to their knees, His will was forever changing As solicitors came and went, One day he’d offer a mansion, And another day, a tent. When he finally died he was stony broke And they wondered where it went, He’d always been abstemious But the money had been spent. He left all their lives in ruins with Their expectations gone, A couple of ramshackle houses were The only things they won. There wasn’t the money to bury him So they left him where he sat, Up at the head of the table in His black, beribboned hat, He glared at them as he’d glared in life One hand on the table-top, Where he used to tap with his finger As if it would never stop. Tap-tap-tap on the table-top, Tap-tap-tap it went, His eyes bored into the back of your head As if to say - Repent! And people scurried, this way and that To divine what the tartar meant, The grim old man in his black top hat Who ruled to their detriment. They left him sat and they locked the door Didn’t go back for a year, Til the eldest, saying ‘let’s know for sure,’ Returned with a tinge of fear. ‘He might have stocks in his waistband there Or shares hid under his shirt, Or cash stuffed in his beribboned hat - He treated us all like dirt!’ He ventured into the dining room Where the grim old man still sat, His eyes a-glare in the year long gloom From under the brim of his hat. But as the eldest approached him there The finger began to tap, A steady rap with a note of doom That would curdle blood to sap. So Toby dived to the tinder box And he leapt up with the axe, His face as pale as a ghostly tale But determined to attack. He raised the axe and he let it fall Severed the finger there, It skittered across the table top As the old man fell from his chair. The stocks were stuffed in the old man’s hat The shares were stuffed in his sleeve, And so much cash in his waistband that They said, you wouldn’t believe. But still he’s locked in that grey old house For they found it wouldn’t stop, That severed finger that skittered there Still taps on the table-top! David Lewis Paget
0
Jan 12, 2015
Jan 12, 2015 at 1:17 AM UTC
Table Tapping
Some once called him a Grand Old Man, Others called him a slime, You couldn’t get a consensus that Was even, all the time, For some kow-towed to his money, while Others fell by his sword, His life was overall sunny, while His victims quailed at his word. He lorded it over his children, He ruled their kids with ease, A sullen look from beneath his brow Would bring them to their knees, His will was forever changing As solicitors came and went, One day he’d offer a mansion, And another day, a tent. When he finally died he was stony broke And they wondered where it went, He’d always been abstemious But the money had been spent. He left all their lives in ruins with Their expectations gone, A couple of ramshackle houses were The only things they won. There wasn’t the money to bury him So they left him where he sat, Up at the head of the table in His black, beribboned hat, He glared at them as he’d glared in life One hand on the table-top, Where he used to tap with his finger As if it would never stop. Tap-tap-tap on the table-top, Tap-tap-tap it went, His eyes bored into the back of your head As if to say - Repent! And people scurried, this way and that To divine what the tartar meant, The grim old man in his black top hat Who ruled to their detriment. They left him sat and they locked the door Didn’t go back for a year, Til the eldest, saying ‘let’s know for sure,’ Returned with a tinge of fear. ‘He might have stocks in his waistband there Or shares hid under his shirt, Or cash stuffed in his beribboned hat - He treated us all like dirt!’ He ventured into the dining room Where the grim old man still sat, His eyes a-glare in the year long gloom From under the brim of his hat. But as the eldest approached him there The finger began to tap, A steady rap with a note of doom That would curdle blood to sap. So Toby dived to the tinder box And he leapt up with the axe, His face as pale as a ghostly tale But determined to attack. He raised the axe and he let it fall Severed the finger there, It skittered across the table top As the old man fell from his chair. The stocks were stuffed in the old man’s hat The shares were stuffed in his sleeve, And so much cash in his waistband that They said, you wouldn’t believe. But still he’s locked in that grey old house For they found it wouldn’t stop, That severed finger that skittered there Still taps on the table-top! David Lewis Paget
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73
Winter's days have become one, Mashed together to form one dreadful night, As my eyes become bloodshot, another gulp of pungent whiskey. On this night when the moon's luminance reveals itself through a sheet of blank clouds, And I'm left confined in the purgatory of a lonely bedroom, Whose once blue walls have all but burnt to black, As they seem to broaden to maximize my desolation. I question my existence. I question my sanity. I question when I will see the sun again. For the moon may be the only soul who is as lonely as I. But the moon seeks solace in himself, And does not comfort me as the way you once did, On these drunken nights where the enemy was the bottom of a fifth of Jack Daniel’s. What took away my everything, Was the only thing that could aid me in my resurrection. So now I lay here, Alone. Questioning everything, Scrambling to fix all that's been broken, Building these deplorable ramshackle buildings on top of broken rubble, With shards of glass and stinging tears as they mix with the blood on my hands, But that doesn't matter, does it? It will crumble, no matter how many times I try over and over again to rebuild. This idiotic tower of sanity. Why not just lay in this defeat? And accept the harrowing fate that failure is upon me. Let myself reek with self pity. And drench myself with vomits of slurred words like, "I miss you, I love you." In my melancholy rage, I'll take what is left of my body out into the cold, In attempt to feel something real again as I dance with frozen tears in the numbing blanket of snow, Convincing myself you will soon join me as I glare up at a flavorless, charcoal sky, Cursing the bland stars who don't comfort the moon like they once did, As I throw up the final chunks of the parts of my body that were still alive. I watch in horror in front of me as they crawl out, Like spiders as they trickle into the night with eyes wide. For now I'm stuck here, Glancing around for help that will never come, Trying desperately to gather pieces of a broken puzzle with weak hands and shaking fingers. So now, I lay here. Bare. On the ground. Everything splayed out for the world to step on and see. All my mysteries drawn out, All the secrets are no more, All my thoughts, read like a book. And as my insides spill and leak out further and further from my abdomen, The crimson splurges and spits out. So I clench my last hope, The few drops left of honey whiskey in a bottle, And I close my eyes, For one last time.
