Shall I compare thee to a winters day?
Thou art more cold and more merciless.

to my Madolyn, Rob , Soliana, Malak, Pinkpearl, Daniel, BJ, Miki, Jules, Willow, Poets Rain, Her, Ashan, Billy, Katelyn, Kirstens, Leah, Emily, Liz, Skyler, HB, Danielle, Robin, Lynnie, Veer, Abigail, and Fawn

We haven't been here long
At all
But your support has been
overwhelming
...to us at least

We haven't written masterpieces
At all
But your responses have been
overpowering
...to us at least

Know we notice you,
Know we recognize you,
and try to get to know you
through the words you present

We could never repay you
At all
But, please, don't forget
we love you
...to say the least

We are honored
We will always work to honor you


Sincerely yours,
A&T (seriously not a ripoff)

P.S.
I can't handle anymore people so you guys are going to have
to help me ****** anyone new coming over. I'll pay.

The smell of stale french fries
and E.coli coated beef

the raw onions and garlic cloves
stunk up the kitchen and watered my eyes
no ice in the drink machines...
but plenty of warm pop

Chicken nuggets with 16 new herbs
and spices and hot fudge Sundays, without the hot fudge

banana splits with rotten bananas
and the tomatoes weren't that fresh either
the cheese was moldy and the buns, moldier

The advertisements claimed "Have it your way"
it wasn't my way, it was their way

I paid a dollar fifty ordering off the dollar menu
it was a ripoff....

I spoke to the manager
and the manager spit in my face
and said "Have a nice day"

it wasn't a nice day, it wasn't a nice day at all....

All men have secrets
And here is mine,
So let it be known, on the eve of my impending doom
I listen to the songs that reflect my life
And I thought, I was going to make it, and break it
BUT
My life was nothing more than a tease, to torment and tantalize
See the life I have had would make a good man turn bad.
And there was a hand that rocked that cradle and it could have been mine
This gave me comfort you would not understand.
However, that night opened my eyes and I will never sleep again
That dream is gone, I did a good thing
She could have been a poet or a fool, I did a bad thing.
And I am not happy and I am not sad!
There is no one left to blame but myself,
And I know time is against me now.
Now I am so tired and I want to go to bed
Please don’t try to wake me in the morning I hope I will be gone.
Don’t feel bad for me I want you to know.
Deep in the cell of my heart I will feel so glad to go.
These words I sung and thought when I was young
Good times I might have had
Are not the times of this current man!
I haven’t had a dream in a long time
So, for once in my life let me get what I want
Lord knows it would be the first time
It’s so easy to laugh and hate,
It take strength to be gentle and kind
Love is natural and real, but not for me
Not for me.
I was never meant to be here anyway.
It’s too close to home and too close to the bone
I never felt comfortable in this world anyway.  
Still I cling
See the sea wants to take me the night wants to slit me.
Can anyone help me?
No.
See I know it’s over
I know it’s over, and it really NEVER began, but in my heart it was so real
I wonder will you hear me when I sleep
Will you see me when I pass?
This is the last stand of all I am.
This is your world not mine.
Please keep me in mind
There is a better world
Oh, I hope so
Oh, there must be.
So, sing me to sleep, please sing me to sleep.
Deep in the cell of my heart I really want to go….

I told you the carnies were ripoff artists, but  If you really wanted, you could have said the real prize was the love in the air that night.

