Short Pieces--Part 5

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What if

I told you that I threw your sneakers

(yellow, size ten, with neon green laces and a mud stain on the left heel)

In the back alley

Because I didn’t want to call you

And tell you they were still here?

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They assume

Too much

About my life

From the words I string together

And call poetry

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Patience

Is not a virtue

But survival

Short Pieces--Revisions

Revisions

Choices

Mud or ice

Clings or cuts

Drags or does not yield

Guitar

Taut strings fight

The caution of my soft fingers

Stinging

Snapping

Biting

Felling

Rushing

Cracking

Crashing

And the dull thud

As the trunk falls

Sonnet

Velociraptor Sonnet

I pray, my gentle reader, heed this word

Of caution, and then call forever law

This precept: Never be allured

By sparkling white velociraptor jaws.

The shining teeth, with sharp and shapely points,

Arranged in rows along the charming grin,

It snaps with mannerisms stately, coy,

Or filled with charity, quite mild and prim.

Beware the lizard! Do not trust its smile

Nor venture to befriend it though it seems

Beneficent, magnanimous, benign.

I caution you, it only wants a feast.

For if you think velociraptors kind,

Your education will bring your demise.