Category Archives: POEMS

GUEST POST // Sincere Pretense by Kevin L. McDaniel

Meeting where “Your insight
is imperative,”
but participation
is optional.

“Let’s catch up
soon,” shared by
people passing
in echoing hallways.

“Love, love, love what
you did there,”
praising mediocre
work.

“Your email must have
found its way
to the abyss of
my inbox,” a common tale.

“No offense but…”
often prefaces
unsolicited
perspectives.

“Take your time,
there’s absolutely
no hurry,”
with deadlines whispering.

“Just jesting,”
comes after,
softening
sharp words.

“I’ll ponder over it,”
a placeholder,
while decisions
drift.

“Wow, you’ve really
surpassed yourself
this time,”
for varying efforts.

“Couldn’t have achieved
it without your
unique contribution,”
when roles blur.

by KEVIN L. MCDANIEL
© All rights reserved 2024

TATI’s & TONY’s DEAD POET TOUR // A Seed by William Allingham

See how a Seed, which Autumn flung down,
And through the Winter neglected lay,
Uncoils two little green leaves and two brown,
With tiny root taking hold on the clay
As, lifting and strengthening day by day,
It pushes red branches, sprouts new leaves,
And cell after cell the Power in it weaves
Out of the storehouse of soil and clime,
To fashion a Tree in due course of time;
Tree with rough bark and boughs’ expansion,
Where the Crow can build his mansion,
Or a Man, in some new May,
Lie under whispering leaves and say,
“Are the ills of one’s life so very bad
When a Green Tree makes me deliciously glad?”
As I do now. But where shall I be
When this little Seed is a tall green Tree?

by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM (1824-1889)
Public Domain Poetry

the mute observer problem

if a deaf guy falls in the forest
& no one’s around to hear it
does he make a sound

probably

he just can’t hear himself
or maybe can’t use his words
like ouch or christ

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

social contract

have you ever felt
that your life is mortgaged
from the very first cry?

they squeeze your persona dry
they gain interest from everything
starting with your imperfect reflection
and its teenaged acne
ending with a type of upholstery
on your second-rate coffin

and nothing really belongs to you
except a nightingale’s song
that reverberates outside your window
every single night

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2024

all day sucker

i won me a lollipop at the fair
a golden horsey with a wee eyesore
well, a grain of sugar what hadn’t melt
this blemishment gave me ma a scare
“lick it not, wee lassie!” she did implore
“’tis an evil eye what from hell-ter skelt!”

while me ma looked prayful at the sky
fumbled an’ mumbled, fair crossin’ herself
i stole me a wee tentative lick
well, ain’t nothin’ happened by the by
no lurgy, no hauntin’ nor broken shelf
no double whammy or triple kick

ma an’ me did ‘tinue ’round the grounds
buyed us eggs (three pennies a dozen)
hid our nyloned legs up on the ferris wheel
i licked an’ i sucked, slurpin’ wee rounds
sugar rushin’ gave me head a wee buzzin’
ma’s “let us hie home!” took on fresh appeal

by the time ma an’ me met pa at the stoop
naught but a stick were gummed to me palm
an’ me tummy were turgin’ somethin’ fierce
then there, the bridle, like an empty loop
fell from pa’s hand to mountin’ alarm
an’ news of ol’ clyde to sadden the ears

i cried at dinner and all through the night
at thought of our nag’s life all melt away
while i tongued in the sun, too much to bear
i were scold by me ma though real contrite
no lollipops for me the rest of me days
and animal crackers i’d ought beware

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023