Bash

Thirty straight
Punctuate
Things that make
Me irate
Or simply groan
Ain’t that great
Now it’s time
To celebrate.

Unsold

She thinks she’s so hip
With her gaudy frames
And those clownish lips
Bright red, no shame

With a smarmy drawl
She believes she can sell
Some product, but all
Her affectation compels

My mind to tune
The pitch right out—
If you rely on a loon
When you’re broke, don’t pout.

Snack

The grease is fresh
But not the flesh
I love when puns and pathos mesh

Late summer night
Need a bite?
I just may sate your appetite

But only if
You take a whiff
And don’t recoil (pale and stiff)

So grab a plate
No need to wait
Here it is, now masticate.

Pricks

They foster your hate
To keep you sedate
If your foe is next door
You won’t notice the rate

At which you are taxed
So don’t get relaxed
Or you may be sore
Where you’re forcibly vaxxed.

Help Wanted

When you’re born to work
Your back gets sore
Your legs get tired
And you’re always poor
But you are wired
To never shirk

And though days are long
They become a blur
As hope is quelled
By the stagnant stir
With which you meld—
You must stay strong!

Imminent

Approaching the fall as the summer ensued
The thief told his joker they may be pursued
But the jackass grew bolder as the eagle got ill
With peasants so eager to forfeit their will

That anyone thinking was put in a mood
Approaching the fall. As the summer ensued
The federal farce was the joke of the earth
Potential marauders quite giddy with mirth

For soon they’ll start damning the amber waves
And plow them under to make new graves.
Approaching the fall as the summer ensued
The truth was continually misconstrued

As actors with ancient agendas to push
Attempted to turn our gray matter to mush
Though enough were awake to reject what was skewed
Approaching the fall as the summer ensued.

Succulence

The lure of fruit that gilds a tree
One knows they mustn’t scale
Can somehow truly whet the appetite
Imagining that first chin-drenching bite
Their fears of consequences pale
Enough for them to brave the fall and see.

Aeromutt

My dog jumped into the air to try
And chomp an orange butterfly
As it went brightly flapping by

I guess it’s one of those ‘good things’
That even though he has his flings
He never chanced to sprout some wings.

Greedy Hands

I planted an acorn and when I awoke
I found myself dwarfed by the mightiest oak
And then I looked into the mirror to see
A wizened old gnome staring back at me
And it made me wonder if we’ll ever reach
The point where ticks no longer leech
Away our profit and our prime
Will we ever have free time?

Toleration

He felt the scourge remove his skin
Strip by bloody strip
And actually heard the flesh begin
To agonizingly rip

He wondered why this jackboot thug
Would do as he was told
By leaders who would simply shrug
With chilling eyes, so cold

They showed no signs of empathy
To those enduring loss
For vowing humble loyalty
To one that bore the cross.

He knew that he would soon be ‘asked’
To make a final choice
By party peons (properly masked)
And he would choose REJOICE!

Far from Egypt

A semblance of power was granted and then
They fiercely belittled then butchered all men
Convinced that their ovaries somehow imbued
Their sex with more value than any foul dude
They quickly established an inclusive regime
Where every young woman got to follow her dream
And they were so sure that they did it so well
They drowned in denial when the world went to hell.

Felonious

Committing crimes?
How many times
Before you’re apprehended
Although you feel
Intense appeal
It still can’t be defended

So keep it light
And smile bright
But don’t get too invested
Or you may find
The cost unkind
When tolerance is tested.

Tempestuous

Fred kept weeping
The whole damn day
With Henri creeping
Not too far away
I attempted sleeping
To avoid the gray
Thoughts of Grace keeping
My peace at bay.

Influencers

Every day is a bit more grim
Our chance for survival increasingly slim
Well, at least that’s what we’re constantly told
By those who trade their souls for gold
Portraying themselves as properly prim
While hoping we buy the lies they sold;

They have a script from which they read
Convincing those whose minds aren’t freed
That everything they ‘break’ is true
As they endlessly repeat the few
Hypnotic triggers guaranteed
To make some do what they want them to.

Temp

Each tick is like a snicker
but the clock will go no quicker
for service seldom follows a routine

I may be forced to portion
and hope for some distortion
to warp me past my evening ending clean.

