This is when the old and the young,
beasts and confraternal drunks
damn the consequences of death
lying porous on crossroads upon
bifurcated paths, fractured junctions
and ceremonial cul-de-sacs...
The time is immaterial,
so long as the traffic lights — the veggie-green,
the claret, and the urine-amber —choose their slow
blinking and rapid-eyelid movement carefully.
And moon might decide not to power its own light.
Tenebrous tracks then fill our eyes with the age of
sea monsters blinded by charcoal waves.
Need I hail the neon signs of bordellos!
And the city’s restless constellations!
They sparkle with rage and with the brio of rioting stars,
thus adding celestial films to our already overloaded eyes....
But that’s another story.
C’mon... we are no Deer or Asahel descendants!
Closely related to sloths, millipedes and snails,
we drag our feet, which in turn drag the volumes of
stupidity in us, aggravated by drams and midnight parties
held between a flowing weekend and a stagnant Thursday.
Labouring like ants and bees, humans of goodwill gather
Being sloth-filled like sloths, does one have the right to scatter?
With nobleness, each being should acknowledge the other
If one fails to hail the other, will the other bother?
Those who help others in the accomplishment of mission
Those who join their neighbours in their battle against Satan
Such as these would follow you, carrying daily crosses.
Sharing each of your gains, they would also share your losses.
Humans, in their conspiracy to mar others, blasphemed
Forgiving these, towards them, your forgiveness unfastened
As scorpions and snakes venom those who try to save them
Their abhorrence towards those who saved them was at its helm.
Why should one oppose the truth and chock another's graces?
To be saved, should one roam holy places after places?
As a child, men of science warned me
about the coming of a second ice age.
They flashed pictures of stomping mastodon
hungry saber tooth cats
and giant sloths with enormous claws.
I listened closely and was frightened
but I was all in and took quick action.
I learned how to build an igloo
by stuffing snow into hollow plastic blocks.
I sharpened the end of dozens of sticks
to battle the giant cats and mastodon.
Now, Bill Nye, Mr. Gore and Hanoi Jane
are warning me of imminent global warming
and biblical flooding rarely seen.
I'm taking them seriously.
So, I'm stockpiling tuna fish, beer and seed.
and building a tiny arc just for three
as I'll never have two of everything.
There's only the cat, an olive-eyed dove and me.
amidst a jungle
sloths snuggle ten tree's apart
hung stared glance awry
scout darts afar off
an army of red herrings
plots a lure or lore
after a rainstorm
a hover of trouts stood still
gawks at a rainbow
a finicky cat
a finny of goldfishes
fish bowl or ocean
cave fully loaded
no more bats for the caldron
next up to bat out
they're all gathered there
congregation of egrets
sweet bird earned her wings
longtime without pope
college of cardinals hopes
vows to change its looks
It's back to the wilds, for the unexplored
Panama's island, Pygmy Three-Toed Sloths.
Tree huggers, twenty hours daily, course, lots
of trees. Four of a kind, their fifth, record
as the smallest. Clocked slow, a leaf lasts one
month in its tummies till its slow slop drops.
They're six pounds and twenty inches, a pop.
Furs algae-fied hide them. Swim can be done.
Again, it resurfaces, a world-wide
dilemma, in pictures and portrait drapes
over a posh hotel table of crepes.
Concerned and unconcerned, great the divide.
In twenty-twelve, I.U.C.N., counted ...
less than eighty, now ... they're, unaccounted.
Cats are selfish creatures
And as lazy as can be
You can usually find them asleep beneath a tree
They are so very lazy it would be hard to meet
Any other animal that could possibly compete
A sloth is not so lazy just very sloooow
It will never be hurried does not understand the word go
Go where he slowly ponders
Why there and not here
Goodness gracious what's the rush
You really all are *****
Cats' Sloths and other animals all have their special ways
And this had it's beginning in olden days
We can all take a lesson from the sea turtle. She does not travel thousands of miles or risk all for her ego. She has an instinct for greatness --- one that I believe is found in all living creatures.
Mary Alice
turtle hatch
when shores are bare
and warm
nesting by night
to shun exposure
to vultures
fire ring
hewn turtle
scared shell
by night storm
newborns rise
slight sloths rush to sea
will ne'er see their mum once
and
shed tears to clear eyes
Written: December 06, 2022
Writing Challenge - Yalto Form - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Constance La France
Checked by HMS.COM: 11 Lignes : 3, 4, 2, 4, 5, 3, 2, 3 ,2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 1, 5
“Reality”
I am a Jaguar.
Brownish-yellow fur, patches of black markings
resembling of a rose.
I search for food
Stalking my prey behind trees, 5
But there are none.
I walked a million miles,
All for nothing.
Struggling to hunt
Bearing the brunt. 10
I am a sloth,
A sleepy sloth that is.
We are as cool as cucumbers
And as mellow as the color yellow.
Two-toed sloths 15
Three-toed sloths
We are all the same.
We hear trees crashing to the forest floor.
