Category Archives: Poem

Murphy’s Law

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Murphy’s Law

An ambivalent lawyer cares hardly a jot
about whether he wins your law case or not.
An optimist one day, pessimistic the next,
if he’s your advisor, I fear you are hexed.

In the legal arena he just mills around.
His decisions are iffy, his judgement unsound.
An unusual confidant, when in a bind,
he’ll find it convenient to just change his mind.

So taking all factors into account,
as the trial goes on and the legal bills mount,
wrap up the case and accept your defeat
as a legal disaster you’ll never repeat!!

Prompt words today are optimist, arena, unusually, ambivalent, lawyyer andjot. Image by Ruthson Zimmerman on Unsplash.

Poetic License

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Poetic License

Pejorative words will not be allowed,
for poetry folk don’t assent to be cowed.
They want to feel wistful and somewhat romantic,
so they won’t put up with language pedantic.

Demur is acceptable. Artsy is cherished,
but flowery’s been banished and stilted has perished.
Inscrutable language is also passé
as is predictable. So déclassé!!!!

Step carefully, then, through the poetic world.
Take care before your words are unfurled.
For poetic license does not give permission
for outright acts of verbal sedition!!!

Prompt words are demur, pejorative, inscrutable, cherished, and wistful. Image by David Beale on Unsplash

 

The Old Homestead: For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 590

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Dad’s family at homestead. My sister Betty in front.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

The first photo is of my grandparents and two aunts and their families. The third photo is my dad and his cousins, my grandmother Jane and her sister Susie and my oldest sister Betty Jo as a child.

The Old Homestead

Its barn is thick with echoed thrust
of wings long faded into dust.
The barn owl hunts no rodent ghosts,
no drumming wings the still air boasts.

Those boards you walked now topped with blooms
of mildew, mold and wild mushrooms
that cling and spread and flood the room
with peaceful quiet and sombre gloom.

What footfalls that you might have made
are soon absorbed and so they fade.
Your presence, vital long ago
barely interrupts the flow

of time that passes here so slow.
No lowing cattle, no rooster’s crow.
No bleat of lamb, no donkey’s bray.
All that once was has passed away.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 590 the prompt words are: barns thick clung topped blooms walked spread drumming faded hunt peace floods

Simple Inspiration

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Simple Inspiration

I’ll verify a dozen ways that  I’m in the pink,
but I’m not as together as some folks may think.
The course I plod is littered by words I’ve thrown away,
hoping that I’ll come across some better ones some day.

I use no means nefarious to prod words into being.
My syllabic yield is rather based on what I’m seeing.
And so I am a plagiarist of wind and rain and flowers,
recording what is sweet in life and also much that sours.

 

 

Prompt words today are nefarious, yield, course, verify, dozen and pink.

Self-Improvement

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Self-Improvement

I can magnify with optics or reduce with diet pills,
but there is no solution to another of my ills.
When I’m feeling challenged by a flurry of activity,
overwhelmed and harried due to my proclivity
to stave off any tedium by means of overbooking,
with one too many bubbling pots on my stovetop cooking,
there is one solution that is valid and concrete.
I need to find a method to turn down the heat!

Prompt words today are magnify, optics, flurry, tedium, concrete and when.

Wayward Duck

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Wayward Duck

A wayward duck up on a hill.
He don’t come down and never will.
He invents reasons to stay up.
Comes down to buy his food to sup.
Recharges rum, then up he goes
to computerize and then to doze.
Seeks neither censure nor promotion.
Tries to fend off gross emotion.
Keeps himself up on a shelf.
Communes with no one but himself
except online where he comports
with on-air folks of different sorts.
For though he might seem misbegotten,
here on air he’s not forgotten.

Prompt words today are recharge, promote, wayward, invent, duck and hill.

Vitiligo

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Vitiligo*

Mighty sol’s ubiquitous in regions that are tropical,
but when it comes to sunlight, I have news that is more topical.
I’m evidence empirical that all folks aren’t created
to lie out in the sun’s rays until their lust is sated
for skin transposed to honey brown from a whitish hue.
For folks like me, such practices simply will not do.

Unlike my lucky college chums, my best friends and my sister,
when I’m exposed to sunlight, I am more prone to blister.
I see them put their swimsuits on and take turns rubbing oil on,
anxious to go greet the sun to get their bake and boil on,
but once they’re spread out on their towels with all adjustments made,
I’ll be covered up instead, sitting in the shade.

 

*Vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color. This happens when melanocytes – skin cells that make pigment – are attacked and destroyed, causing the skin to turn a milky-white color. People with vitiligo have no natural protection from the sun.

 

Prompt words today are empirical, topical, ubiquitous, mighty, cover and sol,  Image by Hanan Boubahri on Unsplash.

Finicky Lovers

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Finicky Lovers

Finicky lovers inspect water glasses,
ask if you’re vaxed before they make passes.
Chuckle at jokes, but only the funny ones,
eat hard-boiled eggs, but balk at the runny ones.

They run the gamut of each picky habit.
See every spot and are certain to dab it.
Do not buy on clearance, for things are picked over.
Will lie in the grass, but only in clover.

They sweep off your driveway before they can park,
but first cover their tires so they’ll leave no mark.
If you think this is odd, when they remove their pants,
they must make a crisp fold before they advance!

Prompt words today are chuckle, sweep, finicky, gamut, clearance and advance. Image by  Jonathan Cosens on Unsplash.

“Sin”chronicity

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“Sin”chronicity

I’m circumspect about temptation,
for though it may cause elation,
due to its duplicity,
it may lead to toxicity.

I believe the oft-heard rumor
that fate has a sense of humor.
Example: you are running late
and seek the airport taxi gate.

When you arrive and reconnoiter
you say you have no time to loiter,
so they let you jump the queue,
but then the taxi runs over you.

Perhaps that only goes to show
there’s some advantage to going slow,
but I believe man’s jubilation
comes from avoiding temptation!

Today’s prompts are temptation, circumspect, toxicity, loiter,
and taxi. Image by Jordan Andrews on Unsplash.

Mentor

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Mentor 

He’s an agent of enchantment, the guru of his flock—
a professor who can mesmerize with ordinary talk.
A master of expression, his descriptions weave their spells
that hold students in their thrall through the stories that he tells.

They copy down in notebooks each word that he has shared,
humbled by the wisdom  of the heart that he has bared.
They will never know that their stunning visionary
is inspired by Wikipedia as well as Wiktionary.

Prompt words today are copy, description, enchantment, flock, professor and express.