Category Archives: Poem

The Brush Off

The Brush Off

A less than amicable parting, he leaves her paints and easel
but takes her masterpieces, the slimy little weasel.
As he struggles with them while slipping out the door,
she shouts her rejoinder, “I always can make more,
whereas it is less likely that you, my dear, will ever
find another bread-winner so talented and clever!”

When he runs out of money and slinks back to disarm her,
all his “mea culpas” will do nothing but rearm her.
She will hear him coming in his rattletrap old van
that he always claimed was a  sort of talisman
of those happy hippy days when he was such a charmer
that she was convinced he was her knight in shining armor.

But he has shattered her illusions ‘til there’s nothing left but rubble.
His bellbottoms are tattered and his goatee turned to stubble.
His dreadlocks fall from balding pate, his “Hey Man” is not cool.
He came into her life a god, but left it as a fool.
She’s given him the brush-off. No more is she his wife.
If he comes back he’ll only meet with her palette knife.

Prompt words today are amicable, weasel, talisman and Mea culpa.
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/your-daily-word-prompt-talisman-march-28-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/mea-culpa/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/rdp-thursday-weasel/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/28/fowc-with-fandango-amicable/

Advice to a Brand New Stepmom

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Advice to a Brand New Stepmom

Release your indignation. Try to quell your grief.
The air is redolent with clues of the impish thief.
Don’t you smell the bubble gum? Can’t you catch a sniff
of the perfumed hair gel that makes his hair so stiff?
Those two dozen cookies that you’d put in a stack
to package for the bake sale, I’d bet are in a sack
high up in the tree house in your own back yard.
The next time you bake cookies, you’d better post a guard!

 

The prompt words today are thief, release, redolent and impish. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/rdp-wednesday-thief/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/27/fowc-with-fandango-release/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/your-daily-word-prompt-redolent-march-27-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/impish/

Trolls

DSC06649

 

Trolls

Dumb as a fencepost, mind in a haze,
knee-jerk reaction to any new craze
of misinformation that stirs up a fuss.
Write a vile comment. Slander and cuss.
Research at your leisure. Probably never.
Facts are not relevant when you’re so clever.
Foment and stirring are your new employment.
Nothing so sacred as your vile enjoyment!

 

The prompt words today are haze, post, leisure and enjoyment. Here are the links. Strangely enough, a troll from the dVerse Poets prompt seemed to invade this post as well, so although this isn’t the quadrille it called for, I’m including a link to it, too:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/26/rdp-tuesday-haze/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/26/fowc-with-fandango-post/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/26/your-daily-word-prompt-leisure-march-26-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/26/enjoyment/
https://dversepoets.com/

TrackRbravo Lament

TrackRbravo Lament

There was a little gadget I bought two years ago
but when it came to using it, I was a little slow.
Since instructions were too difficult, I maintained the status quo
and continued, when I lost my keys, to seek them high and low,

looking in the old way by fumbling through my purse,
perusing tabletops and hooks and wastebaskets and worse.
Every time I lost my keys, I’d fuss and swear and wheeze,
searching drawers and closets on my tiptoes or my knees.

But recently I found the box where I’d stowed the appliance
and decided that I’d make another try at an alliance.
I tested its small battery and found plenty of juice
to assure its assistance in my tracker’s use.

After struggling to get the battery inside
the little TrackRbravo disk where it would reside,
I fetched the brief instructions which accomplished not a thing.
I could not pair it to my phone, and it refused to ring.

I made a trip to YouTube which helped a small bit more.
When I pushed the button, I heard a small faint roar.
And after just an hour, I’d linked it to my phone.
No more would my keychain roam this earth alone.

At first I searched and searched and searched, and I searched in vain
for the spot upon my phone where I could complain
when I could not find the place where my keys had hidden
so I could find them in the spot to which I had been bidden.

When I finally found the spot—a paltry little dot,
where I had never thought to look, although I looked a lot—
I pushed the button and I heard for the initial time
my keychain’s piping little voice––it’s initiation chime.

As hard as this procedure was, I knew it could be worse,
and I felt a sense of power tossing keys into my purse
full of reassurance that I’d not be late
due to searching for my keys before my luncheon date.

But hours before I had to go, I heard a little buzz
making more disturbance than a mosquito does.
I tracked it to my table, then tracked it to my bag.
insistently, it whined at me––an annoying little nag.

I went back to my phone and found the place to quell its stammer,
then settled down to work again, relieved of all its clamor.
But then, alas, five minutes more, and it went off again.
It seems that it can’t wait for my request to start its din.

And so now, five hours later, I’ve been out and came back home.
I’m sitting at computer, composing this dumb poem.
I feasted with three favorite friends and I enjoyed it so,
but, alas, my TrackRbravo didn’t get to go.

I removed it from my car keys and stashed it far away
thinking that a quiet place its panic would allay.
But hear that little buzzing sound coming from my closet?
No matter what I try to do, I cannot seem to pause it.

And though I know what’s causing it, I cannot make it freeze.
It just goes off at random, whenever it may please.
Perhaps it’s looking for my keys and does not have a clue
and instead of just one problem, I find that I have two!

 

The prompt words today are closet, paltry, fetching and feast. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/rdp-sunday-closet/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/24/fowc-with-fandango-paltry/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/your-daily-word-prompt-fetching-march-24-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/feast/

Dining Out on Aches and Pains

Dining Out on Aches and Pains

Every day they exercise their God-given right
all of their various maladies and twinges to recite.
Over coffee in the morning and martinis after five,
they nod their heads with wonder that they are still alive.

