but I know
just as a cat flinches
when you move to pet it,
so do I.
we both no longer know the difference between
affection and attack.

Scaredy Cat
Scaredy Cat
Afraid of little me.

Scaredy Cat
Scaredy Cat
I'm insane, you better be afraid.

Trembling in my bed tonight
I cannot close my eyes
The movie on the late, late show
Says everybody dies

Now some say I'm a scaredy cat
But tonight is Halloween
What if someone kidnaps me,
And tries to eat my spleen?

I know there's no great pumpkin
Okay, maybe there is
What if he puts a spell on me,
And tries to make me his?

And I think that there's a monster
Who lives beneath my bed
I shiver and shake and stay awake
With covers over my head

There's something outside my window
And shadows on my wall
I think I hear some rattling chains
From the ghosts that's in the hall

Right then I hear this eerie voice
And feel this clammy hand
My wife says, "Hush and go to sleep,
You're supposed to be a man"

They say,
"childhood is  kingdom where nobody dies"

mine wasn't.

I was forced to grow up too fast
a 5 year old in a 30 year old's body
who couldn't take a joke
who was too sensitive
who was a scaredy cat

but they didn't know
the horrors i saw
the the terror i felt
the trauma i live

they will never know
the blood shed
the tears cried
the screams of pain

my childhood was not a dream
it was a nightmare

There was a smitten kitten, too hot to wear mittens,
whose conventions sent you over the moon.
She liked hiking tall towers,
sniffing lavender flowers
and smiling when tunes were crooned.

It is known and it's written,
many cats liked Smitten Kitten,
some still do to this day.
There were polecats, fat cats, tall cats, small cats and cats that were all work and no play.
There were fast cats, scaredy-cats and cats who only came out at night or the day.
There were even other kittens,
too hot for their mittens,
who loved when she'd come out to play.
All were fun,
had their day in the sun,
but none purred smitten kitten the right way.

It has been said and has been written that smitten kitten,
too hot for her mittens,
without pretense or condition,
had a purring penchant for cellar rats and precision in the kitchen.
In the French district downtown,
near the alleys by the Sound,
some nights she waits for one Ronin Chef,
for last time he left,
a tall and a tasty treat.
Smitten Kitten gives pause,  
relaxes her claws,
licking her paws...she wishes,
for his white wine-kissed elaborate fish dishes
and dreams of what next he will make.
Her tongue and mouth can’t wait.

Tonight it occurs,
he arrives...she purrs,
on the alley wall she curls up and takes a seat.
Endearingly peering through the window...she thinks...
"Whilst he stack his plates with mouth-watering innuendo?"
"Whilst he whip the spicy sauces and flames into a great crescendo?"
He begins...as so...
He chops and he flips sizzled serranos, hot on the lips,
and stacks seasoned seafood high on a plate.
His old radio is tuned
to a station crooning tunes,
twisting tongs and spinning spoons,
the One Ronin chef shoots for the moon.
The chef vigorously bakes and flambés,
stirs curds away,
hands so fast it's alluringly blurring.
He says not a word nor nary a chanced glance occurring.
Smitten Kitten's eyes glazed,
her mouth watering for "amaze"!
Food spins, is seared and is braised.
pots clambered!
hot buns glazed!
fruit hammered!
Sauces ablaze!
Bang, Boom!!

Alas it was done,
Her heart and appetite had been won.
And the chef began to tear the kitchen down and moved out of sight.
Suddenly she scampered and hid,
as a savory stacked plate was slid
carefully out the backdoor and out of the way.

The chef it occurs
had made it for her,
and her fur began to frazzle and fray.  
She sniffed the array of flavor,
her palette began to saveur,
the salt,
the unami,
the spicy and sweet.

It is said and is written,
from Smitten Kitten’s first bite bitten,
she remains stunned, amazed and enamored, to this day.

Humility
raining down on me
cleansing my humble soul
writing truth
speaking
painful to some
absolute freedom
soaring bird
joyous faces
perplexed
scaredy-cat
unsure
walk in that direction
liberate your mind
release vitality and vigor
protecting dreams
silly boy
or
silly girl
walk that wire
between
confidence
courage
thwarting negativity
finding your
sweet spot

It scares me that a muscular *****
and repeated rhythmic punches
are the only things keeping you
from being eaten by the ground.

