Excerpt for Better Verse by Steven Bennett, available in its entirety at Smashwords

BETTER VERSE

by

Steven D. Bennett


Smashwords Edition


Copyright © 2010 by Steven D. Bennett

Published by DeadLife Books

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Also check out "Trace the Dead Eye"

and "Humor of the Gospels" on Amazon.com

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First Cup


liquid Taser®

eye-lid raiser

ticker flicker

heart-start kicker

morning mover

sandman Hoover®

brain-wave starter

dream departer

carpool buddy

muddy study

day get-goer

bloodstream flow-er

sunshine dripper

z-z-zipper

bladder padder

heartbeat adder

spirit booster

roasted rooster

life injector

resurrector

caffeine mother

need another!


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Little Lifetimes


Every morning we're born

and every evening we die

for each day is but a microcosm

of our lives


Those little lifetimes lived

repeatedly

remind us of the blessing

and its brevity


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Y-ophobia


I...

cannot work on days which end in ‘y’

regretfully that means Today

as, sadly, it did Yesterday

Mon. thru Sun. all cross that line

so, powerless, I must decline

and, of course, each Holiday

finds me at home, or out at play


It may be a Y-ophobic reaction

which leads me to this work inaction

or, better explained, as a mental paralysis

needing a deep-seated psychoanalysis

maybe a childhood Freudian fear

of a frayed yellow yardstick swung at my rear


But with lots of therapy and lots of rest

(and lots of disability checks)

one day I’ll find why I deny

to work those days which end in Y

until that time I’ll hide my sorrow

and hope I never see Tomorrow


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Bring Back Planet Pluto


Bring back Planet Pluto

a place where, granted, few go

hanging in the icy cold

where no man's gone who isn’t bold


Bring back Planet Pluto, please

reclassified, by small degrees

so sad to see it take a great fall

forever stuck behind the 8 ball


Bring back Planet Pluto, please

a place that’s too cold for disease

not worthy, now, to be a planet

too long we took this jewel for granite


Bring back Planet Pluto

and quit messing with what I know

to your “science” I call ‘a pox’

now keep your hands off of my rocks


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God Is On The Battlefield


God is on the battlefield

a paintbrush in his hand

meadows turn to graveyards

as he modifies the land


Guiding every bullet

that criss-cross the bleeding skies

and the blast that tears the heart apart

is where his mercy lies


God is in each mortar round

and in each anguished cry

for he’s there to guide the living

and the dying as they lie


Moving every army’s piece

Yet never taking sides

for the plan he’s implementing

is where loyalty resides


Border lines will be erased

While cultures are removed

but the chaos comes with planning

in this luciferous Louvre


A masterpiece of ministry

that flows from high above

where dismantling of futures

is the highest form of love


Then the peacefulness of endings

when the paint has seeped and dried

becomes the palette of creation

as the weeping mother cries


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