28 Short Poems

By Jack Brummet 

Stealth

You think one thing,

Say another,

And do a third.
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The host and tenant lock

In benign equilibrium.

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Each valley followed by a slope.
Every going followed by a return.                    

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There is no relief without an ache,
 And no virus without a host.                    

  _____________________

Bricks tumble into the moat.
The king's body hangs naked from the flagpole.                    

  _____________________

For a fleeting moment

The condition for change exists.                    

  _____________________

A roiling thunderstorm clears the air
Like Wyatt Earp's peacekeeper                    

 _____________________

A bad beginning can be overcome
But a good end lasts forever                    

  _____________________

When you strip away the stage flats, makeup, and costumes,

It’s all one story starring our private heroes and dreams.

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Resurrection

He was ready to live again
Even if living just meant running
To keep ahead of the ghosts.                    

  _____________________

It’s so still and calm
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.                    

 _____________________

The Marriage

Two tattered mannequins
Prop each other up
In the Salvation Army Store window                    

 _____________________ 

Gone Fishing

As the forests swamps and bones turn slowly to coal
The last pterodactyl
Soars overhead, calling for a friend.                    

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It's so quiet you hear
dust motes six feet up
bump in shafts of sunlight.                    

_____________________

Take the worst that could happen
And add two zeros.

 _____________________                  

High fidelity clouds gather over 
The tattered stage flats of a world on fire.

 _____________________                  

  

It's Getting Crowded

We cover the earth with Venn Diagrams

As our steps bisect old steps.
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The glass is not half-full

I saw our dreams disappear 
Like a white pony 
Over a low grassy hill. 
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The Golden Rule

Listen to the songbirds trill
But keep an eye
On the buzzard section.                    

 _____________________

An orchard of salt pillars
Circles Gomorrah's ashes:
Lot's Wife had no name.         

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If I don’t write it down
The words race away
Like a hit and run driver

_____________________                

Your Wooden Leg

Run if you still can.
Drag that wooden leg behind you,

But keep up, jogging after your pipe-dream.

_____________________                

Weather Report

Life is a raindrop
Sizzling as it skitters
Across the universal griddle.

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"And after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade"

The truth exists; the lie must be created. 

_____________________           

Waiting

There is no tomorrow

until we get through

the day after yesterday

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Possibilities

In your chest beats the heart of a Good Samaritan
Who never quite got off the starting blocks                    

 _____________________

Torches & Pitchforks

The whole
Is far less than the sum
Of its parts
 _____________________

                

Mission Statement

The Army has two duties—

To break things, and kill people;

Everything else is just fluff and overhead.
_____________________                    

 
Dodgeball

We weave around and through

Unseen hazards and shoals,

Always feeling less safe

Than we actually are.

_____________________            

The Odds

Simple probability and statistics
Tell us ineluctably that the more times
You stick your head In the lion's mouth,
The more likely it is that one day he will close it.

 _____________________             

The Man In The Mirror

There's a civil war in his head:
Lobe against lobe.

        ---o0o---