photo with permission by Adam Stefanca
Escape?
Tourists of every size and shape
visit the zoo to stand and gape
at lion, leopard, tiger, ape.
They eye its thickness as they gape
at chainlink, conjure up the scrape
of claws on metal, then on nape.
What is their likelihood of escape?
Today’s prompt word is escape.
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/escape/
Uneducated Palate
I haven’t a fine palate. I barely can distinguish
between the different dishes that I’m given to extinguish.
I do not know a dumpling from a fancy knish.
I do not have an inkling of the different sorts of fish.
So if you’re short of delicacies and you have to skimp,
just dole me out some hot dogs and save your fancy shrimp
for someone who appreciates the difference between them,
for I am just a landlocked girl who’s never even seen them!
Today’s prompt words are distinguish and skimp. Here are links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/rdp-thursday-distinguish-distinguished/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/09/fowc-with-fandango-skimp/
Jackman and Jillian
Jackman and Jillian ascended a height
because they were parched and required respite.
They possessed a flagon they desired to fill,
yet calamity transpired as they mounted the hill.
Jackman descended more quickly than planned,
Ruptured his cranium, fractured his hand,
rent his best raiment, untidied his hair,
while she also swooped downward on her derriere.
After reading my poem that parodied pretentious words today and writing her own, Christine Goodnough challenged me to write a poem parodying pretentious language. Can’t refuse a challenge, so. . . .
(See our earlier poems by clicking on links above.)
Melancholy
The campfire collapses into a plaintive rune,
echoing the plangent wolf call of a loon
that floats the silver pathway of the water-jellied moon.
I face our final parting. As I hear its taunting croon,
the humid night surrounds me in its tight cocoon.
Life is a cruel comedy whose laughter ebbs too soon.
The rune “pertho” designates secrets and chance. It’s sign is water.
Prompt words are plangent, anyway, comedy and river. Here are links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/rdp-monday-plangent/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/06/fowc-with-fandango-anyway/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/your-daily-word-prompt-comedy-may-6-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/river/
photo by Gloria Palazzo
Skating Lessons
Bazooka or Double Bubble
the biggest decision I had to make that June,
my mentor was the girl six years my senior
who lived two houses away.
Brown braids and freckles,
her calm made order out of mayhem,
her smile resolving daily skinned knees and bruises.
A skate key on a cord around her neck—
always dependable,
like some preteen utilitarian angel.
I skated through July,
hanging my last
in a long line
of replacement skate keys
securely around my neck
from my dad’s old compass cord,
knowing by some prescience
far beyond my years
that mentors, like meteors,
streak by quickly and are soon out of sight.
And…..remember this song very pertinent to the topic at hand?
Prompt words are mentor, compass, mayhem and bazooka.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/rdp-wednesday-mentor/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/your-daily-word-prompt-mayhem-may-1-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/bazooka/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/01/fowc-with-fandango-compass/
Limbo
My best friend taught me about limbo and saints,
Showed me their stacks of National Geographic.
You had to be invited into membership, she said,
not everyone could join. I rated them against
my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journals
and felt deficient, somehow.
No wine in our Methodist kitchen cupboards.
No tuna and salmon tins
stacked up awaiting Friday.
All those cans on my friend’s mother’s shelves in limbo
all Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
that long summer when we were still twelve.
Wanting something we didn’t yet know the name of.
Restless stirrings the little boys our age
did not know how to respond to.
All of them inches shorter than us
except for one—a tall country boy
new to town school,
the most innocent of all.
How we waited to be chosen—
the fact that we’d already chosen in our minds
having little consequence.
How we watched. How we kept secrets,
even from each other.
I knew what to call it, at least,
if not much else,
that summer I turned thirteen,
expectantly,
and
absolutely
nothing changed.
Limbo.
The dVerse poets prompt is “Limbo.”
But Jimmy Cliff says it best!!!!
And “Limbo” of a different sort was two years in our future:
Hunters and Gatherers
Each animal survives because of some unique ability.
The chipmunk gets along in life because of its nimbility.
