Fake News
Soon enough real journalism
will become anachronism.
Cretins overly ambitious
will decide that it’s propitious
to forever go online
quoting “truths” most asinine,
overlooking elemental
wisdom that is fundamental,
adding to the whole tableau
with things they “think” but do not “know,”
and God have mercy on the masses
who vote to reelect these asses.
Prompt words today are anachronism, fundamental, propitious, asinine, mercy and tableau. Image by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash.
Poetic Quandaries
Prompts can be unpredictable. Of that you can be sure—
if not impossible to use, then probably obscure.
It’s hard not to exaggerate when words are such a stretch.
Hard not to bitch about them. Hard not to whine and kvetch.
We march in lock step in these blogs, so penitent we’re not.
It is the prompters who weave tangled nets in which we’re caught.
It’s hard for us to devise plans that make use of each word
and add alliteration? Folks it is absurd!!!!
Frost never had such rules to follow–and such provocations.
No such tribulations and no such vacillations.
No trying to put up with a prompt that was absurd,
but on the other hand, he had to think up every word.
Prompts are unpredictable (You can say that again–ha!!!), plan, penitent, march, exaggerate and alliteration.
For another poem for today’s alliteration prompt, go HERE!!!
Father at the Fridge
Even though our fridge is huge since we chose to embiggen it,
everything worth munching or gulping down or swiggin’ it
seems to always be in back or buried in a pile
at the bottom of a stack of foods that we revile.
Of course all of us realize it isn’t too judicious
to hide in back the very foods that we find most delicious.
We’re in receipt of evidence yet judgement’s been suspended
about the guilty family member who’s been apprehended
burying the good food, for though there is no doubt
of who hid all the cookies behind the sauerkraut,
while we’ve been eating lettuce, the guy who has been “pie”ing it
is the selfsame person who, alas, is the one buying it.
Prompt words today are embiggen, receipt, suspended, judicious, refrigerator and doubt.
Media Memorium
I derive full pleasure from binge watching television,
even though it earns me my friends’ complete derision.
I’m crazy about mysteries, game shows and romances—
all those “cute meets,” chance encounters—all those furtive glances.
Outside bluegrass concerts draw my interest, but the air
is full of pollen, so I prefer watching from my lair
with a bathroom close at hand that I don’t have to share.
Somehow camaraderie’s more comfy from my chair!
For my memorial, when I die, be sure that I am there,
ensconced in front of my TV on my derriere.
Prompt words today are memorial, bluegrass, mystery,derive, full and binge watching. Image from Pixabay
What She Had Cookin’
A wizard in the kitchen, she performed well her thaumaturgy
by transforming porridge into fine cuisine for me.
Each dish she served just seemed my hunger to inflate
as she put spells on my stomach and magic on my plate.
Her stew pot made by blood boil, her milk pudding made me purr,
every single dish a symbol of my love for her.
Then lying in her oaken bed, my hunger still intact,
She finally quenched my appetite. And that, folks, is a fact!!!!!
Prompt words today are: oak, intact, stomach, thaumaturgy, symbol and porridge.
*Pronounced thaw’ muh tour gee, with the accent on the first syllable, thaumaturgy is the performance of miracles; specifically : magic.
Say hey, good lookin’ – what ya got cookin’?
How’s about cookin’ somethin’ up with me?
Hey, sweet baby – don’t you think maybe
We can find us a brand new recipe?
I got a hot rod Ford, and a two dollar bill
And I know a spot right over the hill
There’s soda pop and the dancing’s free
So if you wanna have fun, come along with me
Say hey, good lookin’ – what ya got cookin’?
How’s about cooking somethin’ up with me?
I’m free and ready, so we can go steady
How’s about savin’ all your time for me?
No more lookin’, I know I been tookin’
Hows about keepin’ steady company?
I’m gonna throw my date book over the fence
And buy me one for five or ten cents
I’ll keep it till it’s covered with age
Cause I’m writin’ your name down on every page
Say hey, good lookin’ – what ya got cookin’?
How’s about cookin’ somethin’ up with me?
