Verbiage
who needs his hearing so full of nothing
we are all infected
quarantine the word in a hole
Cheerful poems
Cheerful poems — a collection of the best works on PoemShip.
Vulgarian
his mouth rose at noon
a red sad thing
we should be the first to doubt him
lord of nothing
his thick white short hand
like a letter to the void
After the campaign
O to sink into a silver spoon
give a blow like a musket
or make a cheap experiment with change
I put off a meeting
for less trouble in my stomach
Small ode
wholly to coffee I owe
my joy in small things
this black sage favoring
a free mind
Sluggish
a slug is light lined with velvet
a modish rider on foot
full of beer he is a prodigal memorandum
signed and sealed
on the arithmetic of pleasure
Futures trading
the farmers of chance eat for nothing
every man intent upon his belly
satisfied by the offer of
a good cuff on the chops
as full as a leopard
known to take heart at a great supper
Funeral plan
in my will I mutter against money
but I will be dead and clean from top to toe
and laying out so much
on clothes for my close
Outcome
up the morning stairs
to war with my wife
the tang of peace
Rumination
after a day within doors
I get a great desire to eat a stomach
green and full
as an old religion
Black thumb
so rank the yard that morning cannot break
I shall grow the dirtiest rose
Quixote at home
after my journey
the door is great as a wish
but poor as the prince of a closet
and a new black cloak
Spoil
For hours now the grownups had kept at it:
a scarcely modulated piano roll of talk
as steady as an all-day rain. At last
we bolted out the back where
the corn came almost to the door,
the tassels shining like epaulets
in the late afternoon sun.
We bushwhacked through the knobby-
kneed ranks, crouched in weedless furrows
to burst from cover with rebel yells
& Hollywood whoops of the wounded
until someone let loose with
a scream that sounded too real–
Vultures! Barely missing us
as they sailed out from a ragged
knot of trees we hadn’t counted on:
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