Category Archives: Poem

Truth Serum

Leave a reply

dsc00514

Truth Serum

I’d like to form a splinter group of all the friends I know
to reconnoiter memories and then to tell and show.
Candidness, of course, would be most elemental—
telling truth and all the truth merely instrumental
in getting to the crux of things, in solving all the puzzles.
Life’s not got at best with blinders and with muzzles.

Our lives are rivers that we’d float together, in snug boats
comprised of past anecdotes from sagas to mere quotes.
Who hasn’t lived a movie if they’ve lived a life at all?
If only we had the courage, trust and gall 
to reveal our true life story—both its triumph and its shame
and to share it with each other with no censorship or blame.

The prompt words today are river, instrumental, memories and splinter.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/rdp-saturday-river/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/12/fowc-with-fandango-instrumental/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/your-daily-word-prompt-memories-january-12-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/splinter/

The Memento

11 Replies

img_9554

The Memento

Yes, I received your letter and the enmity enclosed.
And yes, it has accomplished what you probably supposed.
I here enclose your photograph. I have no further need of it.
If I want to end the grieving, I must dispose of the seed of it.

I’m burning all your letters and crumbling your dried roses,
disposing of your paintings of me in different poses.
I’m in need of no mementos to bring you back again.
I need no souvenirs to remember all the pain.

These ashes are the lovelock you asked me for that night.
I found it in your pillowcase the morning of our fight.
Its cremated remains were easiest to send.
They are so easily scattered to signify our end.

The prompt words today are letter, enmity, photograph and accomplish.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/rdp-friday-letter/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/11/fowc-with-fandango-enmity/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/your-daily-word-prompt-photograph-january-11-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/accomplish/

Upon Losing a Friend or Lover

7 Replies

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

Secret

Upon Losing a Friend or Lover

It does no good to have remorse for partners you are missing.
Better that you concentrate on ones you could be kissing.
Be not forlorn. Frustration is something you can fix.
Just engage with life again and get back in the mix.
Life was meant to be lived out, no matter what the cost,
though it might take many friends to replace one you’ve lost.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/rdp-thursday-partner/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/10/fowc-with-fandango-remorse/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/your-daily-word-prompt-frustration-january-10-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/forlorn/

Overheard In the Home for Retired Musicians

4 Replies


Overheard in the Home for Retired Musicians

I’m stymied by your crepitus. Your embouchure’s divine.
If you don’t have your own tune, would you harmonize with mine?
Your tonality is breathtaking, your rhythm right on beat.
Your syncopation’s perfect. I fear I can’t compete.
As we play, our joints keep time. My knees snap, crackle, pop.
If our music were to lead to love, you’d have to be on top!

 

The prompt words today are crepitus, stymie, breathtaking and embouchure.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/rdp-tuesday-crepitus/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/08/fowc-with-fandango-stymie/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/breathtaking/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/your-daily-word-prompt-embouchure-january-8-2019/

In Defense of Immaturity

12 Replies

img_1065

In Defense of Immaturity

Kids say immaturity
is not all it’s cracked up to be.
First, they have no salary,
and as of yet, ice cream’s not free,
so they depend on you and me
to determine when ice cream will be!

We tell them not to climb that tree
and put restrictions on TV.
We tell them that they have to pee
on potty chairs, not Grandpa’s knee.
We tell them they must walk, then see
each lurch and fall and laugh with glee.

Imagine notoriety
based on what one’s foibles be. 
Kids’ natural spontaneity—
their need to roughhouse, smash and flee
is often quashed, you will agree,
with all those in authority!

It’s tough to be a kid, you see,
given their great temerity.
So grant a bit of charity.
Recognize the disparity
between what we’d like kids to be
and their genetic heredity!

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/immature/

The Self-made Woman

5 Replies

 

The Self-made Woman

Her metamorphosis complete, she found it all a bore.
No longer did she slurp her soup or lumber ‘cross the floor
when executing dancing moves like a gliding waltz.
She’d perfected her curtsy and all that other schmaltz
She had no real resentment for all that they had taught her,
but rather had a grudging sense that all these manners caught her
securely in a web of a great subterfuge she’d learned
simply to insure there was no way that she’d be spurned
when she chose to exercise her wiles on some poor chap
looking for a trophy wife to perch upon his lap.

And so the day she graduated, she set out to prove
that all these pretty charms were not all that might behoove
a clever girl in life, and she got her law degree,
opened up a practice and then set out to be
the smartest woman charm school ever set out on the path,
by adding jurisprudence and biology and math
to her former curriculum of poise and table setting,
thus curtailing some of her yachting and Corvetting,
by building a sure future dependent on her self
and turning into more than just a trophy on a shelf.