BAMM
BANGGG 20
BOOMMMM
It is not the same.
The same…it is not.
Our homes are destroyed,
Humans are overjoyed. 25
I am an Amazonian Tapir.
Related to horses and rhinoceros.
When young, white stripes and spots are visible,
Eventually fading overtime.
We are great swimmers. 30
Running into rivers
Away from predators.
Our habitat is shrinking.
I hear animals yelp for help.
Resources become scarce, 35
So do the others.
It is difficult.
Nature is a temple,
Representative of light, unity and purity.
Without change, we are doomed…including you. 40
Sloths running around
sidewalks...
Elephants sans "trunks"...
Sorrowful crying hyenas...
Happy and satisfied men...!
Table legs walking,,
Named sin, the act of sloth we often scorn;
observing, the word lazy comes to mind.
Real sloths, with slow metabolisms, born;
but our health reasons, oft are not assigned.
July 16, 2022
Contest: Sin Of Sloth
Sponsor: Margarita Lillico
Note: Some health problems that can cause
laziness: anemia, hypothyroidism, chronic,
fatigue, diabetes, sleep apnoea, fibromyalgia
I
Who made the roach and porcupine?
Who made the giraffe and sloth?
Who made mosquito, bug, kine?
II
I might see uses in cattle and kine
Because I need to feed, wine and dine
Will they let me eat bear & porcupine?
III
Some creatures remind us, not about us
The universe feels itself, expresses
And experiences being great or minuscule
IV
If you meet maidens U like, "a beauty"
Don't discriminate if others are plain
Creator who made "mistakes" made me
Peace-filled like pigeons,
Solemn like sloths,
Composed like cranes;
Swift, like saints and sages,
Or like hills and mountains,
Freed of pains...!
Relaxed like lambs,
Focused like cranes,
Free, like, butterflies;
Keeping the inner mind,
Like an innocent child,
Devoid of lies…!
Taking slow-slow steps,
Breathing gently, fully,
Enjoying every sphere;
Be hills or mountains,
Be vales or plains,
Feel that heaven's here...!
Mindful like Zen saints,
Meditative like monks,
Being in the present;
Being calm,
Like lotus in a calm pond,
Or like hyacinth most fragrant...!
No anger or anxiety,
Beautiful as blue sea,
Still waters flowing in;
Coping with calamities,
Leaping over highest hurdles,
Zeal and zest pouring-in...!
Touch your heart,
Search that's lost,
Feel the find-feeling;
Calm calls for conversion,
Transformation,
Absolute resurrection...!
16 January 2022
How did the jungle get here?
Did it come on a train
like an old time circus
rolling in before dawn
while we splattered safety-nets
with doomsday drivel.
A rainforest has invaded;
has manifested out of alarm and
a far too high quotient
of native dumbness.
The clacking of parrots
mutes the lowing of milk cows,
only the cicada drone on
happy to click along.
This green thunder is oppressive.
The domestic canopies of backyards
are sprouting mythic Triffids.
Grass is getting spikey and carnivorous.
Tabby cats are abducted
by prowling panthers.
Giant sloths hang from the hedgerows.
Did we dream up this primal Eden?
Did we cancel
the regular unpredictable weather
of predictable Ohio?
Global Warming
could never have appeared to be real
if we had not made it so
by thinking it so,
and as so many here
think very little -
we had it coming.
How did the jungle get here?
Did it come on a train
like an old time circus
rolling in before dawn
while we splattered mind-nets
with our secrets?
A rainforest has invaded;
has manifested out of alarm and
a far too high quotient
of native dumbness.
The clacking of parrots
drowns out far off whale songs,
mutes the lowing of milk cows,
only the cicada drone on
happy to click along.
This green thunder is oppressive.
The domestic canopies of backyards
are sprouting mythical Triffids.
Grass is getting spikey and carnivorous.
Tabby cat are being abducted
by roaming panthers.
Giant sloths hang from the hedgerows.
Did we dream up this primal Eden?
Did we cancel
the regular unpredictable weather
of predictable Ohio?
Global Warming
could never have appeared to be real
if we had not made it so
by thinking it so,
and as so many here
think very little -
we had it coming.
I once had that Afro hair you now rock, oh yes i once had it.
Not in the 40s, not in the 50s but in the summer of the dark age. I was a pretty little thing, A fish and oh yes i swimmed all waters.
My blackness got it strength from that Afro hair, not the wigs you rock now that has no shadow under.
My Afro hair.
I rocked it in front of the mirror and it sent messages to the slave masters that i have scribbled their skeletons on my wall.
My Afro hair.
I rocked it in the club and a white brother got the message that liberty needs a glass.
My young Africans.
You rock your Afro hair in front of sloths, drink wild, your winks die and you lie you represent the liberation party.
My young Africans.
In the summer of the dark age i was among the black panthers, we pounced on herods and never wore another skin.
My young Africans.
How do you rock your Afro hair?
What do you make of the coco butter inside your skin?
Oh what an ebony skin you got.
My young Africans.
I'm Sekani
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