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

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Gullible Guy

Richard Thomas © more by Richard Thomas

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.

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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...

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Has this poem touched you? Share your story!

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

  • Victoria by Victoria
  • 4 months ago

Great poem! Fun to read also, from the style to the rhyme scheme.

Definitely deserving as the winning poem this month! Congrats Richard!! While I'll never be able to relate on your vocabulary level, I can certainly join the ranks of the well-described gullible guys in this poem! Thanks for the fun read...

Best,
Doug

  • Barbara L. Meehan by Barbara L. Meehan, Asheville, N.C.
  • 6 months ago

Richard is a wonderful writer, he is deep and truthful with humor.
I congratulate him on his writing.

  • Don Hamaliuk by Don Hamaliuk, Sturgeon County
  • 6 months ago

I like the way Richard takes us on a journey of blind greed investing and then although he identifies his previous results, will go through it again and again.
Understandable and relatable. Such a common human trait.

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