So long, friends

                                    
A year ago I made a vow
For 366 poems to endow  
I've reached my goal now      
So today I take a final bow

I see you when you're here
All visitors I hold very dear
Most came from good USA
Fans logged in from Russia

Next were surfers of India
Few logged on in Germany
Visitors came from the U.K.
My own folks from Nigeria

Poets too in the Netherlands
Many from our South Africa
Fine nations of Latin America
Thousands more in other lands

Yes, daily, right here I saw you
So, daily you inspired me anew
The journey was undiluted  fun
Oh, it's fun under the poetry sun

Though I cannot see your face
For a year you graced my space
Thanks to you my dream is true
Adieu, I give these poems to you
C.U.
June 9, 2012

Show Your Love

Your queen, your heart, your finest thing

Your waking dream, your sparkling spring

Whenever she pains from a broken wing

Renew your vows, show you are her king

Your king, your rock, your reign of power

Always in your eyes your man of the hour

Whenever from battle he returns for rest

Be a gentle queen, hold him to your chest

Don't Give The Poor Your Trash

The solid, the secure, and the strong
Can lift the weak and right their wrong
Sympathy, prayer, and platitudes drift
To poor folks they are worthless gifts

When I fall down and my teeth I gnash
Who runs to me praying gives me trash
I need your hand, or dip into your stash
Give me no trash if you keep your cash

Rich and Poor are both a bore

Poor folks went shopping at the store

But not to purchase but just to explore

These folks were poor and I mean poor

Rich folks at the store stared even more

They found the rich too good to adore

Why won’t they drop cash on the floor

The rich found them too fun to ignore

Myself, I yawned and started to snore

The rich and the poor both such a bore

 

Can you hear her smile?

With noisy friends I went to a foreign land
With every voice sealed with a magic wand
All manners of speech were strictly banned
By smiles alone ladies formed a vocal band

Quiet ladies can speak volumes with a smile
Most cheerful tongue of every land and Isle
Since then when I journey around the world
My ears hear smiles more than spoken word

She Will Trap Your Heart

The womanizer was thrilled on by the chase

Garbed in style, his priority he did misplace
Chase was the only goal of the show shaman
A chaser aptly nicknamed a sports fisherman

Then that fourteenth day of the second month

When even secret lovers pull down their front
A day his victims had vowed he’d be so sorry
Sorry as his heart melted upon a girl’s sorcery

Dark Chocolate Is My Only Drug

You, my chocolate of picturesque mystique

Of the Sahara, Kilimanjaro, of Mozambique

Of East, of West, South and North of Afrik

You, my medicinal soothers, of you I speak

You, noon nectars of burnished extraction

I summon you daily, not to a heroic action  

You, the drugs that sustain my high elation

Come, invocation of you is my medication

The Vicar's Neon Knickers

Fit neon stickers on the knickers of a vicar
Will his wife be quicker to bicker or snicker
And if the vicar visits kids and light flickers
Do the kids kick and snicker at his knickers

If the vicar goes to a game of cherry pickers
Do the pickers kick him like football kickers
If the House elects him neon House Speaker
Neon knickers will expose the vicar-poli-ticker

My love in June

My love, we are in the month of June
You, too, are here crooning me a tune
Don’t stop, oh love, I love your croon
Eyes-pleasing flowers all over strewn

Your romantic show pleases my eyes
Bright love, such sight you maximize
The sight with which I now commune
You, my love, are my month of June

Haste for a Mate Makes Waste

Happy lives work better in pairs
A guiding light for all your affairs
So secured men who float on air
Do pair with ladies of fitting flair
                          
But that wisdom of living in twos
Has ruined the lives of not a few
And that results from hasty calls
When pairs don’t fit a couple falls

Larry, the two-time loser

His girl friend paid a crooked judge
To jail his new wife due to a grudge
She was found guilty and sent to jail
That forced his life into a living hell

His wife appealed to a higher court
A new judge gave her new comfort
But insisted she pay him in romance
His wife and judge eloped to France

Re-align Her Upper Class Mind

An evening under a sky of low stratus

One decent gentleman of lowly status

A high class lady he wined and dined

Her thoughts on good times realigned

That old class fortress he did conquer

Oiled playing field of a preppy younker

Now no longer in class is she confined

All thoughts of class escaped her mind

Blessed are the strong

Deep trust betrayed by false display
Inflicts on minds a stressful disarray
The strong will stress but yet be tall
The weakened heart in crumbles fall

