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Tag: American verse forms

Mr. and Mrs. John Q: double dactyl

Published on May 14, 2025

Higgledy-piggledy
Public, John Q.
voted for this mess and
gave it no thought:

just what would happen
when truth lost its way
and no ticket back
could be bought.

Higgledy-piggledy,
Mrs. Q. Public
regurgitated her
poor husband’s pablum,

cut off her nose and
destroyed her good looks;
that’s what you get
when you don’t read books.

Higgledy-piggledy
Mr. and Mrs.
bought all the lies they were told,
and elected

a king and a savior,
to keep them from thinking
they needed integrity
to be respected.

14 MAY 2025

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Small Change: cinquain

Published on May 5, 2025

Talking
about dissent
is not really revolt
unless it leads to some real life
action.

Rebels
can’t change the world
without changing themselves;
that’s how all revolution starts:
within.

Shouting
to be louder
than the other side’s team
only makes everyone in range
deafer.

Fascists
don’t really care
how much racket you make;
so long as you keep giving them
money.

Freedom
isn’t achieved
by replacing their side
with just another hierarchy
to fight.

Talking
is just small breeze
in the face of a gale wind;
you’ve got to put an anchor down
to live.

05 APR 2025

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Come Out, Come Out: terzanelle

Published on June 6, 2017

Come out, come out! It’s only rain;
the world has not dissolved as yet.
The clouds will loose the sun again.

It sometimes seems hard to forget
that darkness does not rule all things;
the world has not dissolved as yet.

And after all, rain showers bring
new growth, and wash away the grime
so darkness does not rule all things.

To waste away seems such a crime;
use these slow hours to energize.
New growth will wash away the grime.

Do not despair the stormy skies!
Come out! come out! it’s only rain.
Use these slow hours to energize;
the clouds will loose the sun again.

06 JUN 2017

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None Will Come Clean: double dactyl

Published on March 1, 2017

Higgledy-piggledy,
President Blunderbuss
spoke through the microphone
into the night,
his senseless sentences
building a fantasy
woven from bullshit and
wrapped nice and tight.

Higgledy-piggledy,
our fawning senators
there in the gallery
gave their applause,
praising his policy
without much exception:
a bent for destruction,
simply because.

Higgledy-piggledy,
those in the gallery
looked on in wonderment
at this mad scene.
In this great travesty
we all have have dirty hands,
pointless to disinfect.
None will come clean.

01 MAR 2017

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Listen: cinquain

Published on February 9, 2017

Listen.
Let the sound come;
as you sense this new song,
pretend you just developed ears,
and hear.

Listen.
The sensation
of experience finds you;
feel the music filling your bones
with light.

Listen.
What you’re hearing
isn’t just some symphony
composed of random, crashing waves
of sound.

Listen
to the heartbeat
underneath the octaves;
in that small space between the breaths
it sounds.

Listen.
Let the sound come;
if you let yourself sing,
you can alter the melody
of life.

09 FEB 2017

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