Floral Alphabet Challenge and FOTD–The Letter “G,” Sept. 20, 2022
For the Floral Alphabet and FOTD
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
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.
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
Family Secrets
The mayor’s precious daughter has that certain glow,
but why the groom is deadpan, no one will ever know.
That he prefers the maid of honor is the murky truth,
but to show his real emotions he knows would be uncouth.
Hand-picked by her father to assure his re-election,
this young man of fine lineage was an obvious selection.
He should have put his foot down, but their fathers were best friends
and his marriage to another would not meet those families’ ends.
So when future generations question Grandpa’s look
as they rifle through the pages of the family photo book,
they’ll guess the bachelor party had gone on for too long,
affecting the groom’s fitness and his wedding get-along.
Only two will ever know the real truth of the tale.
First, the maid of honor who smoothed her best friend’s veil,
and secondly the groom, who when he kissed the bride
imagined he was kissing the one who stood beside.
Prompt words today are glow, deadpan, election, murky, mayor, prefer and precious. Image from Pinterest.
Whirl
The rumor is that I will fall for anything in pants,
but it’s a reputation I only gained by chance.
It really isn’t warranted, for I must feel a spark.
I’m not apt to woo anyone merely for a lark.
I’m just giving feedback, though it’s really no big deal,
of how I earned my reputation on a Ferris wheel.
I went up as a single, but after a spin or two,
another swinging single came into my view.
He was a mere acquaintance. I’d seen him once or twice
on a barstool at the tavern, and I thought him very nice.
I was a mere scrap of a girl, and he was big and burly.
He had a classic profile and his smile was wide and pearly.
My second spin around the wheel, I gave the smile of smiles,
hoping I could interest him with my girlish wiles.
It must have worked for on my very next time going round,
I saw that fellow standing on the boarding mound.
The spinning stopped while they removed my safety bar and he
climbed right in beside me and turned his smile on me.
I don’t know the legality. Is love a bonafide
excuse to board new people in the middle of a ride?
I do not know the answer, but I know for sure it worked,
and when the safety bar went on and that big wheel jerked
me up into the air again, I never rued the stop,
for we were locked in our first kiss before we reached the top.
Although I started solo, we came to earth a pair.
I had found my next true love way up there in the air,
proving it once and for all that romance may be found
even in a swinging cage fifty feet off the ground.
And while the whole experience prompted jubilation,
it had a negative effect on my reputation.
So though I still find rides upon the Ferris wheel are neato,
I arrive there fully masked and I ride incognito!
Prompts for the day are incognito, feedback, spark, acquaintance, scrap, Ferris wheel and legality. Image by Juliana Malta on Unsplash
Doorways
Dreams do not circumscribe, but let us wander forth and back,
defying time to travel through memory’s broad crack.
The profile of the present vanishes in rapid transit
without asking us if we are in the shape to chance it.
Our minds’ stately mansions turn to crackerboxes when
that unconscious part of us has a wild yen
to plunge us back into the past to deal with problems there
for which our earlier life gave us scant time to prepare.
Time and again we have the chance to live our lives in dreams,
resolving problems in a manner our subconscious deems
to be healthy solutions to what didn’t work before.
It is as though the elements opened up a door
and let us wander back again through time and distance vast
to give us all a second chance to rectify the past.
Reminding us that our old sorrows were not meant to last,
revising slightly all those roles to which we have been cast.
Time that once sifted slowly rushes through the hourglass,
assuring us of that set truth: that this, too, shall pass.
Prompts today are time travel, transit, profile, circumscribe, healthy, crackerbox and element. First photo by jdb, hourglass by Aron Visuals on Unsplash.
Family Reunion
Thunder crashes, warning that her homecoming will not be ideal. These people know all her dirty little secrets and as is symptomatic of siblings, even those supposed to be mature, they are sure to reveal some of her past sins. She once wrote an award-winning satire based on her family, but of course the irony was wasted on them. She came from a literal and humorless family. She had actually considered skipping this reunion, but then reconsidered. Once she has sold her newest story to the New Yorker, the trip will be tax-deductible, and where is she likely to find better material?
Prompts today are dirty, symptomatic, waste, satire, thunder and homecoming. Photo by Ben White on Unsplash.
Luminous
He surely struck the bullseye when he razed his squalid hovel
and starting out with little else than hammer, saw and shovel,
he raised a lovely edifice seven stories high,
an apartment building most pleasing to the eye.
Making not a single blunder, all the work that he put in
transformed a former eyesore into a brilliant win.
Luminous and shining, this glorious property
became a local landmark that people came to see.
Those who sought to live there were multiform and varied,
for folks of every background loved the energy it carried.
It was a living monument to industry and wit,
qualities reflected in the folks who lived in it.
The prompts today are luminous, bullseye, win, blunder, multiform, apartment building and hovel.
The hand-forged hammer in the illustration was my father’s. Its handle is covered in leather rings. It is one of my most treasured objects.
I love this tiny succulent plant being created from a single fallen leaf. Note roots that have already started to develop. During the rainy season, it doesn’t even require soil.
For Cee’s FOTD
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 