Back-stabbing betrayal lies in wait
All over the world it does not abate
Whenever it calls the choice is yours
The strong it fears, the weak it gores

The Cure For Lonely Travelers

When you woke up along that road
The road all lonely hearts once rode
You should have ran right backward
Backward from a road of no reward

When I did catch you along that lane
All but restrained by lonesome chains
Did we traveling souls not find a cure
Two will cure loneliness forevermore

She is beautiful in grey

One femme fatale’s alluring self
Was gone and left on dusty shelf
So she embarked on endless task
For the fountain of youth to unmask

For eleven years and seven weeks
She lived in tribes of Indian creeks
The enchantress now is here today
Still old but more beautiful in grey

The real way to a man's heart

It is nice she fries and cooks to his taste
Men always felt good from what they ate
But if her conduct doesn’t communicate
That will in his heart cast a sour distaste

Men communicate by eyes and conduct
Reasoning plus logic thoroughly deduct
That words and chatter of noise it is not
Not food, but conduct, that gets him hot

Sarafina to Jerusalem and Medina

In our humble makeshift prayer hut at the marina

Our hearts regale in the lyrical magic of Sarafina

Chilling evocation of contrasts in a vacation arena

Like rioting and praying in Jerusalem and Medina

The wind outside riots with the odor of dead fish

The calm inside fellowships with our pacific wish

In that makeshift prayer hut are the lyrics we give

To Medina and Jerusalem where the contrasts live

The Temptress

A she who knows the power of dress

A sly temptress in clothes that impress

She shines her lips to attract her prey

And whispers things no man would say

You might all complain about her type

And forever showcase your critic gripe

She can’t be bothered by griping clans

Her dress will impress her smitten fans

The Gift

That wait indeed was worth my while
Though scared I was you would beguile
But when your package arrived in style
To my hungry face you brought a smile

You have sent me just the thing I want
Though what I need you wouldn’t grant
Still my hand shall write for you to toast
For you a bosom friend of whom I boast

May we never lose our ways

In every tomorrow or my present day

May it never be said that I lost my way

As for all the ways that I lost yesterday

May I never again such ways ever stray

All those eternal truths we never say

May they today be said without delay

So that if our lives be audited in replay

Happily, we say our dues we did repay

You shall fear no darkness

You have a fear that’s quite severe

Seek you neither a shrink nor a sear

Darkness will always to me appear

The greatest source of human fear

Darkness infects to fearfully blight

Illuminate it through bright sunlight

If darkness, like fear, winds a mind

Through brightest sun it will unwind

Brother, poor credit is dead

Man who borrowed on credit lied
Put the cash on a brand new bride
His debt is due and the bride is due
Debt and bride are stress times two

He’s here again still full of his craps
Right in my hands is his credit apps
Forgive me deadbeat but this is harsh
Poor Credit is dead, survived by Cash

Peace

Lose that rancor, do not squawk

See all the strangers as they gawk

Release all anger from your walk

Let’s reason now, come let us talk

Come back sister to your brother

Your angry rancor, take no further

Strangers gawk and watch us fight

Let go of rancor, embrace sunlight

Teach the kid by your action

That child is so bad he sets wild fires
Sadly in him never a good transpires
Be resolute you the adult he admires
Mold him into a kid your act inspires

But teach the kid by action not word
You spoil the kid if you spare the rod
Words-only adult teaches abstraction
Kids learn by practice, instill by action

The Evil Prisoner

Man snared in life-ending transgression

Got liberated by his fakery of contrition

Re-snared in a web of punitive law code

And finally chained and in prison stowed

In shackles, dejected, near his life’s end

Discovers true contrition his only friend

Would give his right hand for liberation

Now pleads for the hangman's execution

Dreams at the Seashore

In wavy quiet of the seashore
Where we rested often before
We sat in calm of downstream
To reminisce and to daydream

As the golden sunset gleamed
In fantastic colors we dreamed
Our hearts forever joyfully see
That sea of dreams and fantasy

The Injured Ego

If a large ego suffers puncture
Such act does its owner injure
But though it loses air inflation
Surely, that loss enriches none