Tending the Zoo
Grooming tasks inside the the zoo seem to go on forever
with so many body parts to clean or trim or sever,
but when it comes to manicures, one group must be exempted,
for when it comes to ungulates, the groomers are not tempted
to attempt to trim the hooves of rhino or of elephant.
Even the most burliest of manicurists find they can’t!!!
And in respect to dentistry, though elephants are easy,
when it comes to giraffes, zoo dentists are most queasy.
Giraffes are not unruly, capricious or uncouth.
The problem is the distance between the turf and tooth.
And thinning out a lion’s mane simply can’t be done.
Relinquishing their hairs? They won’t part with even one.
And every time the groomers’ van goes into parking gear,
far up in the shady green, the monkeys disappear.
For though every mosquito, every flea and every tick
that invades their body may itch or make them sick,
inter-monkey grooming is a method sure to please
better than the insect sprays, which only make them sneeze!
Prompt words today are green, ungulate, relinquish, capricious, shady and exempt. Image by Thomas Oxford on Unsplash.
Reading Challenged
Diana Gabaldon’s romances are way too historic.
Koolkosherkitchen‘s recipes? Delicious, but caloric.
Mo Willems counts on pigeons to chase away the blues,
but I’d never volunteer to fill any pigeon’s shoes
due to my fear of flying, so even in a pinch,
to read of being airborne causes me to flinch.
Can’t read Cormac McCarthy or Murakami either.
When violence erupts in books, I have to take a breather.
Harlequin romances are too mushily romantic,
for I prefer my novels less sexually pedantic.
All-in-all you might have guessed I’ve little left to read
and so instead I write all day to satisfy my need
to hang out with a word or two that has not been written
by writers such as those above by whom I’ve not been smitten.
And though my poems aren’t edible or sexually explicit,
violent or airborne, I feel it is implicit
that I need an appointment with my therapist to see
if I can even stomach silly verses penned by me!
Prompt words are pinch, historic, appointment, volunteer, and flying. Image by Brendan Stephens on Unsplash.
Escargot
I am an ally of the truth, which lives the whole world over,
hiding beneath leaves of grass or hyacinths or clover.
A tiny snail detective, sliding slowly with no sound,
scoping out a food source over every edge and mound—
with its single jaw at work, nature’s innovation
cleans up all her messes with its constant mastication.
Cutter ants march by like time, disposing hour by hour,
of beauty we aren’t finished with, flower after flower,
but the snail goes gliding by, almost beyond detection,
eating everything in sight—less picky in selection.
From animal waste to fungus, and even other snails,
the appetite of gastropods seemingly never fails.
And then, ludicrous humans, knowing not what they do,
themselves devour these creatures who deign to dine on poo!
Prompt words today are snail, innovation, detective, march, ally and clover.
Process of Elimination
The child asked her grandpa to teach her how to spell,
and he could not deny her, though he knew good and well
that spelling class for him had been a different sort of Hell.
They had not been his forte, the chalk board and the book,
and so this was a challenge he timorously took.
He had to find a method to help, by hook or crook!
He said to make a menu of all the words she sought
and he would make a list of all the spellings they were not—
a reverse teaching method that, thankfully, she bought!
So, she gave her assent to all his ballyhoo,
discounting his misspellings of “tuthbrush” “taribul” “hoo,”
on her route to finding spellings that were new.
Thus she learned to overlook solutions that he sold her
in the loving ill-contrived way he sought to mold her
and used the dictionary, ruling out spellings he’d told her.
Prompts today are: timorous, toothbrush, ballyhoo, assent, spell and menu.
Improving on the Masters
Surreptitiously, I raise the quill to make a thin gray line
to festoon the drawing that is not even mine,
then tuck my small utensil securely in my purse.
Nightly I make this journey, and nightly I rehearse
what I will say if caught at last, imagining the worse.
The art museum’s climate—chill and dry and dark
gives way to summer’s damp heat as I hurry through the park,
find my car and drive away, speeding ever faster
lest I be finally detected, improving on a master.
Prompt words today are festoon, surreptitiously, quill, utensil, thin, climate.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 