It scares me there will always be
cities I will die without seeing,
always a little more
I could have done.

It scares me that you like to rock climb
and balance three fingers
from a cliff face, four hundred metres
above the ground.

It scares me that when I go to sleep,
I lose eight hours I will never get back.
Sometimes I lie awake
and ******* eyes aching.

It scares me that the world
could consist of electrical activity
raging inside my skull
and I would never know.

My feet what can I say, well they're not the bravest
little things, not small but average I think.
well I put them out the sheets and what did they
do scurry back in was it cold was it warm, who knows?

All I know is that it was pitch black darker inside than
outside because stars twinkle down little light bulbs
of above slightly lighting things gently down below.

My feet what can I say, that flat foot that wanders
wherever it goes I don't know, my body just follows
those ten little digits and the  flat palm of my feet.

I am but a traveller on this journey they don't mind
when it's light, this is their favourite time. But  a "BOO,
and I'm standing there while my feet are running away
In to the horizon and then I follow in the distance.

My feet what can I say, they're not the bravest of appendages,
When they get spooked they run a mile in under a minute.
But the only problem is what are they connected to when
they leave. "I'm like I be back in a whileeeeeee!!!,

I'm out of breath but there on the spot jogging up and down
and for what a sneeze a shout and then there out. I put my
hands on my knees to keep them eased, to the spot they must
stay I look down and i know that they want to walk, run off again.

I can't blame it, just on the palms of my feet those dam digits
they have their own thoughts. Like a centipede they linger in
the thought of moving where I want to stand in a static form.
But we think we are in control but look below it's those appendages.

i am the snow angel,
in the cloud dressed with sheets.
i lay naked,
but still bare wardrobe.
i am a godsend,
a scaredy cat,
an existential ****.
my mouth full at 8 am
before leaving my slumber behind.
my mind full before gasping for air,
in my first encounter with this oversized atom.
this speck that just so happens to exist,
and sustain the life i so desperately
want and know is necessary.
my existence, my breaths,
shake everything else into place.

By: Cedric McClester

You know he’s full of stuff
When the evidence ain’t enough
And he’s acting like a cream puff
By not calling Putin’s bluff
If I labeled him a scaredy-cat
Or better yet Putin’s new doormat
Would that raise the thermostat,
And flush out that Norway rat?

When the evidence is irrefutable
To the point that it’s not disputable
His response is always mutable
And comes out as most unsuitable
Then his mouthpiece attempts to frame
An alibi, but we’re hip to her game
She can’t absolve him of the blame
Though she tries to just the same

So you better believe and trust
That she looks ridiculous
When she’s being duplicitous
By trying to fool the rest of us
It’s a sin to stand there and lie
But she gives it a college try
Like the mistress of deny
As if the Ten Commandment don’t apply

They interfered with our election
With a clear cut interjection
Of cybernet deflection
Without protest or objection
Two days before his inauguration
He was told of the Russian’s participation
Much to his own consternation
Yet he still voices reservations





Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2018.  All rights reserved.

Eucalyptus filled air
Sheets of warm and cold air
Early tasmac drinkers
Weary eyed dads
Bye bye -ing mommies
Dung splattering cows
whipped pedigree dogs
Scared insects
Proud birds
Flowers with an attitude
The pig
A hero
Swarmed stinking
Dirtiest of them all
And a early morning feast
Charming brown eyed street dogs
Question marked trees
Washed pavements
Drooling men
Betel chewing glaring women
Girls in floral blouses sweeping
Sh -sh -sh -sh -sh
Autos rrrrrr
Shock absorbing nike shoes krr krr krrr krr
A cigarette ****
A sad memory
Pushed aside
By the brush of a hand
pushed to a remote corner
Hidden
another memory
a recent one
with a scaredy cat
Which i want to share and party with
Was vivid

Ornamented ladies
lighting lamps to a dead god
Guarded by vain priests
Obesience
and giving life
for people
Lost in hope and fear
A parallel existence

Corporates blaring into phones
Fit men playing tennis
Small sturdy grass
Petite flowers
Swaying and dancing
Everlasting
Everlasting ?
Is it a will or maybe or a should be ?

Here’s the thing,
Scaredy-cat poet ‒
Only so many lines to use.

