Author: shaun tenzenmen

Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things

One Of The Gang – 16th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Showed my buds, I’m one of them
When they watched me stick it in
I bring freedom with a gun
And I’m responsible for no one

We three, prod and poking
Watching the sunset paradise
Sipping dry martinis of tears
Laughing at a 12-year-old’s fears

We three, the seventy per cent
Paid us for our duty
A dividing line, a locked gate
Allows us to rob and rape

Watch again as I stick it in
We’re bonding over this flesh
This little girl, powerless in pain
Coerced to let the gang remain

After reading about the 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa.

Fatman report

Chess With Pigeons – 15th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Lined up against the wall
Identified with your tribe
Where does the mindset shift
From the rules that you prescribe?

This game isn’t easy
Yet played out every day
All uniquely similar
In deeds and words we say

Incited to live in fear
Lies are told as true
Only some allowed to win
But tell that you can too

A race to become less tolerant
Can be run in any way seen fit
Upend the board and strut around
Covering everything in shit

Inspired by this great post at The Renegade Press

Build Your Brain – 14th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 12 Comments

Million dollar questions
Blind spots abound
Magical machine limitations
Mapping mountains found

Collect complementary artefacts
Elevate our understanding
Synaptic message transference
Magic made mind-expanding

Engaged spatial reasoning
Exempt obedient demands
Onwards and upwards
Internal freedom commands

Everything ever got
Meant diddly squat

…say what!?…

Inspired and paraphrased from a David Elikwu newsletter and shared with dVerse Quadrille #212 – what

A Crack In The World – 13th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

What version of me did I show you?
Was the impression left in your mind
The enigmatic or the sad and sulky?
Which one would you prefer to find?

I was hiding, desperately
Trying to be anything but myself
To slip through a crack in the world
Leaving an image of someone else

I cross each bridge as I burn it
Wait impatiently for the credits to roll
Each day takes a small part of me
Once put together defines the whole

Inspired by a few paraphrased quotes within.

In Submission – 12th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

A smart-mouthed bad crazy-drunk
Forgotten night of manic adventure
Black-eyed slurred self-pity
Another slug of ‘no surrender’

The door opened by the bottle
Ushers safety within its cage
Discard the day of tired dreams
Darkness enlightens the stage

The truest friend ever found
Til the comfort became a curse
A body weighted in dilemma
On a mission to submerse

Down, down under the table
Joined by the rats and the finks
Afraid of love, the amber’s pull
Further into the ether sinks

Another sniff to calm the edges
Eyes hidden from the light
Til Jesus was doing cartwheels
Across the lawn one night…

Submitted to AllPoetry.com competition of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins quotes. Quote as prompt (and paraphrased):“Jesus was doing cartwheels across the lawn in the porch light.”

One More Time – 10th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 37 Comments

Amongst the beauty of everyday
Familiarity may breed contempt
Waking with enthusiasm to play
Becomes more difficult to attempt

Maybe it’s a concrete jungle
Or a paradise you are facing
Each day a success or bungle
The happy rats keep on racing

So here it is and here we are
Another mountain for us to climb
Our attitude got us this far
‘cross crystal waters, one more time

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See picture prompt (above) and Reena’s Xploration Challenge – everydayness.
3rd Sep 2025 – Submitted to dVerse Poetics Tuesday – life and lemons

Pinky Shake – 7th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 14 Comments

All these pacts we make
A pinky shake decided
Forever our love
Sung to the mountains and skies
Across the valleys beyond

Whispered words that shine
Pledged to never breach or break
Future in our hands
Temptation will not lead us
Not this time, never again

Obligations shared
For us to build castle walls
Our words are at stake
We know it won’t be easy
That’s when the tough get going

We brokered this deal
To shape a nest of relief
Sometimes days are dull
For the warmth, we must maintain
A flexible foundation

Let us bend in sync
The winds of change will blow through
We’ll not break this bond
Pick you up when you stumble
Fend off discontent and pain

All these pacts we make
Pledge to never breach or break
Our words are at stake
For the warmth, we must maintain
Fend off discontent and pain

A garland tanka shared with Tanka Tuesday using synonyms for promise and comfort