Poetry by Raymond Hinton

Paradigm
By Raymond Hinton

Living life
A mystery
Fallacy for contemplating
Stuck in limbo
Failure or success
The rest is all a test
A mess sometimes
At others sublime
Periods of time
Boggles the mind
To find, that the tangible
Is often unmanageable
For example, our bodies cannot
Survive without air
That we can see, yet know it’s there
Dare to question the ungrateful
Faithful only to deny, because they’re able
Not a fairytale or fable
Stable of ordinary thinkers
Hearts as foul as sphincters
Lie and deceive to achieve
A status of importance
Fully exposed as insubordinate
Living life is partly this, you see
At times consuming
Part of this living was me

Reckless
By Raymond Hinton

Tried to impregnate the Air
But life had a Plan B
Suspended in the Atmosphere
Used me as an IUD

Stuck in discourse with my past
Conflictions significantly impact
A future that has yet come to pass

Will I ever get there?
Or will I be forever sandwiched
Between the Now and the Then
Thoughts of when There begins

Disabled promises with reality
Trapped in a Peanut Gallery
With a Peanut Allergy
Living in Grape Fate haphazardly

Bruised from head to toe
Purplish veins
Fraternization with pangs
Delights on furlough
Such pejorative thangs

MVP
By Raymond Hinton

I’m focused but my
Hand is cross-eyed
Surrounded by leeches
Sucking my soul dry
Words in my song
Don’t cry
Melodies float
Rocking waves
Capsizing boats
Mortifying the essence
Legal in age
Emotionally adolescent
Morphing into the crescent
Apex if ya listening
Victory is the goal
Striving is the mission
Naysayers think it’s
Drunk off ambition
MLB
Switch hitting bottom of the inning
Either side of the plate
I’m a finisher

What Do You See?
By Raymond Hinton

Surprise, surprise
Who knows what lies
Behind these eyes

Shine, glimmer
Cry, whimper
Portals that just remember

Windows to our souls
Or so we were told
Things to behold
Some hot, some cold

Never blind
For sight
Pervades to other senses

Reflections of time
Building bridges
Mending fences

Colors so bold
Kaleidoscopes
Envisaging lenses.

Wonderful this thing
Taken for granted
Open of closed
We all possess vision.

Lost
By Raymond Hinton

Why live if living to die?
Our youth carry guns
like they’re in the U.S. Marines
murdering over nothing
a mind numbing genocidic disease
Why breathe another breath?
When there’s nothing to strive for
can’t go to the stores
that’s where the wars are being fought
Ain’t nothing safe when congregating
on them corners
Nowadays there’s only death
in broad day and night
Stop the violence, Increase the Peace
Idioms describing plight
Why speak when ears are deaf?
Babies dying in cribs, not from S.I.D.S.
But when strays eject
Life expectancy used to be 18
now we just hope to see elementary
let alone the eighth grade
It’s a shame!
When funeral homes (are) franchised like Chipotles
Burrito style coffins
stuffed with bodies not beans
Extinction level events
Snatching souls and dreams