For or against?  Support
Or disdain?  Good or evil?

What are your sources?
Are you credible?

How about Marian Anderson
Singing at the Lincoln Memorial?

Maybe Gabby Giffords as she
Still recovers?  The NRA.

Or the rhetoric of “Four Score,”
Lincoln’s famous speech?

The macho American dad’s way
Of bringing up son ‒ Teach him
To use a BB gun in the back yard;
Make a man out of him?

Quote James Baldwin maybe?
“I am not your *****.”

Closer to home is the “justified
Anger” of the Rev. Alex Gee ‒
“If we celebrate ourselves as
Black saviors, we’d be crucified.”

Harry Truman and Hiroshima?
Will history repeat itself?
Start of war of the words.

Quoting the Bible makes too
Many folks mad, and leads to
Religious fervor.

Quoting the Constitution is
Complicated and requires too
Much interpretation.

The protest march has gained
Popularity; why not march?
The “march of words.”

If you’re a man, can you
Take up the cause of women?
For women? Legitimately?

If you’re white, can you
Take up the cause of Black
America?  All of it?

You, poet, can you write
About the killing of scores
Of gay men in a bar in Florida
With integrity and understanding?

Perhaps all readers need
A docile approach; soft and
Unassuming words?

In the long run, maybe poems
Should be limited to love,
Flowers and beauty?

Yes, that’s it!  Be a scaredy-cat.
Don’t take chances; Better safe
Than sorry….


© Lewis Bosworth, 7-2017

fifteen fountains
one man to do the job
gibberish, this is
but i don't want to stop
my hands become much too dangerous
when i stop
i could have been like him
locked up
fallen in
thank god, that didn't rhyme
i'd have to **** myself for that
i'm always afraid of killing myself
always always always afriad
scaredy cat
scaredy scaredy scaredy cat
taunting me?
ha
a new low every day
forever something new
fresh dark
fresh *****
fresh new to discover
about the innards of ME
careful!
it has sharp teeth
no petting zoo today

where do i go
where can i go
fifteen fountains deep
with this thing i lug
inside me

Here’s the thing,
Scaredy-cat poet ‒
Only so many lines to use.

For or against?  Support
Or disdain?  Good or evil?

What are your sources?
Are you credible?

How about Marian Anderson
Singing at the Lincoln Memorial?

Maybe Gabby Giffords as she
Still recovers?  The NRA.

Or the rhetoric of “Four Score,”
Lincoln’s famous speech?

The macho American dad’s way
Of bringing up son ‒ Teach him
To use a BB gun in the back yard;
Make a man out of him?

Quote James Baldwin maybe?
“I am not your *****.”

Closer to home is the “justified
Anger” of the Reverend ‒
“If we celebrate ourselves as
Black saviors, we’ll be crucified.”

Harry Truman and Hiroshima?
Will history repeat itself?
Start of war of the words.

Quoting the Bible makes too
Many folks mad, and leads to
Religious fervor.

Quoting the Constitution is
Complicated and requires too
Much interpretation.

The protest march has gained
Popularity; why not march?
The “march of words.”

If you’re a man, can you
Take up the cause of women?
For women? Legitimately?

If you’re white, can you
Take up the cause of Black
America?  All of it?

You, poet, can you write
About the killing of scores
Of gay men in a bar in Florida
With integrity and understanding?

Perhaps all readers need
A docile approach; soft and
Unassuming words?

In the long run, maybe poems
Should be limited to love,
Flowers and beauty?

Yes, that’s it!  Be a scaredy-cat.
Don’t take chances; Better safe
Than sorry….


© Lewis Bosworth, 7-2017

Scaredy cat
Scaredy cat
what was all you were good at?
making her feel like
less than she was
riding her like a bike
to feel more on top
What are you scared of
scared of a lovely job
loving somebody
who loves you back
too scared to be
too scared to act
a coward

You love her
in her many
copies.
blue, beige
destroyer, creator.

You hate her
during some
hours away
from sun.
procrastinator
fighter, complainer.

You fear her
the control
you can assert
but can't reign
in. Boycotter
scaredy cat.

You're in her
swimming but drowning.

Your psyche should
not be a
tiger trap.

There should be leaves
and soft earth
not sticks.

