Tag Archives: #MVB

Nuclear Winter

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Nuclear Winter

Both winner and loser give voice to their regret,
for in this race to nowhere, there’s nowhere left to get.
Noting the deficiency of all that’s left to win,
they march around in circles, from here to where they’ve been.
Observing all the patterns followed from the start,
the trophy that they’ve won is, alas, a purple heart.

Prompt words today are winner, observe, regret, march, deficiency and nowhere. Image by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash.

Do you find this first comment on my blog ironic? This is a screen shot of my first notification, immediately after posting the above war poem:

Caged Bird

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(Click on Photos to Englarge)

Caged Bird

My cage is comfortable, but
it is a homey sort of rut.
Is it not reasonable for
a bird to want a whole lot more?

Confined to this continual squeeze,
I yearn for freedom of the trees—
the air, the feel of wind on wings.
One should not confine wild things.

 

Prompts today are reasonable, homey, confine, trees.

Who Am I?

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Who Am I?

Am I an expensive ornament
you wear on your arm,
ignoring its effect
on those who stare
and envy you your bling?

Or an appendage—
another arm to fetch and carry
your son and daughter—
all those leftover 
parts of you?

Or am I the wallpaper
dressing up the walls around you—
called the culprit by those
who do not know you are the one
who builds the walls?

Prompt words today are wallpaper,  appendage, ignore, culprit and expensive. All images 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.

Familial One-upmanship

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Familial One-upmanship

My brother has a reputation for excessive lingering.
I think he has advanced degrees in mooching and malingering.

The black sheep of the family, the brunt of all our jokes,
at forty-three he still receives an allowance from our folks.

He ruins family dinners by being loud and brash.
His favorite interactions end up in a clash.

Discussing brands of vodka or motor cars or fashions,
he’s bound to expound at great length about his latest passions.

His family is his outlet for letting off his steam.
His exquisite taste in clothing dissected seam-by-seam.

We get no word in edgewise when conversing with this brother,
so when choosing a table mate, I veer toward any other.

There’s one in every family, it’s true right down the line,
but if you’ve one you’d like to trade, I’d gladly trade you mine.

Prompt words today are discuss, outlet, malinger, clashes, brash,allowance, exquisite and vodka.  (I took this picture but it is not my family.  I took it at a town reunion years ago and it is used for illustrative purposes only. I don’t have any brothers, so the guy  in the poem is fictional, but you might recognize him anyway.)

Ode to the Las Vegas Buffet

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Ode to the Las Vegas Buffet

After some poker and roulette and craps,
we return to our rooms for some well-deserved naps.
The gambler in me has been curbed at a cost.
One poker chip memento, and the rest has been lost.

As I sink into bed, worries float away,
heavenward-bound as I doze in the hay.
Tomorrow’s buffet—that iconic repast
will insure our regrets over losses won’t last.

We’ll pile our plates, then come back for more
until we pop out of the clothes that we wore.
We’ll recoup our losses, for the assets we left
we’ll take home again in our bodily heft!

 

Prompt words today are float, gambler, memento, repast, heavenward and iconic. Images by Aidan Howe and Kenny Eliason

Open Range

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Open Range

Most cowboys are beef-witted. They ride the open range
decrying life in cities, avoiding any change.

They scan the far horizon to detect changes in the weather—
rain or hail or funnel clouds and speculating whether

to move the herd to shelter, making noises that will soothe them,
wondering if moves down towards the south draw might behoove them.

Their horses part the tall grass like a boat might part the sea.
Their lives out in the open are kitchen and bathroom-free.

They cook over a campfire and when it’s time to pee,
they mosey over yonder where no one else can see.

Prompt words for today are: bathroom, speculating, beef-witted,  noises  and   boat,

 

I decry the usual definition of beef-witted and hereby expand its definition. I’m presently in South Dakota at my town and school reunion. Plenty of cowboys here and in fact I took this photo a number of years ago on main street  at another town reunion.

Easy Love Affair

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Easy Love Affair

When I’m atop my sweetheart, everything’s sublime.
My time with her is perfect every single time.

Once I had a sampling of everything she does,
no other loved one of her kind could satisfy because

I needn’t be too active, for she does all the work.
She is not loud or vulgar. She does not yank or jerk.

If you would like to see me put her through her courses,
come out to my stable, for there are lots more horses!!!

 

Prompt words today are  atop, sample, sweetheart, loud and active. Image is a detail from a photo by Sebastian Hermann on Unsplash.

Headline News

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Headline News

I think for a week or two that I will remain
tucked away within the walls of my own domain.
That I made the headlines was flattering, more or less,
but the fact that I’ve turned sexy was a misprint, you might guess.
Still, so many have indulged their need for jokes at my expense
that I have had to seize this means to come to my defense.
Though my physical condition is healthy, fit and agile,
I find my sense of humor is becoming rather fragile.

It is “sixty” I turned yesterday, not “sexy” as reported.
Years have passed since I was so venereally comported.
My past generosity in spreading love around
I left back in the sixties and since then I have found
that piety becomes me, so I’ve trod another path,
thus, you’ll understand my embarrassment and wrath
at what some find as funny and so I took the action
of insisting that the paper issue a retraction.

But the form of their retraction, I must say, I found unkind.
The headline I’m not sexy was not what I had in mind.

Prompts today are.: domain,  indulge, agile, misprint and  generous,   Image by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash.