Free Verse
The Ugly Piano Man
The ugly piano man drives to the bar
He’s got a show to do today
The people at their tables do not look his way
But on and on his fingers play
A nice soft rhythm
The people do not care
He’s just an ugly piano man
His song ends and another begins
Starting a rough but kind melody
He plays it well and plays with passion
But still no one cares it seems
Gangsters come in and rob that bar
But the ugly piano man still plays
The people in there terrified
The crazy scene intensifies
Shots ring out, people scream
The ugly piano man still plays the keys
When everything is done for good
The gangs leader comes up to the pianist
He stops for a second
He gives him a tip
Then leaves
Rhyming
The Voice
One voice rises
Above all else
When I am indecisive
With no sense of self
It speaks out loudly
But also quick
It prances proudly
Because it always does the trick
Above all else
And no matter what
I trust myself
But mostly my gut
Haiku
River
Floating down river
Taking in the pretty sights
She pushes me in
Tanka
Dirt
Flowers and roses
They may look nice but they’re not
They are cover ups
Like cute, mean girls in highschool
They grow in dirty soil
The king bellowed at the sore and tired soldiers below. They’ve been fighting for hours and not one army as gained ground. The Sergeants walk throughout the ranks and try to develop a strategy. Not one has worked. To the North, the army of Classic lays in the tall grass and snipes from a distance. They are too far for grenades or an ambush. To the South is where the most action takes place. The army of Courage tries every counter they come up with. They raid straight through the middle of the battle grounds, right through the craters and mud the bombs have created, and quickly get sprayed down by artillery fire. They sneak left only to be stopped by barbed wire and hunters in the tall trees.
On the East, the Vardens flag is raised high into the air. They have set up a solid perimeter using tanks and armored Hum-V’s. Any attempt at approaching means certain doom for the opposing armies. To the West is the Silencers. An almost invisible and completely silent threat. The army relies on marksmanship, tactics, and patience to out play the enemies.
The battlefield is a giant dead meadow. Thick, tall trees surround it. The armies lay within.
Messengers have been sent across the battlefield to try to avoid more casualties. But the resources underneath the middle ground are too valuable to give up. The oil they are after is believed to be just underneath them.
The Vardens front wall is moving. The Classics shift smoothly and undetectably over to a better vantage point in order to lay pinpoint shots through the cracks the Varden has created. Courage sprints directly at them, hoping that the confusion will cause some sort of advantage. The Silencers wait. The Varden’s Hum-V’s and tanks move forward about a fifth of the way into the middle of the oil field and tear down the approaching Courage army. They tend to their wounded from the snipers. Then, soon after, the tall white and blue flag is picked up and moved to the center of their new perimeter. Almost half of their wall of trucks is now in the oil field.
Courage takes a new approach. They start throwing sand bags into tall piles. Hundreds of men working together to create a city of sand. King Quincey using messengers to holler orders at them as he resides in his tent. He makes sure plenty of messengers visit several tents as to confuse anyone that might be watching.
All the other armies sit and wait to see what their plan is. Hundreds of men, maybe thousands, now look like they’re just moving sandbags back and forth. Just removing parts of the walls and putting them back up again. No trucks, tents, or people seem to be moving. Gunshots. Every single person turns to them. Courage warriors are laying down heavy fire from a vantage point into the Varden base. Classic and Silencers just watch.
The Vardens army seems scrambled. They had a plan for this exact situation, though they executed it poorly. Trucks and mounted artillery move too slowly to react effectively. Their ranks have been dismantled. Courage is rather shocked but takes advantage of the lack of heavy machine gun fire and run closer to the perimeter of trucks. Courage gets close enough to throw molotovs into it. Soon, the entire army of Varden is scrambling for cover as their wall of trucks scramble to get good looks on the approaching army. Then, disaster strikes for Varden. Courage has stolen one of their tanks and is using its weapons against them. One by one, the tank takes out Varden tents, trucks and anything else it can find.
When the tank stops firing, the armies relearn what silence really is. Soon after, along with some stray gunfire, the Varden flag is pushed over. Courage roars with pride for their victory. They decide to keep momentum on their side and rush to the North with intensity. The Classics are no match for them anyway. But the strange silence and lack of fighting deters their confidence. Courage takes a much slower pace up the steep hill to find the Classics. What they find instead is many soldiers laying in the grass, snipers still standing on their bipods, with a single knife wound on the neck of every single one.
In the fallen Varden territory, a series of magnificent murders are taking place. One by one, generals of the Courage army are taken out by means of knife’s and thrown tomahawks. The Silencers have struck. As the Courage army retreats back to defend their newly earned camp, rows of bullets strike them down. Not a single Silencer soldier has been seen. They are fighting a ghostly enemy.
“Boys! Dinner!” The young boys look up, apparently struck to be drawn out of their world. The oldest boy, leader of the Silencers, gives a sly smirk. They leave the little green men and instead battle for their mother’s attention.