Home | About Me | Contact Me | The Early Years | The Series | Juanita's Poems

The Early Years

  1. As I Stand Beside The Popular Tree
  2. Back Deck Syndrome
  3. Bigfoot
  4. Colour Mobile
  5. Elements Of Calculus
  6. Halloween
  7. Homeward Bound
  8. I could never understand
  9. It Has Been Months
  10. Just Two Lines Said It
  11. Midnight Swim
  12. My Pain-Trusted Heart
  13. November The Eleventh
  14. Open Fields
  15. Parade
  16. Sitting Here At The White Table
  17. The Telephone Call
  18. The Jezebel, from the woods
  19. Unsaid or didn’t I say enough
  20. Unfinished
  21. While I sit there, waiting

 








Back Deck Syndrome

Drink more coca-cola, the sign says
Create more advertising, he says
Bask in the sunshine, she says

What to do, Oh what to do ...
Back Deck Syndrome, calms the blues.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Sitting Here At The White Table

The first time I met you, you were so quiet
We played a game
“Guess what I am thinking and you win a prize”; a rose
A rose …. it smells so sweet of scent
Stimulation, as our memories retreat to the past
Remembering days gone by
“Can you remember back that far, it’s hard I know”
Marvelously, the sun rises and sets
Yet we find ourselves still …
Sitting here at the white table.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Open Fields

Listen to the willow warper
crying out its pleas
to all concerned
and the flight of the hummingbird
alights upon my toe.

Juanita Tice Paulino

November The Eleventh

Sitting by the open window in an old car
I noticed stern eyes passing by me in a hurry
Seemingly going nowhere in particular
As I watched, a frail man advance towards me
Aged, but smiling, he said “Would you like a poppy?”
“Yes,” I replied, as I quickly searched for some change.
“I only have a twenty dollar bill, I’m sorry” ...
“That’s all right”, he said. “It was a nice gesture, anyways.”
And he gave me the poppy.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Midnight Swim

Lunging deeply from my sides
pools of darkness, wondrous highs
thrusting head ward …. to and fro
swimming, swimming, takes it’s toll.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Just Two Lines Said It

He doesn’t care
And it took me this long ….. to realize it.

Juanita Tice Paulino

It Has Been Months

It has been months since I have written
and my pen is hard of hearing, whilst I, I am quite deaf ….
perhaps if I cry my soul out to you
you will listen, or maybe you won’t ….
if I speak softly and try to rhyme my words
then will you hear my despair?
So you want to hear my poems do you?
I
don’t
know
what
to
say.

Juanita Tice Paulino

I could never understand

I could never understand why
He walked over to the garbage-can
And kicked it.

I could never understand how
He slept on the bed all night
And never moved.

I could never understand when
He turned towards the door
And walked out.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Homeward Bound

Careful to watch the small body move slowly
Grasses of delight wisp over it’s back
And the dark roots of earth lay below it.
The small twig proved a trial
As it tried to surpass - endeavoring …
Easing strength to pass the object slowly
Towards the hill , while the ant moved … homeward bound.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Halloween

The children have left
It’s their turn to have
A good time
In their masked costumes
Pretending to be
As I and others do
Pretend to be ….. occasionally
Somebody else.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Elements Of Calculus

Green blanket around my knees
brown eyes look at me
in the silence of a word
your feet are cold; perhaps
if you let my hands rub you ….

Oh, the warmth of yesterday
bring the mysteries of tomorrow
is it unreasonable to question
my existence with you
A fleeting glance, you gaze back at the television.

Don’t pretend you don’t see
the frustration, the emptiness
seek into your own soul
and study, while I wait, once more
for a kind word of love from your lips.

Such beautiful lips too,
full and desirous, as Lothario
my hands sweep backwards
towards you, again
if I hurry …… maybe we can go to bed early.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Colour Mobile

Colour mobile
soon to be
brushed with fever
satin sheets….
of perspiration
delight profound
gazing fully on the mounds,
taunt with canvas
by and by….
bends with pressure
as they try
to suspend it from its side ….
colour mobile
solid lines.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Bigfoot

Advancing from out of it’s nival hiding
The large creature looked
Towards the way of the pond.