It scampers over rocks and logs with speed and grace and pluck
to grab up errant picnic crumbs (on days when it’s in luck.)
Lions live by tooth and claw and speed to hunt their prey.
Cows just use their molars to masticate their hay.
Incisors furnish beavers with foliage and bark.
Raccoons have larger eyes than us for hunting in the dark.
If food in lofty places is what monkeys desire,
they can use prehensile thumbs to journey ever higher,
but an elephant’s long trunk can help him reach what he may please
obviating his necessity to climb up trees.
Humans , however, do not need trunks or speed or climbing.
They do not need agility or viciousness or timing.
They have no need to wait in hiding by some water hole.
They simply use their money to buy filet of sole!
Today’s prompt words are nimble, obviate, desire and money. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/rdp-monday-nimble/
FOWC with Fandango — Obviate
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/your-daily-word-prompt-desire-april-29-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/money/
The NaPoWriMo prompt today was to write a poem about poetry. I wrote this poem two years ago for NaPoWriMo, but it is perfect for this prompt, so I’m reblogging it. I also wrote another fresh poem today which you can find HERE.
Poet Pie
Pick an armful of fresh words from the poet tree.
Trim off dry leaves. Dispose of the ordinary or over-ripe.
Choose words that flower when juxtaposed.
Choose tiny clinging bees that sting.
Choose pollen dusted blossoms that make you sneeze.
Choose fragile leaves that swing when you breathe on them,
staunch stalks that do not budge.
Throw them in a vase so that they go where they want to go,
then rearrange to suit your fancy.
Admire your arrangement
as you bring a stock to boil.
This stock consists of honey and vinegar,
water to float the theme,
lightly peppered with adjectives
and salted with strong verbs.
When the water boils, break nouns from your bouquet.
Tender stalks may be sliced to syllables, but leave the flowers whole.
Do not cook too long lest they be too weak to chew upon.
Scoop with a wire ladle and lay…
View original post 507 more words
Urban Princess
Those bucolic pleasures such as sleeping in a tent
are clearly not the pleasures for which this girl was meant.
I prefer my pleasures slightly more urbane.
Cooking over campfires? Definitely insane.
I find it most peculiar— this sleeping in the sticks—
where there are bears and badgers and mosquitos and ticks!
If life is a tapestry composed of warp and weave,
the warped part would be country life, I’m given to believe.
I represent the city scene. That is where I belong,
so If your plans include the countryside, I shall not go along.
Picnics? They’re for peasants. This sitting in the grass
with merely a thin blanket to separate your ass
from the dirt and ants and briars , friend, just isn’t me.
I prefer a terrace floor complete with canopy!
That’s the extent of sylvan pleasures that I’m content to try,
so if vacation plans are rural, I beg—just pass me by!
Disclaimer: This is an assumed personality, dear readers. I used to love camping and I’m not averse to cooking over a campfire or, if given a hand up afterwards, to sitting in the grass.
Prompt words today are warp, bucolic, represent and peculiar. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/ragtag-sunday-warp/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/04/28/fowc-with-fandango-bucolic/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/your-daily-word-prompt-represent-april-28-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/peculiar/
Premature Departure
In this lackluster party,
even the guacamole’s gray!
It’s not the proper ending
to an equally dull day.
The secret of good parties
lies within their zing.
Who enjoys a party
that never quite takes wing?
The soda pop has all gone flat,
The wine being decanted?
Everyone who tasted it
thereafter soon recanted.
From this dreadful party,
we all beg prompt respite.
What could possibly happen
to address our stressful plight?
I’ve wasted this new outfit
that makes me look so thin,
for it’s identical to one
our party giver’s in!!
The music is all polkas
and the orchestra’s off-key.
What will be the next disaster?
I cannot bear to see.
I see that last thought’s irony
as I flick off the light,
grab my coat, slip out the door,
and vanish in the night.
The prompt words today are identical, respite, lies and lackluster. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/rdp-saturday-identical/
FOWC with Fandango — Respite
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/your-daily-word-prompt-lies-april-27-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/lacklustre/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 