Rhyming Poem

Being Broke Is No Joke, But Is Fun When It Rhymes

When a schoolboy, I was captivated by the rhythmic, metered verses of Poe and Kipling. Now retired, I enjoy writing similar, though much inferior, poems.

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Great poem - so good to read a poem that brings a smile to your face. More please. Very best wishes, Ann

Gullible Guy

Published by Family Friend Poems April 1, 2024 with permission of the Author.

I'm a pigeon and pushover, patsy and prey
Who's persuaded by pitches of grifters to pay.
I'm a con artist's picnic and flimflammer's feast
Who is fooled and finagled and flummoxed and fleeced.

I'm a victim of vultures whose ventures go bad.
I've been hustled and hornswoggled, hoodwinked and had.
I'm a sap who's been stung, up the creek, and at sea
Giving scammers and scoundrels more income tax-free.

I'm as lamb led to altar and cash cow that's milked
As I'm buffaloed, badgered, bamboozled and bilked.
I'm a sucker who's snookered and dupe being rooked
And a chicken for plucking and goose to be cooked.

In the dark and adrift, sinking deep in the red,
I'm a mark who is miffed as by leeches I'm bled.
Being led by the nose, I am cozened and coaxed;
Easy pickings for pros and too frequently hoaxed.

Shrinks and therapists say I exaggerate facts;
That though poorer each day, I should try to relax.
But despite expertise of those women and men,
When I hand them their fees, I feel swindled again.

ADDENDUM

Now I'm bankrupt and broke as the day I was born,
Feeling down and disgusted and shorn and forlorn.
But I just met a stranger who sure thing has planned
That will rich make us both if you lend me ten grand.

ABOUT THE POET:

After discharge from the army, I became a high school business teacher and coached several sports in a small town in Southern Pennsylvania. Years later I switched to teaching in the middle school and discovered that almost all of the poems in the reading textbooks were free verse. As a boy, I'd been fascinated by the rhymes and rhythmic...

more by Richard Thomas

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