Category Archives: Poem

The Last

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The Last

Old people mumble and snicker and stare
at the last of my lineage ‘s bright lilac hair.

If I’m the most banal of all of my kin,
at ingenuity, she’s bound to win.

I’m reluctant to ask why her clothes are so worn:
so faded and rumpled and tattered and torn.

I immure my comments between lips of stone,
for she’s flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone,

with a mind of her own and unique from the start,
the last of my grandkids has most of my heart.

 

Prompt words are reluctant, lilac, banal, start, immure and lineage. Images by Jessie
Dee Dabrowski and Quinton Coetzee on Unsplash.

Final Expectations

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Final Expectations

When I’ve drawn my final breath
and fall into the arms of death,
I’ll tell my life I’m through with it.
I do not give a single whit
for what becomes of all those things:
poems and paintings, bracelets, rings.
I mop my soul of all such whims
to rise free of my earthly limbs
on wings of whatever is left
to give my being lift and heft.
What if those things I’ve striven for
have merely been a bottom drawer?

What if it opens to set free
whatever there is left of me
and there is nothing else inside?
What if the whole of me has died?
What part of me is made to last?
Have I an essence that’s more vast
than accomplishments, adventures, things?
Some remainder that will give me wings?
Is there woven within me
something  that will be a key
that will unlock the galaxy
that’s sleeping in the heart of me?

 

 

Prompt words today are mop,
death, whim, whit and bottom.

Con Artist

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Con Artist

In spite of his good looks and his air of bonhomie,
that he’s a jerk is evident. It’s plain for all to see.
His laughter is a hackly noise offensive to the ear,
and when he smiles the most that he can manage is a leer.
He thinks that we’re all fools, but it doesn’t take a seer
to see his only passion is advancing his career.

 

Prompt words today are hackly, noise, bonhomie, evident and fool.  Image by Foto Garage on Unsplash.

Replaced

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Replaced

Myriads of new machines are going to take their toll.
As technology takes over, we lose more of our soul.

 

Prompts today are:  technology, myriad, machine, toll. Image by Possessed Photography on Unsplash.

Surrendering

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Here’s to Fate!!!


Surrendering

The conferral of my future to the errant whims of fate
has cleansed my mind and eased negative feelings as of late.
My checkered past spread out with joy and pain  in rich array
as I lay me down no longer adds to my dismay.
What comes will come. The practicality of recognizing this
is, in short, what most contributes to my present bliss.

 

Prompt words for today are array, checkered, practicality, conferral and negative.

Scourge of the Universe

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Scourge of the Universe

The blood of crushed magnolias stains the universe,
mankind ruining everything it chooses to traverse.
Leaving bloody footprints and the litter of our lives,
we exploit everything we see and kill all that survives.
Why can’t we learn to live in peace, preserving leafy bowers?
What single other species is as ornery as ours?

 

Prompts for the day are ornery, universe, magnolia, stain.

Seers

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Seers

Psychics make their living by what’s written in the stars,
going by what’s written in Venus or in Mars.

They crumble tea leaves in a cup and set the water steaming,
then pour it in the cup so they can set about their dreaming.

Their supernatural talents are directed at whomever
crosses their palms with silver to discover what they’d never

see through their own vision, and so they pay a stranger
to guide them as they search for love and try to avoid danger.

What some see as inscrutable, the psychic sees most clearly,
constructing pretty platitudes for which we pay most dearly.


Prompts today are platitude, super, inscrutable,Venus, crumble. Image by Tungsten Rising on Unsplash.

As Above Not As Below: For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 544

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As Above, Not As Below

I’m plodding, I’m plodding to the sacred north.
It takes all my power as I journey forth.
Is it possible I walk on air? I must examine twice
the ground I pass over, then I see I tread on ice
frozen to translucence, so I see the world beneath—
another watery world below, protected ‘neath its sheath.

Spellbinding order reigns below with creatures slipping by,
protected from the thunder of a threatening sky.
When lightning hits behind me, I hurry helter-skelter,
searching for protection from any nearby shelter.
But alas, here up above is not as below.
So near and yet so far away is that undertow.

Caught in my world, I pass above where I would choose to stay.
It flows beneath me peacefully as I pass away.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 544 prompt words are: north order hits thunder search freeze journey spellbinding power sacred

When I see the disenfranchised and homeless passing through our town coming from South or Central America with nowhere to go back to and yet having no place here and no real place to go to, I wonder how they feel, observing us in our lives that must seem perfect and without problems. To see and not to be able to have must be a heartrending situation.

A Guide to Good Service in a Snotty Restaurant

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A Guide to Good Service in a Snotty Restaurant

If you thought I was obsequious, have another think.
I was merely being cordial to get another drink.
The wait staff there was surly so I thought I would be nice,
although it seemed that in this joint, being cuddly was a vice.

There was some ambiguity in regards to being served.
It seems as though they gave the service they thought we deserved.
We couldn’t get attention with our arm-waving and hooting,
but luckily, before we came, we’d done some target shooting.

I put a bullet in the chamber and aimed it at the ceiling, 
and when our waiter heard the blast, he changed his way of dealing
with the placid customer at table number five.
It seems the way to win respect was leaving him alive.

He brought my gin and tonic with nary a snide quip.
He brought my crudités and even brought an extra dip.
And he didn’t raise an eyebrow or even curl his lip
when I left the restaurant without leaving a tip!!

 

Prompts for today are: chamber, blast, cuddly, obsequious and ambiguity. Image by Lefteris Kallergis on Unsplash.

Nomenclatural Revenge

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Nomenclatural Revenge

My repulsive nickname is an affront to my pride.
Whoever might have coined it most assuredly has lied.
When I queried who the rascal was, the usual rumor was
that nasty girl Rebecca, and the reason was because

I was dating Walter, the one she lusted for,
but who, because he prefers me, continues to ignore
the bodacious Rebecca, remaining in my arms
just because he prefers my  considerable  charms.

In spite, that bitch Rebecca says the name “Clock Face” should fit
because my face has passing time written all over it!
So I have coined a name for her. I’m going to call her “Lips”
for all the food  passed through them that’s recorded on her hips!

Kiss-off, Rebecca!

 

Prompts today are clock face, bodacious, query, rumor.First image by Glen Hodson on Unsplash. Second photo by me.