 

Today’s prompt words are lumber, resentment and metamorphosis.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/rdp-monday-lumber/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/your-daily-word-prompt-resentment-january-7-2019/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/07/fowc-with-fandango-metamorphosis/

Menagerie

8 Replies

189319_1592985871267_2824733_n-1

Menagerie

When she asked us to sleep over, we had no trepidation,
but this one-night segment of our motoring vacation
was a lapse in judgment we will not soon forget,
for though we are assuredly most deeply in her debt,

we didn’t know the bed she offered came complete with pets
not to mention wild creatures struggling overhead in nets!
We can forgive her for the kitten who just curled up on our bed,
sometimes on the foot of it and sometimes at the head.

The puppy, though mischievous, we grew accustomed to,
only suffering damage to a purse strap and one shoe.
Successful in their recovery, we sealed our luggage up,
opened up our bedroom door and exorcised the pup.

Flipping off the  light, we offered gratitude for rest,
closed our weary eyes and did our very best
to try to get a full night’s sleep, but it was late in coming,
for our next visitation came complete with constant drumming

as various creatures of the night knocked against the netting
hanging down around our bed, we commenced regretting
accepting her generous offer of a free night’s lodging.
We didn’t know the various creatures we’d be dodging.

The monkey we grew used to, but not the kangaroo
who boxed my husband’s earlobes and trod upon my shoe.
The cockatoos and lorikeets slept peaceful through the night,
but in the morning wakened us at the dawn’s first light

with such a loud cacophony that jolted us awake
and luckily allowed us to leave before the snake
slithered  from where it rested, coiled beneath the sheet.
And that was it! That final guest signaled our defeat.

For though we have great gratitude for the invitation,
I cannot overemphasize the complete jubilation
we felt upon exiting that jungle she calls home.
And need we tell you that the next time we choose to roam,

we’ll gladly pay the room rates for a first-class lodgings?
We’re finished with the hassles and the terrors and the dodgings
that come with staying with relatives such as sister Sue
who forgot to warn us we’d be staying in a zoo!!

 

The prompt words today were hospitality, forgive, recovery and gratitude.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/rdp-friday-hospitality/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/04/fowc-with-fandango-forgive/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/your-daily-word-prompt-recovery-January-4-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/gratitude/

Mystery Play

3 Replies

Mystery Play

A mystery is hopeful, but it isn’t a sure thing.
Who knows what good or evil a mystery might bring?
It might deliver packages tied up in pretty string—
or it might deliver pain instead. Some mysteries have sting.

Life likes to dish out both and we often have no choice.
One door might cause us to regret, another to rejoice.
One without the other is just not nature’s way.
We take rewards with one hand. With the other, we must pay.

Taking off for the beach today.  The three prompts that were ready are deliver, hopeful and mystery.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/rdp-wednesday-mystery/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/02/fowc-with-fandango-deliver/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/hopeful/

Out with the Old

11 Replies

Out with the Old

When I plant that New Year’s kiss,
just what is it I’m going to miss?

I certainly won’t miss the news,
which has not failed to unamuse.

I will not miss my aches and pain,
lest I invite them back again.

I will not miss the expense and cares
occasioned by my roof repairs.

I will not miss my aged appearance
or my young cat’s disappearance.

I’m looking forward, all-in-all
to having no regrets at all.

I’ll take my year unmarked, uncreased, 
with all past worries now released.

 

For Daily Inkling’s New Year’s Kiss prompt.

Soul’s Assurance

4 Replies

DSC08097

Soul’s Assurance

Modern advertising urges
we participate in splurges,
touting “things” as means of pleasures
not obtained by other measures.

But our pursuit of all these things
does not give our spirits wings.
Sometimes we just seem bound in them.
Happiness can’t be found in them.

Satisfaction can’t be bought.
That house, that diamond or that yacht
Are merely consolation prizes
that come in many different sizes.

Love can’t be slipped upon a finger.
Houses get sold and yachts don’t linger.
The only thing you get to keep
is what lies buried dark and deep

within yourself—that deep assurance
that is your heart and soul’s  insurance
that it’s been swollen by your life
instead of stolen by your life.

The prompts made use of in this post were pursuit and splurge.
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/30/fowc-with-fandango-pursuit/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/your-daily-word-prompt-splurge-December-30-2018/