Over pork with wine sauce, they whine about their bladders.
They complain about dizziness. They cannot ascend ladders.
Obstructions in their bowels and needed hip replacements
seem not to curb their appetites for listing such debasements.

From head to toe, they tell the rest each disease and malfunction,
discuss medicine and herbs, consider extreme unction.
 They moan about their neck aches and complain about each corn.
This relation of their aches and pains amounts to senior porn!

As though proud of each new symptom, they relate them with some glee,
hoping to receive some newfound sympathy from me,
but in fact I’ve heard all of their ills time and time again,
and I think that it’s their telling that is a royal pain!!

Prompts for today are exercise, symptom, royal and rest. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/rdp-thursday-exercise/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/21/fowc-with-fandango-symptom/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/your-daily-word-prompt-royal-march-21-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/rest/

On the Nature of Matter: Atomic Dieting

 

 

In response to LWBUT’s post on the structure of matter—that it is mainly composed of empty space, here is my answer:

On the Nature of Matter: Atomic Dieting

When I worry about dieting in order to get thin,
I merely remind myself there’s less of me within!

Long Story

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Long Story

Your makeshift fidelity is now a laughable matter.
I have grown bold in my approaching old age
as my own life story now seems more fable than reality.

Every good tale needs its falling action—
its climaxes mainly based on comparison,
and, ironically, you were also its denouement.

But, we are the authors of our own drama,
and, much as I would have chosen otherwise,
you were just the coda of the second act.

 

Prompt words today are bold, makeshift, fidelity and laugh. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/rdp-monday-bold/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/18/fowc-with-fandango-makeshift/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/your-daily-word-prompt-fidelity-march-18-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/laugh/

Dumbing Down

photo from Rolling Stone

Dumbing Down

I bailed on calculus but I excelled at long division.
Illustrious in wood shop, I flunked nuclear fission.
Knights in suits of armor were never quite my thing.
I never learned to play an instrument. I do not sing.

My illustrious school career came by fits and starts.
Loved auto mechanics. Couldn’t hack the arts.
I admit I’m not well-rounded. I studied what I liked,
and after school was over, I skateboarded and biked.

I never was a bookworm. I had no use for culture.
I had no fear of teachers who hovered like a vulture.
A comic book inside a textbook made for pleasant reading.
I only paid attention to what I would be needing.

The same is true now that I’m grown. I skip over the news.
I have no need of knowing  about Arabs, Serbs or Jews.
I fixate on my own needs. I can’t bother with the rest.
I read enough to pay my bills and pass my driver’s test.

What more is necessary? I have TV and my phone.
When I am ensconced in them, the world leaves me alone.
I’m tired of ecology and its boring explaining,
so voted for a president who is more entertaining.

Now that news is comedy, it holds my interest well.
Who believes those scientists who ring the warning bell?
When the air’s too bad to breathe, I’ll simply stay inside
watching news on Stuppid  that is more bona fide.

(Click on the Stuppid URL for a list and description of “fake news” news sources and some of the biggest disinformation posts.  Chilling. )

Prompt words today were bail, division, illustrious and armor.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/rdp-sunday-bail/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/17/fowc-with-fandango-division/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/illustrious/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/your-daily-word-prompt-armor-march-17-2019/

Buried Treasure

 

Buried Treasure

Though my diurnal actions may be slower now and measured,
imagination’s richer—its journeys fully treasured.
I feel the whole world opening. I roam it at my will,
unhampered by long distances—undaunted by each hill.

I explore new continents, revisit former haunts.
In nocturnal wanderings, I enjoy surreal jaunts
joined by friends departed, unhampered by my years.
I do those things undone before, conquering all my fears.

Daily, I relate to friends by voice or screen or paper,
confessing past  adventures, admitting every caper.
Laugh over pains and  learn from misdeeds that I may have done—
each ill-advised decision transmogrified to fun.

Life in the doing’s richer when we have vigor for it,
and when our energy runs out, we still can re-adore it.
Our memory is a treasure box with contents vast and rare,

made richer by each telling. Increasing as we share.

 

Memory boxes and photos by jdb

Prompt words today are diurnal, opening, action and treasure.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/rdp-tuesday-diurnal/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/12/fowc-with-fandango-opening/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/your-daily-word-prompt-treasure-march-12-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/action/

The Spoils

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The Spoils

Walking is elemental. We do it night and day,
but if they could, they’d meter it and we’d have to pay.
They charge us for our water, but so far air is free.
Until they find a way to own it, they will let us be.
Every element on earth is one they’d like to own,
but how to possess all of it so far is still unknown.

They find new ways to own us and to control our voting.
They open up our coffers and soon they’re busy toting
all of our resources off to their own coffers
so they can sell it back to us, slaves to their pricey offers.
If there were a tournament for greed and avarice,
it would be one our billionaires wouldn’t want to miss.

Golf might be their game of choice or perhaps chess or tennis.
The rules would be cut-throat, and their game plan full of menace.
But no matter what their plots to gain chess pieces or ball,
no matter what their motivation to possess it all,
no matter what the game or how many players are in it,
all the rules would ensure our president would win it!!!

trump coin

Prompt words today are walk, meter, tournament and elemental. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/rdp-saturday-walk/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/09/fowc-with-fandango-meter/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/your-daily-word-prompt-tournament-march-9-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/elemental/