As your fears sharpen
them, the pit
will become deeper.

So learn to watch
where you walk
in your veins.
Control your thoughts
your habits
your acts.

Or perish in
your own sea
of troubles
Hamlet's slings,
and arrows will be yours
And let's face it.

You just don't have
that kind of
thick skin.

So I thought of him today
In the darkness of my mind
And there wasn’t any way
To make it go away
It happens from time to time
From a mention or a song
And I still tremble in fear
Like he’ll just come along
What has he done to me?
I used to be brave
Now I’m a scaredy cat
Now I feel betrayed
Maybe he didn’t mean to
But he shattered all my trust
And he brought me back to way back when
When I was really young
That one more changed everything—
But that he still can’t see
Which is why he’s still on the prowl
It’s why he’s still pursuing me
I pray to God that it will stop
Before it happens again
But I know better than to hope for the best in the end
That just leads to disappointment
And surprise when I get hurt
That’s not something I need
That’s not something I want
I just hope he comes to his senses
And realizes I’m not the one
Because if he doesn’t
I might end up more broken than before

I got lost in the darkness,
And found HER on the way,
As I lay here in the dark,
I pray for forgiveness,
HER SINS haunt me,
Thoughts forever inside,
I lie here in the dark,
Wanting to DIE
Wanting to CUT
"WHY DONT YOU DO IT
YOU SCAREDY ****?!?!"
She pulls at my mind
Asking me WHY?
"WHY DONT YOU
PUT AN END TO IT ALL?"
My only answer is to cry:
"MANDY IS SO MUCH STRONGER THAN I!!!"

.AMANDA FALLS.

I think it was a dream
Or a nightmare of some kind
I was lost in a jungle
I search but can't find
You in the thicket
Spiders big as dinner plates
With one thousand shiny black eyes
Snakes who wrap and coil
On branches twisted, gnarled....shadows
It's hot and humid
Dripping sweat
A mosquito bites
The back of my neck
I'm scared
Of the sounds in the bushes
Scared to step

The snap of a twig beneath a tiger's paw
Ah, its you who finds me safe and sound
Curled up in a ball on the ground
Scared of the sound in the bushes
Just the sound of butterfly wings
Scared to step
On the path that leads home
I'm just a scaredy-cat I guess

1.  84003

If you have a rib
to roast, stick in this
zip code  Buy American

2.  HEY AB-BAT!

Stand-ups taking steroids
Now that's funny but
Is it still comedy?

3.  WATCH THE RAB-BAAT

If it made a punchline
Stronger they could steal
from a game of baseball

4.  TU BU

One scared heifer/bovine
on a downhill *****
light 'em up, one fine smoke

5.  HEY BUD

Eighty years of torment
and how you dined hope
that peace does you just fine

6.  SOMEBODY

Hollywood's a *****
Not good enough for me
Biker, T-shirt, and blue jeans

7.  FAMILY PICNIC

had drinks one day out
by the pool with vito
corleone and his crew

8.  MAINE

Aroostook to Kennebuck-
port.  Kataden plays king
too much fishing

9.  MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL

Twin cities make your
mind are you going to
bridge work/home at this time

10.  MINNESOTA

Land of 10,000 lakes
The Mississippi Delta's
Great Beginning

11.  ALASKA

The great white north
The final frontier
Nothing left to find around here

12.  MONTANA

Stripped like a *****
All your ore gone.  Big Sky
Way too cold in summertime

13.  d*mn VIRGINS

I darted my tongue in
Her from behind her
****** shot my eye out

14.  COLORADO ROCKIES

You come up leaving
Kansas and climb, reach
the top, turn the bend, OH MY!

15.  CHEAT NOTES

The war on drugs not
true.  Prescription drug addicts
have their excuses

16.  MAIL CALL

I murdered the postman
For being too nice
Please, next time, don't knock twice

17.  LIFE'S PURPOSE

The mystery to life
is solved.  It's procreation.
Quick, get involved.

18.  SCAREDY-CAT CALL

I want to whisper softly
in your ear.  All the
things I want to dear.

19.  INSULIN NEEDED

Put a little sugar
on it baby.
That's too much.  Diabetes.

20.  NEW JERSEY

Oh yeah!
what was
I
thinking
suing the mob
for ****** me at
the age of
three
social security?

