BONDED STIFF
Our love knows no swiftness;
Its tied and bowed in stiffness:-
Our life of love, is no played game;
Rather, it's an everlasting bond attained:-
May our love always be like a royal evening ball;
A loving affair desired and wished for, by one and all:-
May this precious bond between you and me, ever be,
A God-granted blessed bonding, deemed for eternity:-
et tu Brute with the stiff dagger
and warmblood dripping from
the betrayed hands
witness the evil spirits of Judas
lurking behind the scene
burrow underneath the quiet earth
for thirty shekels of gold
almost speaking in tongues
back and forth through the
holy windows of time
to complete the evil deeds of mankind
and through the ghost-spirit sublime
we conceive the wicked plot
to murder the Emperor King Caesar
if we shall go gently into the good night
witness the unholy act
oh what untimely death we weep
transpired through the soul
thus we gain access to liberty
towards sweet glory and fame
from all the People of Rome
and to be reflected in the
ancient mirror of time
yet whose fruit are we
to guide our hearts with
the ancient code of chivalry
now hollow out the world
thus to kill any man
upon the sweet earth with
stiff dagger in thy hands
No speech, no thoughts,
Quiet is what they want.
So that is what they get.
I will never speak about love or respect-
For anyone, so I will still as a stone.
Cold, frozen, and hard as bone,
But bones can still break and crack.
Pressure, consistently adding to the stack,
Of many worries that hide inside of me,
And they do not know or see
Anxiety, is the name,
Of the thing that came,
When my friends said.
“Love with him is dead...”
a working stiff
Woke, the bedroom was cold under the duvet snugness
I burrowed deeper, enjoying the freedom of sleeping late.
Life was hard, getting up at five and preparing breakfasts for
grumpy seamen, smoking the first cigarette of the day.
The breaking of the fast was endlessly tedious, something
with eggs and fatty meat.
Sometimes when there was a gap between feeding times,
I tried to write; my hands stank of chip fat.
On hundreds of pages, “I’m alive, I’m a life”.
I was a robot; my body is going through a motion.
When peeling potatoes, I was suddenly awake
fake brown gravy and spuds; there were no robots
The bed is warm; nothing can touch me now,
touch me now!!!!
Any noise, any sudden movement
Any voice calling me,
A step outside my door
A shadow in the street
A creaking stair
The rustling of fallen leaves
A tap on my shoulder,
Sets my heart pounding
My legs growing roots
My blood turning cold
My soul beginning to freeze...
I play possum!
~12/11/22
~Contest: A Brian Strand Premiere Choice #54
Now we have been released from the EU, and its cheap cost of livingWe are now going British with prices that are more than unforgiving
Keep a stiff upper lip, it isn't that bad
Things will surely get better
Life is a series of these ups and downs
Surely isn't always fair weather
Unpredictable is a word that's often used
When referring to things in general
For some strange reason as we all get older
Life gets somewhat less pleasurable
Can't do the things we once did with ease
Restricted by physical abilities
At one time things were second nature to us
They now restrict our activities
But all things considered I'm doing quite well
For a man of my advancing years
Can't do ALL the things I once used to do
Also lost some brain matter I fear
Shadows are stiff
hard-edged,
all telling,
not fibbing
nor forgiving.
The mind's eye is blind
to the shadowy-side
we carry in ruck-sacks behind
our backs.
Shadows are brutally honest,
dark and gloomy,
sketches of self in outline,
that we would rather lose
'cause they can't be
colored in.
STIFF STUFF
Old age in men
is when
joint parts supposedly flexible
just aren’t any longer,
but are stiff instead;
and parts supposedly stiff
just aren’t any longer,
and certainly no longer any longer.
10 April 2021
Keep a stiff upper lip, it isn't that bad
Things will surely get better
Life is a series of these ups and downs
Surely isn't always fair weather
Unpredictable is a word that's often used
When referring to things in general
For some strange reason as we all get older
Life gets somewhat less pleasurable
Can't do the things we once did with ease
Restricted by physical abilities
At one time things were second nature to us
They now restrict our activities
But all things considered I'm doing quite well
For a man of my advancing years
Can't do ALL the things I once used to do
Also lost some brain matter I fear
An Invocation
Owusu Ansah!
He birthed water
it retained its wetness
the water was not licked
dry.
Break your wooden confines!
Get out!
Get off!
Get up!
Shake off the
Pincers,
the vein grippers.
Come Back!
Madam,
they go deaf,
that is the price
they pay
for desertion.
They cannot hear
or won’t hear.
Suddenly!
A warm moving mass
of agility. Passion. boundless energy
becomes
STIFF. COLD. UNMOVING. ALIEN.
A candle light
in a dark smokey room
Flames dancing
on the walls across the roof
A twinkling star
high up in the sky
Suddenly falls away
into the space yard of goodbyes
Dreams do die
in the bitter struggle for gain
The last high
usually's never the same
Until it's over
Only the drugs remain
And a cold stiff shadow
Payment for fortune and fame
I will not turn towards God,
I keep my face away from him,
I know he has blessed me,
But I choose to sin on purpose,
I am ashamed to turn my face toward him,
My neck has become very stiff.
The beach was warm the waves felt nice
Till they crashed down with razor cold ice
Now I look into your face, lifeless gaze and not a trace
Drifting to a different place, somewhere in the depths of space
How I wish I could see your face, every night before I sleep
I picture you standing by my feet, every night I pray not to awake
Every morning I see I had been denied my hopeless fate
If only i hadn't been so late, I could erase the look in those eyes
So lifeless and breathless, and full of ice, everytime I see a beach
I go cold thinking of you standing by the sand, visualizing you holding my hand
Which is now too far to reach
One shot, two shot, three
Stiff drinks don't hide all the pain
they sugar coat tears
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