None can steal another’s charm
So if we other person ego harm
We steal a thing we cannot keep
We are ourselves on an ego trip

Align Your Own Stars

Emancipation day when stars align
To save you from all that do malign
You waited years but it never came
So now you seek someone to blame

You seek alignment you’ll be misled
Emancipation day lives in your head
The stars' alignment you must create
Align your stars and create your fate

Cyber Pals I Never See

If you and I never ever meet
Or pen words more discreet
This our thing will still be fun
For a cyber pal is never gone

It’s just as well we never see
If we meet, the fun may flee
Cyber pals don’t need a face
That’s the fun of cyber space

She loves to break and mend

Break and mend was her trend
Her secret plan to rope a friend
She gently feigns a broken end
And offers peace for it to mend

She used that old trick long ago
False magic mastered like a pro
You’ll love it if you comprehend
The joy of false break and mend

Sweet and Sour Soldier Girl

A happy lady lost a daughter
Today she cries, heart aflutter
She was soft like sweet butter
But now her lips sadly mutter

You see, her soft daughter ran
And joined the army like a man
No longer sweet like butter now
For soldiers all softness disavow

Nice Guys Finish Last

Be bold, go on, grab some cake
Before another steals your stake
Hide your share in a golden case
This world is not a humble place

If in your eyes my word is wrong
Join those humble lines too long
Then this wisdom you’ll embrace
That nice guys finish last in a race

Brother's Big Girl Syndrome

Big brother did one big girl catch
Left his crib and turned the latch
He was gone in month of March
His buddy did his woman snatch

He’s never found another match
No big girls with whom to attach
Big brother vowed today to fight
To fight to set his syndrome right

Crooked Clergy

Frocked men deficient in honesty
Abuse my ears preaching chastity
Few mired in religious dishonesty
Are making fake clamor for purity

Leave all judgment for the litigious
But rebuke the irreligiously religious
Rebuke often cures false sensibilities
And cleans the air of moral disabilities

Young Days of Innocent Love

Nightfall has now again been forced on us

Hand in hand we stroll along just because

Just because I love to walk you safely home

Safely home to your father and your mum

In your sleep do remember to dream of me

Don’t forget the one that loves you I am he

I’m he who walks you home in your dreams

May early morning set our tiny love agleam

Write me a poem

Count your syllables twice
Each word is worth a price
For words that sound alike
The price will spike a hike

Though you count syllables
Rhyme the words when able
Get ready, straight and write
Such poems do hearts ignite

Thanks to those who cheer me on

To you who urged this poem affair
You lit the flare
To those who daily read me here
You give me cheer
To writer friends who did me dare
I am almost there
You that smile in I-don’t-know-where
I feel you near
And you who find some poems unfair
Forgive me dear

Thanksgiving turkey

A lazy turkey was such a fool 
Never been to a turkey school
Flew and crashed badly down
Right into a thanksgiving town

A cooking witch ran with glee
Caught the turkey by the knee
She fried the turkey at a school
A fowl-frying school in Istanbul

She Loves Two Types of Men

A certain type whose head is bowed
While he fellowships among a crowd
He is alone though in public spheres
This type does well without his peers

And then the type who lives in noise
He loves to shout and raise his voice
This type loves crowds and rowdiness
He fears nothing more than loneliness

Month of May Love Affair

May I please now to you relay
The affairs in my heart today
Indulge me tell without delay
I’m gladly in the month of May

You may, I may, but never say
The month of May is never fair
For May always takes you there
By there I mean your love affair

This side of paradise

If you already enjoy a slice
Of earth’s abundant spice
You’re one among the wise
On earth’s side of paradise

Our paradise on earth is nice
Let us stop telling fabled lies
No one ever lives here twice
Let all a paradise here devise

Drums, torment me not

You beat your drums with fanfare
Their stirring beating quite unfair
Unfair to those who cannot dance
We're condemned to look askance

I hear the beat of war drums of old
I’m heart-broken and uncontrolled
But I will dance to the beats for me
If drums will my shackled feet free