21.  CALIFORNIA

Can't drink the water
Don't breathe the air
It's either raining like hell
or burning on fire there

22.  PALM BAY,  FLORIDA

Alligator gangs with
Shell-less turtles leading
Eat you alive along with
Three foot long
Mosquitoes

A 200lb black cat
lounges
near the garden
of my back yard
the lazy panther

plays
with a fly

23.  SAN ANTONIO

Every airman trained there
knows this one thing
REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

Pitiful thing,
my heart,
it is frightened to love
--anyone but you.

There's an old abandoned bridge
between Yosemite and here.
Take the Lathrop exit where-
(or don't, it's your life after all)
-we throttled to jump off it
when our buddy flashed excitement, a boyish daydream, and we decided.

Our clothing
     soon was hanging
         on a long forgotten railroad track

(Sitting naked on a maple board-
            Probably from the Civil War.
Dropping rocks to test the height,
            Water black with no rapport)

         He giggled like a giddy child
     trying not
to give us flak,
(For being such a bunch of scaredy cats)

Moonbeams on our skin, and also iPhone torches, and the headlights of the Jeep.

And did he jump? yes!
From a stand with only his two feet supported by a 2 by 4?? yes!
He flipped behind his head!
A backflip with a midway twist.
(Or maybe I half-remember,
It was just a normal flip)

I swear, man, it was amazing.
Off the wooden railing,
Pale and falling towards the water,
                                                          ­ which,
(by the way)
was as black as the apocalypse.

Splashing ghostly underwater,
Then shimmied up the concrete pillar,
Called out to the crescent moon,
And gave a thirty foot salute,
       plunging towards the blackened river.

Laughing, swimming,
He called up to us, quivering,
(And said),
                "Alright, you're next."

"He calls me a genius, and he actually means it!"
She calls me "empathic," and a "rare bird" at that!
It's all so confusing! When I'm only a misfit
Or so others call me, "the big scaredy-cat!"

Some people are's different as day is from night
But even these two share the same wondrous sky
So too we are different, and never in sight
Of one substance, two souls, without knowing why.

Each time these two meet they simply can't touch
The nearness is maddening, emotions will rush
In morning and evening their sky is too much
The witnessing clouds can do nothing but blush.

The gold in her heart speaks of soft-mirrored fall
The dream--she objects--is not where it starts
But still, she will listen to a heart-whispered call
As both find their haven in each other's hearts.

J. Sandy

A pulse is
something you can put your finger on,
but an impulse is something you go on,
an idea that takes you from here,

I was there once on the off chance
that here was a chance
but in the end there was
no chance,

I take no risks,
my finger's always
on the trigger,
safety off.

We have to be and play safe
this is no place for kitty cats
or scaredy cats
that's as plain as day.

Some breathe fear and
some breathe fire
I do neither,
ice folds itself in and
my skin is **** frost

nor am I lost or found
and
the only sound
is you telling me
another
crossword clue

the answer is in five letters

counting down from now
finger
trigger
some things are bigger
than
the moment.

Climbing up your delicious eyes
spilling harmonic
Qualms placed under skin
yelling your musical laughter
Makes smiles on many adjacent faces
Including mine which traces
A picture decades to come
Chatting with you warms my earthtop sad faces
On a older life bombarded soul
With procreated love child beckoning accidents
Traveling a never broken copious routine
Wanting a new heavenly body from
The transparent Jehovah
As I’m thinking
This woman drives my wicked smiles
Madly,
As hair’s lifted by imaginary grips of wind gestures
Lips singing with any whims ears from toes
Hand’s taping to walking jam sessions anti-woes
Is near to perfection on my optical viewers said
If only she'd could see inside my weary tiresome head
Sealing discreet looks stashed away in my
Spirited soul dread feeling fearing
eating possible future rejected misleading
My romance ideologies via scaredy cat spoon ocean breezes  
As you are the sea and im the beach
Waiting
Longing for waves of
Enlightening joyous enchantments
To form connections belting silently behind
Worrisome bee busying personalities
Round alumni tobacco burners superfluous
summoners sitting with hearts content
Hoping on days with wondrous conversing on end
From an angelic exhorting heavenly chorus breathing near me