Ravished with hunger
It resolved to supplement
It’s needs, as soon as it could.

With a sweeping yowl, it progressed
Distorting, gnawing and deforming ….
It’s heavy size splitting away the landscape.

Puffing and distinct, it painstakingly
Crossed the river bank;
Bigfoot had awakened.

Juanita Tice Paulino

The Telephone Call

Despair, anxiety, tension
I feel nowadays, so frequently
In my mind.

Anguish, tormenting messages
Shall I say goodbye to you,
Shall I, Shall I?

My head reels around
And once again … I lose perspective.

Change for a phone call, anyone?

Conversations humming in my ears,
Give me an answer, will you my dear?

Juanita Tice Paulino

The Jezebel, from the woods

She craved for a tiny morsel
Gossips … whispering, she was no good
That woman, they said with no name,
The Jezebel, from the woods.

She looked straight ahead and ordered
Bread and malt, a ten-pence cursed,
Nor did it seem to matter anymore
The Jezebel, from the woods.

The next Stage left late afternoon
Dirty, she covered her folded- hood
Buy a one-way ticket, travelling … somewhere
The Jezebel, from the woods.

Juanita Tice Paulino

My Pain-Trusted Heart

He lay amongst my pain- trusted heart
Beside the shadows doomed in dark,
A rogue whom there was none alike
In requital love I sought.

Yellow roses grew by a picket fence
Bloomed fully as one would lie,
Fixed as a beam, lit by the stars
Seen shining by and by.

He drank in binges, departure unknown
Games left to many … his silhouette,
A half-drank bottle and broken glass
So woundeth his dismal debt.

Juanita Tice Paulino

As I Stand Beside The Popular Tree

As I stand beside the popular tree
Watching a beaver come and go
The back of his tail leaving a trail
Sweeping alongside … the golden meadow.

While high above my head,
The brilliant, morning sun shines
A bent display and splendorous unfolding
Majestic trees’ laneway … duly unwinds.

And the chipmunk peeps carefully
Hidden from the dirty boards, underneath
Since it’s time has come to have cookies
Which I toss at his feet.

Brilliantly, on the river’s wayside
Birds soaring … adventure on their wings
As I stand beside the popular tree
Hearing stories, whilst they sing.

Juanita Tice Paulino

While I sit there, waiting

Watching you blend about the apartment
waving your hands and talking to the people
my eyes peer, as you lean up against each girl
pushing her towards you, a new challenge
while I sit there, waiting …..

Your blond hair falls softly on your forehead
as your fair complexion allows
more ladies to snuggle closer to your face
loving the moment, you move your legs nearer to each
while I sit there, waiting ….

Hands press next to each breast
and I watch again …. hurting
their eyes look up to you once more
glistening, polished looks of adoration
while I sit there, waiting….

Oh, damn you, you …. stud-spangled louse
castrate my love - for it is intense with anger
the fire torments me, as I cast a plea
your way, crying, shedding inside
while I sit there, waiting.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Unsaid or didn’t I say enough

You sit in the living-room in the gold-coloured
bean-bag chair, while I have a smoke
and look at you sleeping.

It should never have lifted off the ground
we were just lonely at the time ….
loneliness, is a fatal emotion,
it strangles you when you least expect it.

It was my fault you know, I shouldn’t have stayed
but I needed you, I needed you, so bad
now, I don’t anymore ….. sad, isn’t it.

If you opened your eyes right this minute
could you see what I am trying to say
or would you just smile and close your eyes again
as you have so many times before.

Perhaps, if I read the newspaper my thoughts will return
back to how it was before, long before I met you ….
but then, that wasn’t so great either.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Unfinished

I perched on the old, wooden, deck chair
unfinished and chipped in paint of past attempts
whilst I rested my left hand, holding a cheap, plastic glass
of Richeliur Marechal Foche
vin rouge, red wine ….
a premium dry wine made
from the Marcel Foche grape
rich in colour and mellow in taste ….
how divine.

Juanita Tice Paulino

Parade

Let’s
Walk down
To the
Parade.
I
Like
Parades. Do you?

Juanita Tice Paulino

copyright 2008