The following poems were unable to find anything to sponsor in this issue of Between Kisses. These poor, lonely orphans are hoping for a reading. You can help. Just 45 seconds per poem, and you can bring joy and meaning to these verses. Won't you help? Just three quarters of a minute. Four poems. Three minutes tops.
The Orphaned Poems Coalition also asks that you consider these poems when voting for your favorites--a request that the poets here second.
The Da Vinci Cold
by William Meyer
Mona Lisa was
about to sneeze--the painter
had her swallow, smile
Edge
by Rick Sears
what of this day?
. . . will the dance
of humanity
shuffle a
last step,
then collapse
in a heap at
the edge of reality?
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Rick Sears is an Iowa native who has been writing poems and short stories since 1976. His work has been published in the United States and Wales. So there!
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"Edge" was first published in Lyrical Iowa 2003, a contest anthology sponsored by the Iowa Poetry Association.
The End of the Reign of Good Manners
by John Grey
Forget cutlery,
my guests eat with their fingers.
And burps are not secrets
between man and intestine
but disgusting noises
to be loudly shared.
Juice dripping down chins,
no one bothers with napkins.
And grunts and growls
eschew polite conversation.
Only the meal itself
follows the rules of good etiquette.
Sure he came uninvited
but that wasn't his doing.
And he didn't complain
of that blow to the head.
Nor speak ill of others
when there's some here he could.
He doesn't lean over
unless someone takes a rib,
And he washed his hands before dinner
or, at least, the rain did.
The Unknown Golden Dog
by William R. Ford Jr.
Silver, satin thought
of the madness of the Golden Dog
laying astride the eternal gate
I've seen him in my dreams of late
he dries and writhes
and bemoans his fate
There the madness of the Golden Dog
there the sadness of the infinite wait
Insane and gibbering, and without mate
Forever by the eternal gate