From Dee Dee Peel:

"You whore"

The flowers you

gave me

Were not really pretty.

They were not

really anything.

They were plastic.

"Roses"

No one sends

roses with no stems.

Long stems are nice.

Short stems even

are some thing.

No stems? Come on.

"Alex doesn't"

One thing I have

but that you don't have

and this poem doesn't have

It makes me bleed

It should make you cry

Cause we're still not having a baby

No matter what you want

From Lauren Christina Talcott:

"This first one is a tribute to my roommate after I picked him up from the oral surgeon. I threatened to drop him off on the street corner to lunge at pedestrians like he was going to bite them. When he laughed, he drooled even more blood.

"The second one is a Talcott family classic. It's based on the time we were cat-sitting for our vacationing neighbors, and our elderly charge died. We decided to preserve the body the only way we could think of. This would have been the greeting card for the mourners, if we were heartless. The third one is a love poem to cleanse the palate."

"Poem #1"

He looked like a cannibal,

man-eating animal.

Pink drool was sliming his chin

His mouth a blood spout

With his wisdom teeth out;

Not likely they'd put them back in

"Poem #2

You're back from the beach!

You drove over the bridge!

You say, "Where is kitty?"

Go look in the fridge!

"Poem #3"

Love is like the ocean,

waves of contentment washing over you.

The sun may burn down,

Yet nothing matters but the deep blue sea.

From Kim Bosch:

"A Haiku to Celebrate America's (belated) Birthday: From a Disgruntled Canadian Poet

"America" has

too many syllables in

it to be THAT great.

And finally, as a special treat, the one and only Johan More! From Johan More (the one and only):

The Lady Who Liked Chinese Vagina

Sad to remember, sick with years,

The swift innumerable spears,

The horsemen with their floating hair,

And bowls of barley, honey, and wine,

Those merry couples dancing in tune,

And the white body that lay by mine;

But the tale, though words be lighter than air.

Must live to be old like the wandering moon.

Boorish Old Bunny with the Beehive Hairdo Makes A Doodie

We are alone for ever, and I laugh,

because you cannot put me from you.

The mist has covered the heavens, and you and I

Shall be alone for ever. We two - this crown -

I half remember. It has been in my dreams.

Bend lower, O king, that I may crown you with it.

O flower of the branch, 0 bird among the leaves,

O silver fish that my two hands have taken

Out of the running stream, O morning star

Trembling in the blue heavens like a white fawn

Upon the misty border of the wood,

Bend lower, that I may cover you with my hair,

For we will gaze upon this world no longer.

French Ticklin' On The Dusty Negro Highway

It is the woman in us

That makes us write--

Let us acknowledge it-- Men would be silent. We are not men

Therefore we can speak And be conscious (of the two sides)

Unbent by the sensual As befits accuracy. I then said: Dare you make this

Your propaganda? And he answered: Am I not I--here?