Tag Archives: #MVB-PROMPT

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.

Wild Nights

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Click on Photos to Enlarge.

2001-2022

Wild Nights 

I’m caught up in my surreal dream,
irrational as it might seem,
of tabby cats and wolverines
in leather jackets and distressed jeans,
their animal natures left behind
for culture of a human kind.

Armadillos playing squash,
then coming over for a nosh.
Butterflies on roller skates
hobnobbing with potentates,
wings integral in lifting up
to table level as they sup.

Kangaroos keep up the beat
by drumming with their paws and feet.
Cicadas sound their castanets,
summoning their sobriquets*
as rain joins in with steady drumming,
to accompany their humming.

Varied species get along:
wolf and canary join in song,
the party only breaking up
when I’m awakened by my pup
and the pets of my imagination
succumb once more to sublimation.

2022

*In Mexico, cicadas are nicknamed “Rainbirds” because their noisy clatter announces the imminent arrival of the rainy season.

Prompt words today are: culture, squash, surreal,integral, wolf, tabby cat and irrational. Photos of cat, butterfly, cicada and Zoe biting my ear are all by me. The rest are thanks to Unsplash.

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.

Driven

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Driven

If only we had been more patient
when our child’s skills were nascent.
Hadn’t prodded, hadn’t shoved,
that young one we so dearly loved,
had not created goals irrational
local, regional and national,
vying for ribbons and for gold,
pushing for numbers over-bold.

If we had stressed an education,
built a stabler foundation,
put less zhuzh into her clothes
and more of it in what she knows,
the cyberbullies who mocked her fall
would have had no power at all,
to instigate the wounded pride
that led her to her suicide.
But as it is, it was our sin
that did our lovely daughter in.

 

Prompt words are ribbon, zhuzh, numbers, nascent,foundation,cyberbullying and irrational. Image by Kirklai 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.

Defences Make Good Neighbors

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Defences Make Good Neighbors

My neighbor is gregarious but I never talk back,
although I feel I’ll detonate for rejoinders I lack.
They all swell up inside me because they come too late
to be used against her in a retaliatory debate.

If only I’d known what to say before it was too dated,
but alas, past tirades can’t be rejuvenated. 
Her face and clothes are scrumptious, but her view of life is black.
She sees the worst in people, and it turn they see it back.

Every time I look at her, no matter how I try,
I only see a personage that I want to pass by.
So all her earthly beauty, her jewels and her clothing
cannot compensate for a world of mutual loathing.

Prompts for today are rejuvenate, before, scrumptious, detonate, look, black and gregarious. Image by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash.

My apologies to Robert Frost for parodying his last line of “Mending Wall.” (Good fences make good neighbors.)  Actually, eight years ago I wrote a parody of his poem as well. HERE it is if you aren’t already tired of the topic.

Perfectionist Poet

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Perfectionist Poet

How I love an audience to witness my successes,
although I think much less of them when they witness my messes—
fingers marked by fountain pens, hair pulled into peaks
by those elusive phrases that my wild mind seeks.

Please don’t view me in the market when I don’t mean to be seen.
When I’ve had no time to arrange thoughts —no time to plot and preen.
There are certain safeguards  that I like to take
that are not in place yet when I’m barely awake.

So don’t observe me in the morning when I’m not in my full glory,
when my brain is tongue-tied and my thoughts are sparse and gory.
It’s my fervid wish to please, but morning thoughts are frugal.
My images are less like Frost and much more like Brueghal.

So, please come to my readings to see me at my best,
but avoid me in my daily life, please, at my behest.
I prefer you view me with every word in place
there upon the stage and with makeup on my face!!!

 

Prompt words today are audience, market, safeguard, fervid, glory, fountain pen, frugal. Image by John Tyson on Unsplash.

R.I.P.

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R.I.P.

No fall to earth, no plaintive cry.
No false regrets. No ending sigh.

No stab, no arrow and no shot.
All of these things were not her lot.

No accusation of who’s to blame.
No faulty party here to name.

Let mourners mourn if mourn they must,
reduce her body into dust.

They do it all to no avail,
She sees no tears. She hears no wail.

I fear your mourning goes too slow.
Only her body remains below,

for she departed long ago
to melt into that greater flow.

For her, all mortal customs cease,
so let her mourners rest in peace.

Prompts offered at this point are plaintive, accusation, stab,

Maria

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Maria

I’m dull-witted and dysfunctional, I’m of no high degree.
I’ve no diploma in a frame. I am a refugee.
I know you think I’m no account and of the lowest order
just because the chances are I sneaked over the border.

But you’ve been on my horizon since the day that I was born.
I’m the brown girl on that other side of town you choose to scorn.
Perhaps I scrub your sinks out and walk your kids to school.
Because I do not speak your language well, you think I am a fool.

So far I’m ineffective in showing who I am.
You furtively observe my movements with your insta cam
to make sure I don’t steal from you or seduce your spouse.
You request I don’t show up again in that sexy blouse.

But I’m as smart as I am pretty and I go to school at night.
One day I will convince you that a brown girl can be bright.
One day I’ll teach your kids in school, and believe me when I do,
I’ll teach them not to be stubborn and prejudiced like you!!!!

Prompts for today are frame, refugee, account, ineffective, horizon, stubborn, dysfunctional. Image by Omar Lopez on Unsplash.

Morning-After Headaches

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I thought she asked if we wanted “regular” or “little” margaritas. It turns out she was saying “liter.” Guess which we ordered?

Morning-After Headaches

The candor of the bottle brings trouble in the morning
when its repercussions start to bloom with little warning.

One’s midnight refusal to utter statements truthless
might, once daylight dawns, be considered to be ruthless.

A drunk’s stubborn insistence to reflect only reality
has been known to end relationships with a certain finality.

Hidden covetous feelings might hereby be revealed
when questioning the ethics of a friend’s investment yield.

One more lifted shot glass can cause snafus in decisions
over topics covered in the next round of derisions.

So some strategic planning should be used on one’s nights out,
regarding confidential matters that one is apt to spout.

When drinking, topics talked about must thus be planned strategically,
for pains caused by loose lips are not ones solved analgesically.

 

 

Prompt words today are bottle ,snafu, covetous, strategic, reality, stubborn, candor.