Category Archives: Poetry

Poems in many categories: Loss, NaPoWriMo

Fishermen

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(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Fishermen

On platforms built over the bay,
the fishermen begin their day.
In spite of last-night’s sordid fun,
they’re up before the day’s begun,
ready to join their fishing fleet
so later we can leave replete
with fish from platters piled high
with clams and shrimp and codfish pie.

Wild fishermen of bar or tavern,
in days of old in inn or cavern
drank their wine and emerged bleary
to their boats, hungover, weary.
Simon and Andrew were the first
to leave their fishing nets and thirst
for cups of wine filled to the brim
to change their lives and follow him.

Joined after by the other ten,
they all became fishers of men.
And even though eons ago
they, too, had their wild oats to sow,
these fishermen would be surprised
that since then they’ve been canonized,
thus feeding souls with other than
can be dished out in dish or pan.

 Prompt words are platform, sordid, bash, canonize, fleet and platter.

Vindi”cat”ion

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Truculent Twos and the Fourth of July

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Truculent Twos and the Fourth of July

A starburst of fireworks up in the sky
caught the truculent child’s wandering eye.
Took his mind off his troubles  and saved the vacation
which had formerly suffered from his tribulation.
His folks’ cogent reasonings wondering why
could not hold a candle to things in the sky
that vanquished his agony, lifting him higher
toward massive explosions of  glorious fire.

Prompts today are starburst, cogent, truculent, intrusive, trouble and vacation.

Broken Resolutions

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Broken Resolutions

I admire your resolution as you once more launch a new one.
Eying the lovely ladies, saying you’re not going to woo one,
but I fear your resolution is due to soon elapse
as you inevitably launch into your annual relapse.

The Miss America pageant should commence with a dire warning
lest an evening’s entertainment turn obsessional by morning.
Men such as yourself who are merely Cupid’s dupe
might find themselves trapped helpless like a fly drowned in the soup.

As you dream of Miss Missouri or fixate on Illinois,
you might find yourself transforming into just a boy
and imagine it’s your privilege, perhaps, to have a date
with the prettiest maiden in the next adjoining state.

But, alas, it’s only dreaming—the result of your illusions
that you can live out your most impossible delusions.
All those lovely ladies that you most desire to woo you
are the ones most likely to reject and eschew you

Prompt words today are admire, warning, elapse, launch, soup, privilege .

Back of the Fridge

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Back of the Fridge

Free from the air current’s rush and flow,
the fridge back’s where the spiders go
to spin their webs and catch their prey.
We should give thanks for them, ‘cuz they
 trap flies that land upon our snacks,
dive-bomb our faces, roam our backs
and cause us all so much dismay,
so let your resident spiders stay.
Better in their hidden place
than buzzing flies right in your face.

Trolling for flies in the kitchen.

For SOCS prompt: Back of the Fridge

Things That Go Bump In The Night

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Things That Go Bump In The Night

On Samhain tiny goblins compete with tinier witches,
holding out their candy bags with pleading looks and twitches.
Trading in their own names like Sandy, John and Luke,
they go by their pseudonyms of Zombie, Ghoul and Spook.

They only have ’til midnight to cease their operation
of collecting candy, to their great consternation,
for it is at the midnight hour that real ghouls congregate
with witches, ghosts and zombies at the graveyard gate.

Old miners follow flume trails down looking for the gold
that seemed to evade them in the days of old.
Dead school marms lift their rulers looking for a kid to swat,
And zombies execute last haunts before their final rot.

Ghoulies swoop down from the trees and witches brew their brews,
vowing to force feed their glop to any kid they choose.
So best be in your beds before the midnight toll
lest you be absconded with by zombie or by troll!!!!!

Prompts for today are spook, twitch, *Samhain, *flume,  operation, pseudonym,

*Flumes were  wooden troughs elevated on trestles that ran down a mountainside to bring gold down from futher up the mountain.  They were also used in the transportation of logs in the logging industry. We used to hike up the flume trail at summer camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

*Our Halloween evolved as a combination of All Souls Day and Samhain, an early Gaelic and Celtic harvest festival which contained many of the elements that evolved into the custom of dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating.