The problem with pretending?
Your spree will soon be ending
especially if you live beyond your means.

Trip

I gazed into the firmament and saw
the wonders of the universe unveiled
and every strange dimension laid bare,
the plethora of possibilities there
was staggering, my mind slipped free and sailed
straight into the unknown’s churning maw.

Half-cocked

Free thought or thought free
which way would you be
keen to cogitate,
controlled by the state?
I would choose to steer my own fate

but bureaucrats redraw
every liberating law
with their convoluted code
in order to erode
autonomy – Let’s lock and load!

Amped

Heading out to crank it up and have ourselves a blast
I savor every single note for time goes much too fast
I know I’ll never make it big or even very far
But I just can’t stop smiling as I pick up my guitar.

Catch

Live the life you’re given
Or make one you prefer
The hitch with actual living?
Some glitches may occur

So ply your plan with purpose
But be ready to adapt
Or whisper futile curses
A prisoner, forever trapped.

Deafening

A motorcycle screaming by
A blaring siren loud and high
A truck delivering cement
An airplane droning it’s descent
A locomotive chugging through
A hundred cars, maybe two
All within a city block
No wonder we can’t hear the clock
As we are a calamitous click
Away from that one final tick.

Abbreviated

If I said “F O” would you say “Uh-oh!”
Or think maybe I want a FE FI FUM to go?
Characters can be as malleable as dough

If I said “F U” would you say “How do?”
Or compliment my fiercely flowing MANCHU?
Perhaps it’s time this jaunt is through.

Quacked Up

I asked my doctor “Must life always be
Filled with pointless stress?”
He said “Are you breathing?” I growled “Obviously!”
He smiled and quipped “Then, yes.”

Burgeoning

I pass my former prison
Defiance in each cell
So glad my stretch of withering
Is finally done, considering
All that has arisen,
I would say it’s just as well.

Existing in their cellar
It was difficult to bloom
But now I’m bathed in radiance
And growing full of confidence
That living can be stellar
Despite what problems loom.

Spike?

Progressive seems to mean
You’re allowed to be lewd and obscene
But if you are conservative
You’re accountable for how you live—
Corruption makes them all unclean
Impalement is imperative.

Little Andy

Little Andy thought he was big
Because he got a governing gig
And loved to press more than mitts
While pushing people past their wits

Andy-wandy loved to blame
The public, “It’s all you!” he’d claim,
Insisting how much duty stings
While showing off his nipple rings.

This randy cad was prone to preach
While groping all within his reach
But little Andy’s latest poll
Suggests a term inside the hole.

Precautionary

The only ill that’s surging
Is the lie that they keep urging
With every puppet panel
Time to turn the channel!

Remember as you listen
And your eyes begin to glisten
Refusing their rendition
Is the way to end transmission.

Puckey

I had fallen into something deep
And I’m telling you, it wasn’t sleep
But an odious type of steaming heap
That made me mutter Bleepity-Bleep.

Dalliance

On every purple crown
The butterflies touch down
To take what nectar there is to be had
They flutter and they twirl
Just like a tilt-a-whirl
And suddenly my day’s not half as bad

Beneath the blue expanse
I watch them dart and dance
And feel (in some way) one with all I see
Though tomorrow’s not for sure
(I hope for many more)
I’m glad for every breath I had to be.

Twilight

I flounder for a fitting phrase
But fumble like a feeble flop
As part of me perversely plays
With stamina too strong to stop—
Forgetting unresolved regret,
The sinking sun is soon to set.

Managing

Each fallen tress you feel less
Like yourself, but you won’t cry
Sometimes to live, some things must die—
You feel less each fallen tress

And soon you may want numbness to stay
It’s easier than dealing with the pain
As you keep asking in your brain
Want numbness to stay? And soon you may.

Fell

Where yesterday those red/green orbs
Invited one to eat
A memory of youth absorbs
My mind, so bittersweet

Disheveled robes reveal a grim
And lasting injury
An over burdened, rain-soaked limb
Contorted then broke free

Beneath those leaves my eyes began
To see things differently
And now I am a seasoned man
More unattached than free

Aware that I can never slip
The garments of the night
Or the void’s pugnacious grip
So why be plagued by fright?