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Tag: Poems

Poem: Improvisation on an Earlobe

Posted on December 31, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Of all the useless appendages,your earlobe is the loveliest.I’ve never nibbled on your tonsilsand know nothing of appendices.I whisper and it stirsthe white down that grows there.Like the soft sand of Normandy,it’s the beachhead of my advance.I order my words, and offthey go, over the top,to take the cochlea,the stirrup and anvil! With precisionand discipline,…

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Poem: Prudence

Posted on December 1, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

better to not play catch on the roofbetter to not get your fingers caught in a snow blowerbetter to not get struck by lightening on a golf coursebetter to not fall onto subway tracks during rush hourbetter to not eat sliced ham from the leftoversbetter to not use condoms that have sat too long in…

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Poem: There is no sky

Posted on November 1, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

You are the great what if of my life.I shared my hundred million possibilitiesbut none took hold. Not a single one!There remains only the dribble on the sheetsand the presumption of another time. Like arthritic lovers, you and I,we perform our coupling,seeking pleasure less than fleeing pain,melting in light less than groaning in shade,rolling back…

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Shock and Awe

Posted on March 18, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

we the implicatedwe the intricatedwe the strand andbolt of fabricwoven tight likemother’s love andscreaming child we the wound andtightly boundembrace of love withlegs wrapped roundstab of hate frombrutal poundboth can occupy asingle space we the medianthe mean and limit casewe the x ofour equationnever puzzled tosolutionpoised across theequals sign isyou and you and you andso…

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Poem: Unmoved

Posted on February 25, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

The ceiling fan above doesn’t turn.It waits on a switch that never trips.The snow outside sits cold and white.It waits on a sun that never shines.The world is a head with empty socketsspinning itself into nothing and nothingstirs me as I lie on my bed and see howthe ceiling fan above doesn’t turn. The laminated…

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Poem: The Colour-Dappled Lie

Posted on February 6, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Do you wonder what I donow I’m gone away from you?Do you imagine how I livewith the freedom that you give?Do you stand alone and gazeat the brightly whorled hazefrom my spackled palette knifethat paints a lustrous life?Or do you look with clearer eyepast the colour-dappled lieto the worn concrete greysof my empty days?Or do…

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Poem: Do Not Speak

Posted on February 2, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Do not speakI cannot listenDo not beckonI cannot watchDo not summonI cannot answerDo not railI cannot wince I want only tocurl myself on the floorand feel my ribspressed to the tiles.I wish I had their hardness.I wish I was ceramic.

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Poem: The Pike

Posted on February 2, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

The thing about a pikethat makes it doubly cruelis the way its shaft can swaywhen it’s blown by ridicule. You ram a path from grointo top of shattered peak.You start a bloody chatterbetween organs that couldn’t speak. The rage that brought us herebegan in our desire.It was you atop the poleand I who thrust you…

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Poem: Shitting Whitman

Posted on February 2, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

My standard poodle ate Walt Whitman(Leaves of Grass in ropey coils on the lawn)I stoop and wrap my fingers aroundwarm Song-Of-My-Self turds.She winces at the stanzathat she squeezes from her anus.Do I constipate myself?Very well thenI constipate myself.I am large.I contain multitudes.And I wonder if Whitmanhad to work so hardto get his words outin the…

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Poem: Columbines

Posted on January 9, 2008October 17, 2022 by David Barker

columbines betray last year’s scattering of seedby straying from the well-kept bed andspringing unruly from the lawni want to tear them out andbring order to my jealous yard maybe i should collect crystals andarrange them neatly on a shelf butthe suggestion prompts your laughterbursting through the spring air the columbines are beautiful withdowncast gaze and…

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Poem: The Seventh Commandment

Posted on November 12, 2007October 17, 2022 by David Barker

sometimes we desire what we cannot havebut unable to extinguish the desirewe fan ourselves into a roaring flame and so we rageand we flarebut consume nothing from thisgod utters forththe usual useless shit thenobedience comesnot from lovebut from its failure we draw on god’s teatlike sucklings on an ashen nub

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Writing Poetry From Spam

Posted on March 10, 2007October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Metatags are declassé. The big search engines haven”t used them for 6 yrs. now. Anybody can put “god, love, jesus” in their metatags while the img src tag points to a jpg of a dwarf in flagrante delicto with a dog.

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