Tag Archives: #FOWC

Spousal Failure

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Spousal Failure

My sister met a minister over Love.Com
who’d found God in the trenches while in Vietnam.
And though he had a talent at saving a lost soul,
in fact he was so holy that she slipped out through a hole.

It seems she had an allergy to men who sought to change her.
She thought she’d find another with no need to rearrange her.
And since the fees for Love.Com were close to a King’s ransom,
she set out on her own to find a man over the transom.

She sought him on the subway, at work and in the park.
She sought him in the glare of day and sought him in the dark.
When any man came nigh, she looked him over head-to-toe,
consumed with locating a man wherever she might go.

But an illuminated person, I fear that she is not.
So working on her own, she never found the love she sought.
And since the great love of her life went sadly undetected,
She should have settled on that minister that she rejected.

Rejected ending:

And so, I hate to say, she spent her whole life as a spinster.
All in all, perhaps she should have settled on the minster!

Word prompts are ransom, nigh, consume, minister, illuminated.and allergy
Image by Mosoianu Bogdan on Unsplash.

Kissing With Eyes Closed

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Kissing With Eyes Closed

Though she was not disappointed by the fervor of his kiss,
 in fact it was misguided, for it was a total miss.
It landed on her lash extensions, eyelids to the tips, 
but it would have been more piquant if planted on her lips.

He mopped his sweaty forehead, which was damp from the exertion,
then went in for another kiss in spite of her assertion
that he needn’t do an update. One kiss was quite enough.
Perhaps they could go for a walk or do some other stuff.

Thus ended their first date which could have been a fine romance,
if only she had thought to give the chap a second chance.
Kissing with eyes opened, he was sure that he would kill,
but, alas, I’m fairly certain that he never will.

 

Prompts today are mop, fervor, bereft, piquant, extension and update. Click on prompt links if you want to read other poems to the same prompt or to discover the source to play along yourself.

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.

Dream Perch

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Houndstooth Pillow

Dream Perch

When I can’t locate my pillow, my immediate reaction
is to galvanize my efforts in investigatory action.
I’m elated if I find it slipped behind my bed,
and I immediately restore it to its place beneath my head.

But if I cannot find it and do not have something better,
I have to improvise and use a wadded up old sweater!
When away from home, though, if I require a few
winks and have no sweater, any passing dog will do!

 

 

Prompt words today are pillow, locate, galvanising, elate and sweater.

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.