Growl

Like a dog who's been kicked too many times
He leads with his growl
Teeth bared
All aggression and anger
He's come to expect pain
so he strikes first
Dares anyone to come too close
It usually works
No one approaches
Fear begets fear
If only someone would try
to see past the savage snarling
and reach out a hand
Slowly, gently
Pat his tormented head
He might just roll over
for a tummy rub.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Susan Says, Stretching Comparisons

Beebo, The Angry Clown

Photo by Huub Keulers

Beebo was an angry clown

Life had not been kind to Beebo-

His father was an alcoholic

His mother, neglectful

Neither of them showed the slightest parental pride when

Beebo was named “Class Clown.”

“Sophie Bloom’s daughter was valedictorian,” his mother carped

His father complained, “Don Reynold’s kid at least got ‘Hardest Worker.’

What do we get? Class Clown.”

“We’re not laughing,” they said.

 They just didn’t recognize Beebo’s talent

Or see his potential.

Nonetheless, Beebo enrolled in clown college

He passed face painting with flying colors

And juggled like gravity didn’t exist

But ballooning was a disaster!

Beebo could not manipulate those damn balloons-

He felt like a gorilla trying to sculpt the David.

 

At a 5 year-old‘s party

Beebo constructed 2-legged dogs that made the children weep

And presented the birthday girl with a balloon tiara

Topped with what resembled an erect phallus

He was promptly expelled from clown college.

Beebo again felt misunderstood and rejected

He was without diploma, without job, without money

He was an angry clown.

There is nothing scarier than an angry clown

Except possibly an angry clown with a gun

This was the position in which Beebo found himself

As he strode into the First Community Bank

With a gun, a red nose, and oversized shoes.

He pointed his gun at a young teller

Who immediately burst into raucous laughter

Beebo became even angrier

He aimed the gun just above the teller’s head

To fire a warning shot

It was more like a warning ‘pop’

As a small white flag flapped from the gun’s muzzle

With the word ‘BANG’ written upon it.

The entire bank was in an hilarious uproar now

Beebo didn’t know whether to feel honored or humiliated

He chose honored

Beebo gave a contrived clumsy bow

And left the bank as the people applauded

Beebo was still a misunderstood

Unemployed

Broke

Clown

But not quite as angry.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Bring In the Clowns

Jade and the Silent Boy

source

Jade had gorgeous eyes

You might think that her eyes were green--

You would be wrong

Jade’s eyes were brown

Dark as French roast coffee

and just as intense

That girl could hypnotize

with just one glance of those eyes

She once made the local librarian burst into song

while in line at the grocery

and the sanctimonious pastor fall ass over teakettle in love

with a tree squirrel

Just for kicks

Don’t fool yourself;

If she had looked your way

You would have fallen too.

Jade knew exactly what she wanted

Two things:

to escape her backasswards small town suffocation

and she wanted the silent boy with the motorcycle

The silent boy got his name some years ago

After a day of speaking ugly about neighbors and kin

His mama told him, “If you don’t have anything nice to say,

don’t say anything at all.”

The boy never said another word.

The silent boy was an immovable object

Jade was an irresistible force

It’s been said

that when an irresistible force meets an unmovable object

Some folks find magic

Some find madness

and some find God

Jade and the silent boy found each other

They locked eyes just briefly

Quicker than a ladybug’s sneeze

but it was enough

The silent boy said

“You have gorgeous eyes.”

Jade smiled, blushed, and looked away

Down at his leather boots

Then Jade and the silent boy

Climbed onto his motorcycle

and raced up the highway out of town.

They never looked back.

submitted for Poets United, Verse First, Women

Song of Oshun

Yasmin Hernandez, Yamaya y Ochun, 2003

Daughter of the Waters

Cerulean goddess

Your beauty shimmers

Chandelier crystals windowpane refracted

All the colors of life

Beneath your surface

Shine fairy wands

Flamboyant, joyful

Phosphorescent

A galaxy of playful stars

Fallen from the sky

To scamper among the fishes

Moon crochets a blanket

Of swells upon the wet

As you inscribe love poems

In the sand.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Artistic Interpretations with Margaret, Chelsea Bednar's artwork

and d'Verse Poets Pub, Open Link Tuesday (too late for Poetics, Interactions!) 

*this poem was written from a list of words provided by my daughter:

chandelier, fairy, scamper, shimmer, inscribe, flamboyant, cerulean, playful, windowpane, crochet (thanks so much for the inspirational words, Allison!)