Category Archives: Poem

The One Thuosand Dollar Error

14 Replies

The One Thuosand Dollar Error

It was duplicitous lithography that landed him in jail,
for he found the thousand dollar bill impossible to nail.
Mr. Cleveland’s mustache was a bit askew,
and he messed up the order of the “o” and “u.”

And even though he crows about his quality of paper,
sure he could subsist for life just on this one bold caper,
the first bill that he tried to pass put him in a cell.
If you’re going to be a counterfeiter, best you learn to spell!

 

Word prompts today are crow, duplicitous, lithography subsist and paper.

The Docent of the Midnight Gallery

7 Replies

 

 

A little humor to dispel the effect of the paintings presented above: Mealancholy: The remembrance of the day’s repast.(Those meals taken before your diet began.) 

That silly definition was prompted by the fact that I noticed I’d misspelled the first prompt below while establishing the link. Here is the real word plus its companions:

The actual prompt words today are melancholy, Kafkaesque, gallery, cosset and black.

The Docent of the Midnight Gallery

Stark and grim and melancholy—harsh and Kafkaesque,
she ruled the midnight gallery from behind her desk.
Far from being cosseted, viewers were oft upbraided.
She moaned and screeched at visitors as though infuriated.
Skeletal and  shrouded, her visage veiled in black,
she insured no visitor ever ventured back!

Bridge Game

5 Replies

Bridge Game

Free from any adversary, safe from all deceptions,
the captain ruled his ship without yielding to exceptions.
So the cruise proceeded with ease from day to night,
and if any denizen was made to feel contrite,
it was not the captain who was made to feel the shame,
for when upon the water, he was spared from any blame
and so felt no contrition for all that he declared,
no matter how incongruous or how reason-impaired.
He was not held accountable for any misjudged thing,
for within his dominion, he was undisputed king.

 

Prompt words today are adversary, exception, cruise, contrite and safe. Image by Daniele D. Andreti on Unsplash

Cold Snap

13 Replies


Cold Snap

When Autumn winds its avant course and takes its paint box out,
Winter with its probity pursues another route.
Freezing all connections between the leaves and limbs,
it snaps off all Fall’s paintings crisply at the stems.

It is as though the bourgeoisie has seized the reins at last
and expunged the riffraff artist with a single blast.
If Autumn’s the iconoclast, Winter must seal the norm
by covering its statements with a winter storm.

When Spring speaks out its message through the meadow lark,
stodgy frigid Winter ceases making its mark.
Then after Summer pales Spring’s green and dries the colors out,
it is the turn of Autumn to throw pigment about.

Season after season, the colors build and fade,
every new stage cancelling progress the last one made,
then building up its opposite thinking it might win,
not seeing life’s a painting that all of them are in.

 

Prompt words for today are autumn, course, bourgeoisie, probity and speaker.

The Perfect Man

3 Replies

The Perfect Man

I know from what his kind is cast.
He’s fearless as he is steadfast.
He does not vaunt his strength or looks,
excels at sports and reads good books.

Sexy and mysterious, 
he’s musically serious—
motivated from within
to play a wicked violin.

He is as solid as a rock.
Nobody needs to wind his clock.
And yet I had to choose another,
for, alas, he is my brother!!!

Prompt words today are fearless, steadfast, digitally, vaunt and wind. Photo by Silas Tolles on Unsplash.

Ill-Matched

Leave a reply

Ill-matched

The oscillation of her mind, intuitive to rational
from personal creations to political themes national
gave her husband mental whiplash. He barely could keep up.
He found her more exhausting than a brand new pup.

As she sat there prattling, he sat there like a stone.
Her frequency of chatter made him want to be alone.
Poor fellow just could not keep up. He had a mind more staid.
He pondered each new thought he had. Opinions must be weighed!

Meanwhile, her thoughts flew here and there, her mind much more creative.
She formed opinions quickly, while his mind was more debative.
How this couple got together was a matter of derision.
Their union, all their friends agreed, must have been her decision.

 

Prompt words today are stone, poor, intuitive, oscillation, frequency, intuitive and grand. Photos by Brooke Cagle and Usman Yousaf on Unsplash

Lost

7 Replies

 

Lost

When he said that he would lead the way, she meekly fell behind,
for to point out his meandering she felt would be unkind.
The luxuriant undergrowth clung to them in their passing,
the creeks they crossed edulcorating all they were amassing
in pants cuffs and in pockets: burrs and and leaves and pollen,
as he led the way through ditches and over trees fresh-fallen.

And though he seemed decisive, she knew that they were lost.
She followed to preserve his pride, but at what a cost?
Each quirky decision led them more astray
as she followed in his footsteps even though she knew the way.
When they finally reached their cabin, a shower, brush and comb
would eradicate the proof that they took the long way home!

Prompt words are luxuriant, decisive, quirky, edulcorate (to free or purify by washing) and leading. Photos by Joshua Woroniecki and Kurt Liebhaeuser on Unsplash.

And here is my favorite Tom Waits song, “The Long Way Home.”  Seems appropriate to include it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCk-f03o6aA

Wrong Decision: Sunday Whirl’s Wordle #518

5 Replies

Wrong Decision

Candlelight feigned the light of the day
and wheels crunched the gravel as he drove away.
I knelt down on the carpet and let my tears fall,
then rose to my feet and walked to the hall.

Too late for touching, I opened the door,
surprised at the flowers placed there on the floor.
Recriminations were all I expected,
but as I opened the card and inspected

the words that he’d written, they opened my heart
and I wished that I hadn’t let him depart.
Instead of surrendering to my misgiving
that he would be angry instead of forgiving,

that I’d opened the door and invited him in.
If I had, now I wonder what might have been?
I might have been living to this very day
with the love of my life that I sent away.

 

This week’s prompts for Wordle are: land, carpets, line, down, kneeling, tears, flowers, late,
wheels, touching, living and candlelight.

Peckish

8 Replies

Peckish

Just a slight off-center peck on each proffered cheek
is all urbane society ever seems to seek.
First at “Hello,” then “Goodbye,” it’s only a dry token
of all  of the emotion that might be shown or spoken.

It’s as though a more demonstrative form of recognition,
some heartfelt hug or sincere words of fond admission,
some scrumptious soppy kiss on lips or action more revealing
might upset the applecart by showing our real feeling.

We love “love” in the movies or the pages of our books.
We desire seductive actions and long and smoldering looks—
kisses full of passion and genuine elation—
yet our own dry hand shakes are devoid of titillation.

I’m craving real emotion in place of mere air-kisses—
some lips that meet their mark, not just these weak near-misses.
It’s time for modern science to come up with a potion
that puts action in reaction and more motion in emotion!

 

Prompt words today are action, scrumptious, urbane, goodbye and recognition. Image by Limor Zellermayer on Unsplash.

 

Some Truths about the Jellyfish

8 Replies

Some Truths about the Jellyfish

The fact is that the jellyfish
will never be a deli fish,
for when one tries to catch their goo
in nets, they’ll find it slips right through.

Their choreography includes
frequent oozing interludes,
the ramifications of this being
that the jellyfish you’re seeing

might be prone to disappear.
So for a moment he is here
and then he’s gone and over there
peering at you from his lair.

A kaleidoscope of colors that
sometimes look skinny, then look fat—
expanding to a great extent.
Shrinking and swelling is their bent

So if you seek a belly fish,
please rule out the jellyfish,
for though I know they look delicious,
they simply aren’t edible fishes.

Prompt words today are kaleidoscope, choreography, ramification and jellyfish. Photo by Maxime Bouffard downloaded from Unsplash.