To threaten or to reason

Let go of the voice of threats

Which only weak minds baits

Make your vow good this once

That threats you will renounce

Our training in civilized reason

Safeguards from walls of prison

You’re given a luxury of choice

Denounce that threatening voice

Tree, do not cry for me

Be gone, oh despondent tree  
Uproot thy self and let me be
Away, eternally weeping willow
Those tears do soil my pillow

Turn and swing in the breeze
No more crying on your knees
Let it go, crying willow, please
And let the crying finally cease

Great-Grandpa's Spooky House

Startled by the rusted ticking clocks

All hidden in a creaky wooden box

Seven clocks, in unison, chimed six

Dead Grandpa’s full grave of tricks

The old grave in grandpa’s drawers

Gripping myth of ancient explorers

A treasure land of potent witchcraft

I feel like heir to stranded spacecraft

Beware of the hungry fox

The tired owl arrived at dusk

Broken wings soaked in musk

The hungry fox rose at dawn

I hate to say that owl is done

O yes, the owl has passed on

Let go of pain for owl is gone

That foxes kill no longer shocks

To stay alive you will kill the fox

The devil and his friends

Those who live and yearn
To steal what others earn
Don't you know it is a flaw
You are held in devil’s paw

When you steal again today
Take the devil along the way
You’ll be glad among his kind
For you and he are entwined

Unbelievable: Sonya loves Igor

Igor Vasilevich, a school friend of yore
An honorable gentleman from Moscow
He admired a girl in our class long ago
But he feared that snob like an old foe

I saw the girl, the fine Sonya Ivanovna
At a class reunion with a driven opener
Same girl Igor desired with infatuation  
Is now his wife with a mutual affection

Singing the praises of my roots

All songs of mine always praise
Tropical heat where I was raised
Big trees sheltered from the heat
Variety of grubs and fruits to eat

Whenever I have a day of crazies
I balm my pain with tropic praises
My tongue shall praise until I die
A solid bond only death will untie

Brother, lend me some money

Brother, I urge you for my sake
Be my hero and give me a break
My goodwill is surely credit true
When I grow up I will be like you

I have not come with misty eyes
But I’ve finally eaten a humble pie
I wish to cash this goodwill check
Enough to avert imminent wreck

A cuckoo and his nest

Aware her man was cuckoo
She fibbed he caught the flu
Cuckoo or flu is all the same
All sickness still by any name

But then he truly caught the flu
An overdose of sickness too
That cuckoo has a nest true
Faux nest from which he flew

A mouse of a spouse

Mad woman chased a rodent
For a reason not quite cogent
She thought it was her spouse
But poor rodent was a mouse

This went on all for ninety days
The rodent scared by the chase
Went doctor finally to her house
She said the doctor was a mouse

The Awakening

This fine morning she has risen
Radiant spirit has finally woken
She was engaged but not taken
Bruised a lot and almost broken

Her words frozen and unspoken
Drinks stirred and never shaken
See her melodious songs awaken
Clap for her the yokes are broken

Impossible Tweets

I thought it was impossible feat
For one to try to outrun his feet
Whose feet would he use to run
On whose feet lean if he’s done

A woman I know did try it once
To outrun her feet like a dunce
Ran upside down on her tweets
And tripped and fell on her feet

A shaman and a voodoo priest

A shaman’s story had a twist
So did a stupid voodoo priest  
The story was that I’ll be rich
But then I went to see a witch

That silly witch did for a tryst
Turn me into a voodoo priest
I am not rich and that is clear
I made the shaman disappear

Greed and Trust

At the intersection of trust and greed
Where you met a good friend indeed
You ran from trust with reckless speed
Got hooked on greed like potent weed

On greedy roads roam disciples of lies
They infest the weak like fleas and flies
Meet all good friends on lane that’s just
It's smooth and calm on the road of trust

Fantasy or Reality

If you dream of a magic coat
And on air you seem to float
Whatever else the reason why
Never wake and attempt to fly

But if you dream of sunny days
And of basking in warming rays
You dream in spheres of reality
Though not as sweet as fantasy

She cried for his pain

Today one stranger on the train
Coughing loudly and full of pain
Every time we heard him sneeze
Passengers would quickly freeze

He rose and bent like he was old
To cough then to spread his cold
His woman friend was mortified
She said his name then she cried

Good people should live forever

The folks who get the call
And choose to serve us all
I wish someone knew why
That like everyone they die