Screwing it Up

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Screwing it Up

The superlative woman never winds up in the middle,
for in other people’s marriages she has no urge to fiddle.
Not one fraction of her being is cunning or deceptive.
She belittles no one but is always most receptive

to helping friends with problems, and she always finds an answer
in combatting any problem short of income tax or cancer.
Has she any weakness? I’ve found only one so far.
She is totally hopeless at opening a jar!

Though she tries unscrewing it using all her might,
somehow every lid she meets is just screwed on too tight,
and though she’s never screwed up in anything she did,
it avails her little when unscrewing a lid.

Prompt words for today are superlative, belittle, deceptive, fraction, middle, woman and irrational.

Unlimited Viewing Possibilities

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Unlimited Viewing Possibilities

The very lovely playa was a playground for the rich
who lay around on blankets, wearing not a stitch.
When folks passed, salutations were snappy and most clever
with their eyes averted, for it’s certain that they never
wanted to be caught in the act when they were staring
at the certain body parts acquaintances were baring.

For no matter what their habitus, everyone was nude,
and to stare at body fat was considered rude.
But for sure some bikers were deserving of medals
as they kept eyes straight ahead, attending to their pedals,
limiting their viewpoint to a small straight-ahead niche,
avoiding the environment spread out on the beach.

Prompts for today are snappy, medal, salutations, habitus, environment, playground. Image by Shifaaz Shamoon on Unsplash.

Culinary Differences (Coping with an Artistic Palate)

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Culinary Differences
(Coping with an Artistic Palate)

I’ll admit that I’m perplexed
for my spouse is sorely vexed
because he finds my menus bland
and untouched by artistic hand.

He finds my soup so pale and thin, it
needs a bit of color in it,
so I asked him how to do
more pleasing palettes for my stew.

He painted me a portrait of
a consommé he said he’d love
with so many veggies in it
and a ruby wine to thin it.

He’d like to wrap his mouth around
colors that are more profound.
to the point where I’m perplexed
over what I should cook next.

My color combination tends
towards browns and whites of various blends. 
Might I aspire to red and yellow,
with pickled beets in lemon Jell-o?

He says my taste in food is static
whereas his is more erratic.
But, tired of his bitch and moan,
perhaps I’ll let him cook his own.

Alternate ending:  (don’t read this one, Sam)

He suggests a novel dish
of tomato aspic around fish?
The thought of it makes my lips pucker.
Perhaps I’ll just divorce the -ucker!!!

 

Prompts today are red and yellow, pickle, perplexed, aspire, mouth, portrait and erratic. All of the images are from Unsplash.

Detente in the Animal Kingdom

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Detente in the Animal Kingdom

The queen of hippopatamuses feels a bit perplexed
for she crossed the hyenas and now she has been hexed.
They’ve jinxed her favorite swimming hole so she has to swim
in a muddy tiny pond with crocs around the rim.

When she lumbers from the pond to have her usual binge
on grass, her favorite supper, she feels a little twinge.
It seems like in the puddle where she most recently sat,
waddling through the bottom mud, dragging all her fat,

she must have nudged a bit too close to a crocodile
and snagged a bit of hippo fat on his croco-smile.
He’s swinging there behind her, his tooth hooked on her tush,
creating  a great disarray while crashing through the bush.

With her competing waddle, they’re an ecological threat,
destroying all the underbrush as they thrash and vet.
How will they resolve this problem that they cause?
First it’s necessary that they cool down and pause

to make peace with the hyenas so they can use their claws
to disentangle hippo skin from the croc’s sharp jaws,
thus restoring order and reinstating peace
so all this inter-species angst finally will cease!!!

Prompt words today are jinx, swing, perplexed,disarray, compete, twinge and hippopatamus. Image by J. Anders on Unsplash.