A man known as "The Master"
came to speak to our small town
He was revered as a wise man
And he always dressed in brown
He answered every question
Though his answers did confuse
He was more of a rainmaker
A charlatan, a ruse
For twenty bucks he'd let you in
To hear him speak about the world
His hair, was just a birds nest
And his beard was braided, twirled
I went to see this magii
Find out answers about life
I asked him if he knew the truth
He said, "I see you've met my wife"
I asked him what his answer meant
He said "she always asks me the same thing"
"like, when I've lost the rent"
"Master, all I want to know
Can true happiness come to man"
"If you've money, ***** and three drunk broads"
"Then son, I'd say you can"
"Master, that's not what I mean"
"Then, just why did you ask?"
"I didn't mean that happiness"
He took a sip from his small flask
I sat and looked about me
At the crowd around his feet
I was more confused than ever
And was getting dizzy from the heat
Another man stepped forward asking
"Master, tell us about love"
"didn't you read about the broads
"About thirteen lines above"
"Love..it is confusing"
"It's always different every day"
"If you want love that never changes"
"Then my boy, you'll have to pay"
"I'm not sure that's what I need"
"To hear, Is it the truth?"
"I see you've met my wife as well"
"A big girl, red head...Ruth"
"No master, I just need to know"
"Before I choose a bride"
"Well, make sure you can see the tv"
"When she's lying on her side"
"Always mark the ***** bottle"
"Just in case...you know..me thinks"
"That way, you can always prove to her"
"That you haven't had three drinks"
"Master, this is way off base"
"I think you are a fraud"
"Young man, I know of what I speak"
"I see that you don't have a broad"
He too, sat down, head spinning
The master was confusing as all hell
But, we all sat here in his presence
Under this strange man's spirit spell
"Master, I have one more thing"
"I must know before I leave"
He said" it's two doors down and to the right"
As he wiped his nose upon his sleeve
"No, not that, I don't need that"
"I just need to know what's real"
"Do I believe in all around me?
"Do I believe in what I feel?"
"Christ", he said,"you are a pain"
"I can't answer things like that"
"I just know, who won last nights game"
"Do these pants make me look fat?
"You speak to me of truth and love"
"I know of  broads and trucks"
"The only truth I know is that"
"You've wasted twenty bucks"
"Master, you're a ripoff, sir"
"I guess this is a lesson in my life"
"You really do not know the truth"
"Are you sure you've not met my wife?"......

And for those of you who don’t
Find Trump to be pernicious,
He shows his *** to one and all,
I hope you find it is delicious.
For those of you who lived in
Dream castles of foolish hope
You have backed an evil man
A charlatan and a dope.

If you tried hard and long
You could not have done worse
And that is the reason for
This neener neener verse.
I can’t think how he could
Have warned you any better.
He promised things intelligence
Could discredit by the letter.

He said he would do stuff
So totally unconstitutional,
That made the rich richer,
And proved you were delusional
To trust a total ripoff guy
Who has been cheating for years.
Why did you think this fool
Would allay any of your fears?

But still you all waved high
His stupid Chinese-made hats;
Bought him gold and diamond studs
For his brand new fancy spats.
And now he’s in the Capitol
Laughing at all of you dolts
YOU gave him weapons to use on you
Instead of a thousand volts.

“I conversed with you in a dream.”
Sappho’s fragment 134

"He said 'no worries,'" she said
when she hung up. "I love when people say that." quaint little town,
they say of us – quaint little smile, I
say of her.  
"When you drink, i..." another plantative little contest the context
ringing and you can tell that the "i" is not a proper noun.
"Were you alone?" it surmounts up and climbs down the treacle gavels of sensibility
this question suggests concern.
and a boy who wants to have *** with me calls me kitten. His hair is brown.
Two conversations at the same time:
"Where I'm from, twenty a gram's a ripoff!"
Standard prices.
and
"Princess, if you were my girl, you'd always walk funny."
The ice is
thin under my oxfords
the murk of my conversational devices
Lake bottom:
vices.

I'm a neighbourhood ******
of truth, I'll inject everyone
                               of you,
The needle isn't contaminated  
with untruths, the only thing
I inject within you is the truth..

Wannabe,
                false fashion,
                                          ripoff
that has only one place when
used up by those whispering
in ears like a messiah, of false
prophesies of riches that only
cloth the pockets of would be
rules of a patch that is never
                   theirs just a mirage of power..

I've been spat upon,
                            I have holes!
Of my consequences that others
have vented upon me from afar.
But I'm the neighbourhood
                                           ******
injecting truths, saving lives
          that would be caskets
                             silently cried upon.

Loosey goosey, Gary Busey
Makes more sense than you!
What do you see, big kaboosie?
What would Vladdy Putin do?

Fussy wussy, presidential woosy
Tell a whole buncha more lies.
Flappy *****, big **** slappy
The best your money buys.

Choppy woppy, never stoppy
Even when caught on tape.
Shouty, pouty, tough it outy
Completely out of shape.

Fleecer, squeezer, ugely obese
Shadow of your youth
Ripoff, tipoff, always lipoff.
Incapable of truth.

Heapy cheapy, never sleepy
Won’t pay your own bills.
Brainless pain, runaway train,
All your ideas can ****.

Neego, peego, bloated ego
The little kids you scare,
Shard, pard, big tub of lard,
As attractive as your hair.

Wimps, whiners and data miners.
All gathered here together.
Crooks, embezzlers and free ***** guzzlers
And hookers dressed in leather.
Lying, cheating and some **** beating
And even some ****** games.
Walls at borders and restraining orders
And finding others to blame.