If we but knew the whys
A good man yet still dies
No longer would this life
Be full of doubts and strife

Less sugar please

When you are really sugary bad
For days it makes me feel so sad
I don’t like that your sugary card
Reduce the sugar and I’ll be glad

They say that sugar is bad for me
So please don’t kill me ma Cherie
Is it my heart you wish to enchant?
Your sweetest honey is all I want

The Unruly Teacher

Because he used the word “ruly”
He went to jail for being unruly
No word like “ruly” existed truly
But jailing him was quite unduly

To make his jail time even richer
He spent it as an English teacher
He started teaching words filthy
He got more time as filthy guilty

The pauper and the sadist

The Pauper of Poor Street
Was noble but low in spirit
The wicked and evil sadist
Gave Pauper a broken wrist

Sadist stuck in a broken car
Called on Pauper from afar
Pauper laughed loudly sweet
Now a Pauper of Sadist Street

A star was born today

A star was born on April eighth
To a couple full of love and faith
That star is here today with joy
To help this starry poem deploy

We celebrate that shooting star
Food, Champaign, and fine cigar
A birthday filled with life stories
Long live the beautiful memories

The gift of parenthood

That father raised you well is true
Mother’s part quite splendid too
Made the rules that molded you
To shape in you themselves anew

In happy times and times of blues
In you they left life’s perfect rules
So raise your kids with moral clues
For that is how you pay your dues

The stranger we loved to hate

Once a scary haggard stranger
Fuming with fiery, sordid anger
All words dripping in fluent glib
Upset the sanctuary of our crib

She seized our air and comfort
Exchanged for pain thenceforth
But on the third day of that hell   
We were sad as she bid farewell

Fear is Dead

Rise today with strength of steel
Vow to no longer spin the wheel
Announce to us that fear is dead
Fear is dead and a new you made

As strength of steel you achieve
Lofty dreams you will conceive
In a grave of steel now bury fear
And dreams once far will be near

Never Neglect Your Mind

Neglected, lethargic, or forgotten 
A mind shrivels and smells rotten
Emitting toxic odors of stagnation
Then suffocates from degradation

Resurrect a dying mind with haste
Neglected, the mind de-oxygenates
Sharpen your mind by any means
A well-sharpened mind always wins
 

The Asian in every Caucasian

Lover girl desired only an Asian
Went to Caucasia with a ruffian
Met a Russian
Loved his action
Now she sees an Asian in every Caucasian

Today I say thanks to me

To the inner me with an attitude

I offer my unvarnished gratitude

Me and myself one and the same

Strong, yet to myself solidly tame

No one does care for me like me

Yet never did I say thanks to me

Today, to this inner friend in me

A hearty, unqualified, thank me

Beautiful April

April is here today with showers
Showers to inspire May flowers
Flowers of summer rekindle lives
And that will start as June arrives

Every glittery raindrop like a pearl
Life’s shiny necklace around April
A hawker of drought labors in vain
April has come with life-giving rain

I will not pay my bills

Now is the time that I have made
To ensure my bills remain unpaid
I’ve made this time to scoff at bills
Stressful guests that give no thrills

Today is the day that I have vowed
To be a deadbeat and yet be proud
I wish these bills had died and gone
I would shed fake tears as I mourn

Images of the Neighborhoods

The image from where I stood
Roundly summed up the hoods
Brothers chatting up the ladies
Cops rounding up some crazies

Set my eyes on the lookout ones
One second my wallet was gone
I saw them escape to the woods
Still I miss the days in the hoods

Make me a tyrant for a day

If I were a tyrant free to rant
I would rant like a soldier ant
Rant for the dead to go away
Clean our lands without delay

I would be a tyrant for today
A chanting tyrant on display
Gag dead men of yesterday
And rid my country of decay

What happened to Sue ?