0
Feb 26, 2015
Feb 26, 2015 at 11:17 AM UTC
Drunken Nights (collab with the awesome Ryan Marmaros)
Winter's days have become one, Mashed together to form one dreadful night, As my eyes become bloodshot, another gulp of pungent whiskey. On this night when the moon's luminance reveals itself through a sheet of blank clouds, And I'm left confined in the purgatory of a lonely bedroom, Whose once blue walls have all but burnt to black, As they seem to broaden to maximize my desolation. I question my existence. I question my sanity. I question when I will see the sun again. For the moon may be the only soul who is as lonely as I. But the moon seeks solace in himself, And does not comfort me as the way you once did, On these drunken nights where the enemy was the bottom of a fifth of Jack Daniel’s. What took away my everything, Was the only thing that could aid me in my resurrection. So now I lay here, Alone. Questioning everything, Scrambling to fix all that's been broken, Building these deplorable ramshackle buildings on top of broken rubble, With shards of glass and stinging tears as they mix with the blood on my hands, But that doesn't matter, does it? It will crumble, no matter how many times I try over and over again to rebuild. This idiotic tower of sanity. Why not just lay in this defeat? And accept the harrowing fate that failure is upon me. Let myself reek with self pity. And drench myself with vomits of slurred words like, "I miss you, I love you." In my melancholy rage, I'll take what is left of my body out into the cold, In attempt to feel something real again as I dance with frozen tears in the numbing blanket of snow, Convincing myself you will soon join me as I glare up at a flavorless, charcoal sky, Cursing the bland stars who don't comfort the moon like they once did, As I throw up the final chunks of the parts of my body that were still alive. I watch in horror in front of me as they crawl out, Like spiders as they trickle into the night with eyes wide. For now I'm stuck here, Glancing around for help that will never come, Trying desperately to gather pieces of a broken puzzle with weak hands and shaking fingers. So now, I lay here. Bare. On the ground. Everything splayed out for the world to step on and see. All my mysteries drawn out, All the secrets are no more, All my thoughts, read like a book. And as my insides spill and leak out further and further from my abdomen, The crimson splurges and spits out. So I clench my last hope, The few drops left of honey whiskey in a bottle, And I close my eyes, For one last time.
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53
If willing Their belief On almighty To relinquish And  from Their soul For lucifer Proffer A special dish, For a while, Devil will not be Unwilling to grant Sorcery and occultism Blindfolded fools The financial bonanza They gluttonously wish Or an earthly pleasure They die to relish. But at the height of Their self contentment, With a stab on the back With a sharp knife Satan will ramshackle his subject's life. Devil could Not be God However hard he play-acts When approached Ensconced on his abode.
0
Nov 3, 2015
Nov 3, 2015 at 2:07 AM UTC
Devil could not be God
The living to themselves gossip attract, but at death eulogies mitigate lies. Love and care from he who breathes is withdrawn, but his slumber does attract parties. Fake mourners with feigned tears in burials act. They rip off and use the grieving as pawns; Their loss is their gain, their tears their laughter. To fill their stomachs, they sob and flatter, as they to misery dance, from dusk till dawn. Whilst alive, at my deeds everyone frowns. But at death, I am a departed 'saint' whose sepulcher you spray with costly paint. If you must celebrate me, do so now. Do not in reverence to my casket bow. Visit me now in my ramshackle house, sharply rebuke me if you have a grouse. Do as much you can to show you love me, do not when I sleep go on bended knee. Never belatedly show your respect by attending my funeral in retrospect.
0
Jun 23, 2023
Jun 23, 2023 at 7:22 PM UTC
The Hypocrisy of Life and Death