Cheaters, beaters and lying pig-men
Trying their best to succeed
In the race for worst ******* of them all.
One more ripoff is all they need.
Blaming, shaming and gerrymandering
Doing their best to become
Millionaires, billionaires, zillionaires
Ruling absolutely over the dumb.

Mewling, puking and crying out loud
Losing stolen funds they invested.
Society defeafened from applause and hurrahs
When the lot of them are arrested.
Ripping, tearing their thousand dollar suits;
Begging their thousand year old God.
They’re the twenty first century Washington batch
Of Wynken, Blynken and Nod.

what does it all mean?
please can I get a ticket?
to ride your new machine?

postscript ; they were all eaten by the big poetry ripoff before the machine
made out of cardboard left the planet. RIP Confused dead poets blasted into the evaporating nothingness.

Don't you make me laugh,
I just wanna be sad,
Your smile is looking bad,
Drop dead and sink instead.

Sometimes I fear that dad is dead,
Broken down and turned out mad,
***-luck as the grand-dad fad,
Fresh out of luck aren't ya'?

So it is your birthday what do you want me to do
If your expecting presents then you'll have to join the que
If you want to indulge in cake then that's entirely up to you
But don't expect a big reaction not even one or two

Is the expense of all the gifts really justifiably
Most things produced these days are highly unreliable
Is the price that you pay realistic or even viable
Especially when toys break and the games are never pliable

Pressure put on the people when your birthday comes along
To purchase expensive items well isn't that just wrong
Those ripoff manufacturers they have been around too long
Your product pricing isn't reasonable or going for a song

I don't see why I should line the pockets of the rich
I'm not going to fall for their lies or even their crap pitch
They don't care if you are broke and you haven't got a stitch
Their only interested in your cash to make their fingers itch

Once high standards where placed with products that you bought
But now it seems the standard has dropped right down to nought
I can't see why the things you buy or the things that have been sought
Can't last beyond a reasonable time but it's the purchaser that's caught

You know as a manufacturer that your products we will buy
Particularly when a birthday comes and your prices are so high
The state of the items purchased well do you even try
I believe that your standards are all based on a deceptive lie

It's the same as Christmas time when high prices are then placed
But you know with desperation that your items are embraced
Even with substandard ways that never has been faced
Items break and you don't care as long as its not traced

If you think I'm being harsh then what do you expect
When your production is substandard and there is no real respect
If you had a conscience then customers you would not neglect
Instead of which its us that lose and end up in regret

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

                                        A White-Space Ripoff

If you purchase this volume as a notebook with a few piquant aphorisms already scribbled here and there on its pages you will have some value for your $26 (now under $20 via amazon).  If you buy it as a volume of poetry you will delight in many of those brief witticisms but as a whole might be disappointed that Mr. Collins and Random House have your money and you have lots of wasted wood pulp.

Basically,

i feel like this year went by so fast and yet it's also felt like a century
both of our finals in the ballots were bad
so many unrepresented catastrophes are happening as we speak
it feels like we are approaching the end of life as we know it
education is necessary, but the education system is a ripoff
equity is more appropriate than equality, however, is it possible to have equality because of equity?
toy story came out 22 years ago
**** is actually a really cool herb, that can be consumed in so many ways
*** is overrated
relationships are slowly being demonized and selfishness is romanticized
humility does not simply equal donations or good deeds, nor is it just only accepting you flaws and red flags
we aren't even promised the very next moment, yet somehow we've pushed that so deep into our subconsciousness that we continue to live with this blind faith of a tomorrow. If you stop everything you are doing and you close your eyes, in an atmosphere of no distraction, you can slowly wash away every thought that you may have or want to create, sinking into an abyss of nothingness. Notice that you and your body are doing so many things right now without you actually being in control of any of it. There is no emergency button to power down because we are innately programmed to live forever unless destroyed by something. Your breathing is calm, traveling through your body, out of your nose most likely. Focusing on your forehead, and then behind that, deep inside your head, it's your conscious, just here, floating in the void in your mind. Unable to really do anything but influence you, like a machine, until you die. We're kind of like projects that our souls made, sims characters that live a whole life, and then after they expire, their experience is viewed and judged by the higher power, judging our souls artwork like a class assignment. If you pass, you get to graduate upward. If you fail, you fall forever downward, kind of like life now.

This **** is scary...tbh