Sirens
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
Sirens sing between spotlight beams
Online magazines lost in dreams
Spectres and sceptres between the seams
Always here on the scene
Nature will bite without a hiss
We ain't ever gonna coexist
Genies in bottles, hypnotists
Sell you freedom if you insist
Great big collective on our own
Nothingness left all alone
Don't trifle with rolling that stone
If we ain't nothin but blood and bone
Just let that stone gather its moss
Go for the gold, don't count the cost
For every gain, bury the loss
Till the moss is buried in frost
And the sirens are here to remind me
They won't let me forget
Just how good it has been
Just how bad it can get
Sell me the sparkle of better days
Show me your bundle of better ways
Candles flicker in your eyes always
Hotter than forests ablaze
Roast the marshmallows, watch it burn
We're at the point of no return
Who among us will ever discern
The evil we can never unlearn?
We grew our wings, outgrew our feet
Spirits bleed out on the street
Hipsters and hopsters on the beat
Judging God from our judgement seat
Sirens of the paramedics
Rush to a five alarm fire
Sirens of firetrucks, sirens of cops
Sirens in a heavenly choir
And the sirens are here to remind me
They won't let me forget
Just how good it has been
Just how bad it can get
© John Kennan 9-18-20
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Submitted by rankstranger7 on May 24, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:15 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | aaabxcxc ddddexex FGHG iiiijjjb kkkkxlxl FGHG x |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,250 |
Words | 243 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 4, 8, 8, 4, 1 |
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"Sirens" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/100860/sirens>.
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