May I recite this poem to you
Of a girl whose name was Sue
If you laughed, Sue would sue
If you frowned, Sue would sue

This Sue one day trouble brew
Sued the town where she grew
An angry town did counter-sue
Now no one has seen our Sue

Who put the water in my coconut

Crunchy fibrous coconut
We ate it in a humble hut
Sometimes milky coconut
Drank the water quite a lot

Puzzled how the liquid got
Inside coconut we bought
I put the query to my aunt
She said “ask question not”

Aunt who didn’t know a lot
Gave my query an uppercut
She told me off on the spot
"It wasn't me so ask me not"

Is a flea always a pest

If a flea flies in the forest
And no pet does it infest
Is it sure, surer, or surest
That it is still an ugly pest

But if the flea we so detest
Is on its own private quest
It robs not our mind of rest
Discard this prejudicial test

Gangsters Gone

Gangster wars left hundreds dead
The peaceful ones have finally fled
This town paralyzed in captive vice
Has finally placed her wound on ice

We grew up down the broken shed
Where gangsters our friends misled
Some gangs are dead and some fled
A sad steep price the town has paid

Mr. Sorrow is Dead

Mr. Sorrow is stone-cold dead
No one’s tears should be shed
His mother had him badly bred
Let us dance for Sorrow is dead

Never shall we Sorrow eulogize
We will never cry nor apologize
We give him back what he gave
We will dance on Sorrow’s grave

Happy Days Are Here Again

Vibrant flashy lofty day
I am alive in every way
Happy days arrive again
Marching on a joyful lane

Silver, gold, I have none
But I've now a lot of fun
I’m alive and not in pain
A long life will be my gain

Reverse Empty-Nest Syndrome

New college kid prepared to leave

His parents then started to grieve

A syndrome borne of empty nest

Psychology course explains it best

Kid graduated returns back home

Now parents’ private superdome

The parents grieved a second time

They called the kid a jobless slime

The herd mentality

A herd of cattle was a sight
Filled our eyes with delight
One line of a hundred cattle
Marching like folks to battle

Now I often sit and wonder
Why big cows so surrender
They see the butcher knife
Not a cow ever runs for life

To marry or not to marry

Some married folks disdain
Those in single life domain
Some single folks disparage
The lives of folks in marriage

But life has different strokes
One stroke never fits all folks
Dance alone or dance in pairs
Just don’t you lose your ways

Home, Sweet, Home

The place that cools our tired feet
On our return from heated street
The place in months of wintry cold
Warms our hearts a thousand fold

A house is only some empty space
But homes hold us in warm embrace
A home is a place of peaceful grace
That is our home - a soothing place

Your Voice and my Shelter

If I seek the comfort of your voice
Validate the wisdom of my choice
Beam me up in a voice that’s calm
Transform me with a tone of balm

If you desire solace at my shelter
I will save you from helter-skelter
If I shelter you from bad weather
Your voice will comfort me better

Chinese Keys in Belize

I am back now from Belize
I really enjoyed the breeze
I found some bunch of keys
Under some Belizean trees

These keys are all Chinese
They don’t unlock the seas
They don’t my joy increase
Just some souvenir to tease

Sweeter love on rebound

Stumbling down on rebound
Sugar-sweetened love found
Sweeter second time around
Merry-making now profound

If you see her in the morning
She’s alive no more frowning
Even stunning in the evening
Sweeter love of new meaning

Maria, the Spanish Mermaid

Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
A place she escaped the matador
Jumped she in the Caribbean Sea
To join marine species wildly free

So escaped Senorita Maria Lopez
From the matador’s bullish craze
Now Maria is one fabled mermaid
I say Maria is my story man-made

The Queen of Street Rap

Near thirty-seven hundred block
She rapped where the ships dock
Held us captive around the clock
With fancy words that really rock

Lyrical sugar arrestingly creative
Offered in rhymed lofty narrative
Calmly rhyming just in every class
Rap queen for you I raise my glass

Celebrate Success

We will stand in front of guests
Dressed up to celebrate success
I will announce in a long address
I have found the one to impress

The one I impress will be the one
Holding my hands until I’m done
Then I softly whisper in your ears
I vow to hold your hand for years

The illusory wings of our desire

Man wishes he were a bird
With flying wings conferred
But while you dream or wish
Sky birds wish they were fish

Man wishes to fly on a whim
But birds envy fish that swim
Neighbor’s grass if misapplied
Looks greener on illusion side

Beware of the souls of prey

In a book about folks of yesterday

I read they held some souls at bay

And many weak thinkers led astray

Into pits of evil good men did sway

Now I’m reading a book for today

One that makes many tempers flay

It is a book about the souls of prey

Same folks of yesterday here today