Category Archives: Poem

Defences Make Good Neighbors

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Defences Make Good Neighbors

My neighbor is gregarious but I never talk back,
although I feel I’ll detonate for rejoinders I lack.
They all swell up inside me because they come too late
to be used against her in a retaliatory debate.

If only I’d known what to say before it was too dated,
but alas, past tirades can’t be rejuvenated. 
Her face and clothes are scrumptious, but her view of life is black.
She sees the worst in people, and it turn they see it back.

Every time I look at her, no matter how I try,
I only see a personage that I want to pass by.
So all her earthly beauty, her jewels and her clothing
cannot compensate for a world of mutual loathing.

Prompts for today are rejuvenate, before, scrumptious, detonate, look, black and gregarious. Image by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash.

My apologies to Robert Frost for parodying his last line of “Mending Wall.” (Good fences make good neighbors.)  Actually, eight years ago I wrote a parody of his poem as well. HERE it is if you aren’t already tired of the topic.

Maria

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Maria

I’m dull-witted and dysfunctional, I’m of no high degree.
I’ve no diploma in a frame. I am a refugee.
I know you think I’m no account and of the lowest order
just because the chances are I sneaked over the border.

But you’ve been on my horizon since the day that I was born.
I’m the brown girl on that other side of town you choose to scorn.
Perhaps I scrub your sinks out and walk your kids to school.
Because I do not speak your language well, you think I am a fool.

So far I’m ineffective in showing who I am.
You furtively observe my movements with your insta cam
to make sure I don’t steal from you or seduce your spouse.
You request I don’t show up again in that sexy blouse.

But I’m as smart as I am pretty and I go to school at night.
One day I will convince you that a brown girl can be bright.
One day I’ll teach your kids in school, and believe me when I do,
I’ll teach them not to be stubborn and prejudiced like you!!!!

Prompts for today are frame, refugee, account, ineffective, horizon, stubborn, dysfunctional. Image by Omar Lopez on Unsplash.

The Elopement: Wordle 571 for The Sunday Whirl, Sept 25, 2022

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Elopement

The sky liquid amber and the hills mushroom brown,
we sail on love’s vapors right over the town.
Once we felt dirty, but now we feel free,
released from the rules learned at the knee
of parents who left us with nothing but scars
of guilt over kisses in back seats of cars.

We vow to forget all we’ve heard of their lies
as we flee solid earth to escape through the skies.
What was once key we admit has no power
as passion bursts out to bud and then flower.
Those flickers of guilt we shed as we fly,
leaving mere earth to soar up to the sky.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 571 the prompts are: mushrooms key liquid admit dirty felt flicks hear  amber solid  Image: Marc Chagall’s “Over the Town.”

Morning-After Headaches

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I thought she asked if we wanted “regular” or “little” margaritas. It turns out she was saying “liter.” Guess which we ordered?

Morning-After Headaches

The candor of the bottle brings trouble in the morning
when its repercussions start to bloom with little warning.

One’s midnight refusal to utter statements truthless
might, once daylight dawns, be considered to be ruthless.

A drunk’s stubborn insistence to reflect only reality
has been known to end relationships with a certain finality.

Hidden covetous feelings might hereby be revealed
when questioning the ethics of a friend’s investment yield.

One more lifted shot glass can cause snafus in decisions
over topics covered in the next round of derisions.

So some strategic planning should be used on one’s nights out,
regarding confidential matters that one is apt to spout.

When drinking, topics talked about must thus be planned strategically,
for pains caused by loose lips are not ones solved analgesically.

 

 

Prompt words today are bottle ,snafu, covetous, strategic, reality, stubborn, candor.

Smiled At

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Smiled At

The effervescence of your smile
has me soaring mile on mile.
I’m tremulous within your bubble,
It’s elementary. I’m in trouble!

I travel on the lift of you,
billowy in glimmer’s hue.
Transparent from the very start
in what I carry within my heart.

It was as though, once trapped indoors, 
you opened in me all the doors.
And now I float out, high and free,
bearing your smile along with me.

 

Prompts today are effervescence, elementary, tremulous, indoor, glimmer, billowy.

Old Bones on a Long Hike

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Old Bones on a Long Hike

Traipsing along under vanilla skies,
the splatters of rain came as little surprise.

Then the spray of the sea salt blew into my eyes,
providing my tears a means of disguise.

Climbing the hillside, away from the surf,
my ancient legs struggled with the rough turf.

Once I tripped lightly whereas now I trod
with difficulty over each giant clod.

But then a companion looks down from the view
and points out it’s wild ginger we’re struggling through.

Regaining my humor, I start to have fun,
always a sucker for a corny pun,

for without a clue and with no way of knowing,
I’ve been gingerly coming and gingerly going.

 

For the dVerse Poets prompt, we were given a list of spices and asked to include at least three in our poem. I couldn’t find a picture of me hiking lately (for good reason) but could only find this photo of me in my twenties, perhaps imagining how I’d be fifty years from now ????

Sangria Punch for dVerse Poets

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Sangria Punch

Take strawberries, about a cup.
Disinfect, then slice them up.
If you are a liquor lover,
pour tequila in to cover.
Overnight, just let them stew,
then add sangria to the brew
and add fresh orange juice to it
and 7up, more than a bit.

Then slice more strawberries to freeze
and add as many as you please
to pretty glasses picked for show
and put them neatly, row on row
upon the freezer shelf to chill,
ready for your guests to fill
with fresh sangria punch to kill!

For dVerse Poets Quatrain “Punch” Quatrain prompt. Recipe below in non-quatrain form.

1 or 2 cups sliced strawberries and peaches, too, if you wish
2 or 2 cups tequila to cover well
Soak overnight in tall glass pitcher. In the morning, add
1 quart Kirkland Sangria, 1/2 quart fresh orange juice.
When ready to serve, add 1/2 quart 7up, mix and pour over
frozen strawberries places in glasses in freezer to chill.
Adjust for tastes. I do every time. Amounts are approximate.
Store covered in fridge. It improves in flavor as it sits.


HERE is the original dVerse prompt.

Cautionary Tale

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Cautionary Tale

Before a flower you chance to pick,
pick a flower without  bees.
Bees sting painfully and so quick.
So, quick, you need to get the wound
wound tightly to dispel the pain.
Pain  you’d never have felt if only,
only you had looked before.

For the Murisopsis My Name Scavenger Hunt prompt–A Daisy Chain Poem

Floral Alphabet Challenge, The Letter “E,” and FOTD

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European Michaelmas Daisy
Euphorbia

If you choose to play along, please enter your link in my Floral Alphabet Challenge as well as in Cee’s FOTD.

Stick-in-the-Muds

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Stick-in-the-Muds

Obtuse folks with fondness for traditions of the past
consider a rendition that has a modern cast
as an indication that culture will not last,
confining their appreciation to their yesterdays,
designating mod designs as just another craze.
They sink into their easy chairs to mouth a loud “Ahem!”
not realizing  that their folks thought just the same of them.

Prompts for today are design, culture, fondness, obtuse, sink, rendition and indicative. IIlustration by Tim Kilby on Unsplash