For dVerse Poets Quadrille Challenge: Sing.
For Cracking Open the Content Time Capsule, this is what I was up to ten years ago today, Nov. 3:
Tete a Tete
She seems to have made a career
out of practicing “sincere.”
Her trembling lip, her balanced tear
as she murmurs, “Oh, my dear,
I’m sorry, I know how you feel,”
work better when they’re meant for real.
In fact, she only lends an ear
because of what she hopes to hear––
shocking, scandalous or queer.
And oh, my dear, she’ll persevere.
Huddled over a drink or meal,
she can hardly hide her zeal
as she brings up your greatest fear––
your erring child or spreading rear,
the lover who’s been gone a year,
that bank loan that’s now in arrear.
She only asks because, you know—
just because she loves you so!
In patience, she is without peer.
She’ll face you, rapt, her face thrust near,
and ply you with another beer.
She is your confidant—your seer.
And though she says her lips are sealed,
her oath will too soon be repealed.
Her parting kiss, it would appear,
is offered to the ionosphere.
It makes no contact. Does not adhere.
It seems like she’s shifted a gear.
The next time she dines out, it’s true,
she’ll be dining out on you!!
The prompt word was “sincere.”
“Coming and Going.” Although I am in the proximity of this dog and undergoing the same experience, you will note that I maintain my individuality by presenting my best angle to the camera in direct contrast to the dog rather than imitating him. And, as a side note, I was here first.
Some Little Nonsense on the Subject of Copycats
Some folks’ originality comes from what they view,
proving that old adage, “Monkey see and monkey do.”
And there’s another label coined from denizens of zoos.
A “copy cat” is one who mirrors everything he views.
But I find this last one puzzling, and so I’m asking you,
have you ever known a cat to do what you want him to?
Whatever he might see you do as he edges nearer,
is likely what he will ignore, not what he’ll choose to mirror.
It’s true that cattle move in herds and wild geese mimic flight,
and no one knows what sister acts mice practice in the night.
Yet all animals aren’t so easy, in spite of what you think.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
You cannot tell a cat to do what you want him to.
What you desire from that cat is what he will eschew.
Sit or fetch? Roll over? Those things hold no attraction.
Cats simply are not at their best when you prompt interaction.
So let’s dispel this rumor that cats are good at mimicry.
For though they like to bat at strings and other hanging gimmickry,
they don’t want to imitate any other creature.
For in the world of animals, each cat is the main feature.
The prompt today is copycat.
“LocoEmotion”
Pencil me into your busy life,
or, failing that, Ink my memory
across the pages of that brain
that locomotes you through your life
on a track too narrow for company.
For dVerse Poets
Thanks Be to Pure Hearts
Thanks be to that creator of the universe—
the one I can no longer pray to in a church
because of those powers who take truth prisoner
and lead the masses to be whoever can be most safely trusted
to surrender reason to those powers.
Thanks be to that man who turned water into wine.
Not a teetotaler. Not even abstinent, or so some say.
That man who loved all and who would not strike anyone
except for merchants making a living from the church.
Two thousand years ago,
he saw that merchants and moneylenders
would lead the world wrong—
using the little minds of frightened men
to turn faith into a weapon.
Praise be to those at the beginning of it all
who tried to set a true course but made the mistake
of leaving the compass in the hands of human fools
who saw, over all, how to use it for their own glory,
making power their god and oiling their way upward
not toward salvation
but toward ever higher places in this world.
Those who are not fools might speak our enemies’ names
yet be shouted down by those
Dunning and Kruger have named as their adjutants—
the countless mindless who speed the world toward ruin.
Yet for this day, I want to turn my back on those I’d rather curse
to thank pure hearts who still can see the way.
There is still, I know, a part of them in all of us,
evident in everyday things: a mother’s sheltering arms
or in as simple an act as taking the smallest piece of pie.
So when we give thanks today,
thank those who remain kind within the world,
carrying along the spirit
of those first beneficent acts
that started with the dust of stars
and from it created consciousness
and then implanted some good turn of will
so as to give hope in a world
that feels divided in the blackness of the universe,
lonely in this night
but steered by those pinpricks in its cover
through which light shows, even in the darkest dark.
Printed on this date, Oct. 29, 2017 Still applicable…I believe.
Blithe Spirits
Filter all those monsters out of your pretty head.
Stick in their place happier things to think about instead.
Glowing things in branches are scattered all about
ready to spin down on you when the moon comes out
In the darkest forest and in the deepest cave,
there are beneficent spirits whose mission is to save
those who otherwise might end up being helpless prey
of eviler spirits brewing plans for when you come their way.
Especially on Halloween, we forget the truth
that evil spirits lurking with claws and sharpened tooth
are balanced out by sprits watching out for you,
shedding light that darker spirits learn to rue.
For The Sunday Whirl Wordle # 780 the prompt words are: preys brews glow forest cave monster hidden filter head stick
Advance Warning
If I catch you cheating, this is what I’ll do:
first, I will remove myself completely from your view.
I’ll take a long vacation to some desert isle
to learn acts of seduction and perfect my guile.
Of course, I’ll have to practice on a man or two,
and if I’m a slow study, perhaps I’ll have a few.
And then when I get home, I’ll know how to cheat on you!!!
For Esther’s Writing Prompts, the prompt is “Catch.”
Edvard Munch, The Dead Mother (1899)
Lonely
Whatever I say to her, Mommy can’t hear,
so I’m raising a hand to cover each ear.
Monkey see, monkey do is a familiar rhyme
but she doesn’t seem to see me this time.
She’s either sleeping or maybe she’s ill,
tucked under covers, all quiet and still.
Because daddy is busy and feeling real sad,
I’m afraid if I bother him, it would be bad.
But, once she’s finished napping, I hope that she’ll say
that she is all rested and ready to play,
For dVerse Poets
Kittens reacting to Morrie and Diego, jealousy barking at the closed gate that separates them from their arch rivals, the cats.
Cat Napped
My dear little creatures, I did not expect
that your lives and mine would intersect.
I didn’t know in the hush of my life
your antics would make such a mush of my life.
I spout silly names like “kitty” and “baby.”
Have I gone dotty? I must admit, “Maybe.”
I’m given to lying prone on my bed
letting the boy kitten claw at my head,
combing my hair with his kittenish claws
as his sisters cavort without mercy or pause,
biting my fingers and licking my knees.
I let them assault me wherever they please.
I find them adorable and entertaining.
Besotted with kittens, my interest is waning
in matters less feline. I neglect the dogs.
Leave them to possums and squirrels and frogs.
I feed them and throw an occasional ball,
but lately, obsessions more easily fall
into matters of cat, I’m embarrassed to say
it’s entirely possible one day I may
turn into that cat lady, brunt of those jokes
told by low-lifes in bars and other brash blokes
making fun of those who, although different, perhaps,
get pleasure enough from cats on our laps!!!
(From 9 years ago…)
The Epistoler
One persistent lunatic, he urged incessantly
for me to view the letters that he had written me.
Mere pranks, they held the bones of words, lacking pulse and skin.
Only a fool would open them to see what lurked within.
His ghastly mind existed in a world the devil cast––
dark and cruel and twisted. Interminably vast.
If he goes east, I must go west, my hand curled in a fist.
The world would be much better if he did not exist.
For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 779 the prompt words are: letters urged exist pranks view incessantly west fools lunatic bones ghastly vast
