I Know It Was You, Fredo!

You broke my heart, as brothers sometimes do,
and look at you, you're pathetic. A simpering,
whimpering Don Juan-a-be. Bimbos and markers,
donkey shows and Johnny Ola have taken their toll.
I had control of the five families and there
our similarities took a decided turn. If you'd only learn,
"Never take sides with anyone against the family again!"
You're nothing to me now. You're not a brother, not a friend.
If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, 
it is that you can kill anyone. Pray for the fishes,
you'll be sleeping with them now!

© JPW - 2013

dVerse Poets Pub - Poetics Italian-Style 

Poets United - Poetry Pantry #171

www.digplanet.com

Wonderful

You want to pull up stakes and make
a beeline out of dodge, but the old codger
has a score to settle; he tests your resolve
as your spirits wander. Under watchful eyes
your wish for non-existence is granted
and every man, woman and Zuzu is lesser
for it. Your brother dies, as do the guys
on his ship. You weren't there to save them.
Your mother sees another boarder,
not a son at all. You fall from her grace; losing face.
A bad Martini drives you to drink and  in the Nick of time,
a strange angel gets his wings on your dime!
You think you've wasted your life with so much to give.
This is the place to be, and the people you need to touch.
Is that asking too much of life?

© JPW - 2013

Poets United - Verse First: We Are Interconnected

Ravi Walked Away

"He had become
a purveyor of peace..."

Photo by Manuel Lao - 
500px.com

Life became the burden that he carried,
over rocky terrain, through the rainstorms,
that ravaged his land. He had been married
until they had buried his true love; in his soul
she lives still, and he has kept her so.
Ravi’s business suffered through his absence;
his existence hardly felt and it served to deal
a blow to his ambition. His heart laden with
more baggage now, ached – not just emotionally.
His children did not understand how a man
could be so devoted to others. For in his mind,
they were sisters and brothers upon his journey.
Life had sharpened its edge on the flinty surface
of Ravi’s despair, until Ravi walked away. And it was
there that he found what men through the ages
have failed to achieve. Peace. True inner peace.
When all else crumbled around him,
he became the foundation; the pillar upon which
to secure everything he had built. He held no anger,
harbored no guilt. He had been possessed by calmness
the likes of which he had never seen outside of himself.
There was no selfishness in his discovery. He had become
a purveyor of peace; an agent to foster togetherness.
And he found it alone in a happy heart.

© JPW - 2013



Margo Roby's Poem Tryouts: Photos as Metaphors

The Grand Illusion

"So if you think your life is complete confusion 

Because you never win the game

Just remember that it's a Grand illusion

And deep inside we're all the same." ~Dennis DeYoung - Styx

For better or worse, we are what we are.
We can delude ourselves that we stand above the rest,
but our chests all hold the same heart;
from our start to the end, if it continues, so do we.
It isn't easy to be something we weren't meant to,
hell bent on superiority, but we all fall in the minority -
the people left behind to struggle to find the true meaning.
Existence with resistance is not living,
it is giving us a false sense of power, and it will
devour our spirit. Not by bread or the thoughts in his head
does man live. It is in giving each other a fair shake
that we take the most from how we live. No intrusion;
no Grand Illusion. Only a "family" conjoined.
A Grand Infusion of life!

© JPW - 2013

Poetic Asides by Robert Lee Brewer - Prompt #237 Illusions