America the Beautiful
I won’t whitewash my puzzlement. Can’t understand
why the people we’ve chosen to govern our land
Would consider it sane, for even a minute
to ever put toxic chemicals in it!
The prompt words today are whitewash, puzzlement and toxic.
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/06/fowc-with-fandango-whitewash/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/your-daily-word-prompt-puzzlement-february-6-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/toxic/
Cowboys
When considering cowboys, there’s much to admire.
They’re tough and they’re skilled and available for hire.
Their style’s not eclectic. They all look the same.
They’re wild and they’re wooly. Not easy to tame.
They’re never clandestine. They’re out in the open.
Just shootin’ and spittin’ and ridin’ and ropin’.
Made out of leather and chew and barbed wire,
nobody knows when cowboys expire.
For though they aren’t known for their tact or their heart,
there’s much to admire in how they depart.
No need for a service or funeral pyre,
no casket, no preacher, no flowers, no choir.
They merely climb up and sit straight in the saddle,
ride toward the horizon and simply skedaddle.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/rdp-monday-skedaddle/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/04/fowc-with-fandango-eclectic/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/your-daily-word-prompt-clandestine-february-4-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/admire/
The only two prompts already published when I was awakened AT TWO IN THE MORNING!!!!! by some asshole driving back and forth and back and forth five feet from my open bedroom window on a motorcycle with no muffler and obviously some sort of amplifier on his tailpipe that made it sound like a series of cherry bombs going off at 1/10th of a second intervals!!!!!! were “hindsight” and “tricky.” Feels like I’ll never get to sleep again, so might as well write. Here goes:
Futile Reflection
It is a tricky irony that memory is slow
in letting loose of the mistakes that we’d love to let go
when wisdom gained by hindsight’s too far after the fact
to alter the reality of a foolish act.
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/03/fowc-with-fandango-hindsight/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/your-daily-word-prompt-tricky-february-3-2019/
jdbphoto
Stasis
At the zenith of her powers, the glamorous Ms. Z
knew well the art of camouflage. No one could really see
the heretic that lived inside the one in the first pew.
Not even her most loyal friends knew she was a Jew.
Times call for extreme measures, whatever might protect
and preserve us from dark powers, who if they detect
any threatening differences might decide to strike.
One yesterday thought “charming,” today just labeled “kike!”
What small differences between us do we all obscure?
What hidden denials must we all endure?
Convention is a schoolmarm with a ruler in her hand
ready to dish out punishment for any action banned.
One drop of blood not Aryan or thought that’s not mainstream,
any errant choice of style, any avant dream
might be grounds for action, for all good people know
the harm that comes from those who might upset the status-quo.
*kike is derived from the Hebrew word for circle, which is the mark many jews made on their immigration papers coming into America instead of an X for their signature. Like many other racial slurs, it came from immigration officers who used it a s short-hand for a population group entering the country.
The prompt words today are camouflage, heretic, glamorous and zenith.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/rdp-thursday-camouflage/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/31/fowc-with-fandango-heretic/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/your-daily-word-prompt-glamorous-january-31-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/zenith/
jdbphoto
Voyeur
Steady days and vagrant nights pull this way and that.
By day a busy beaver, midnights a roving cat
haunting every low-life bar, spending bucks and time,
trying to find that side of life apart from the sublime.
Dipping into shadows. Edging around the slime
of the seamier pleasures. Contemplating crime.
Eying dangerous companions but staying self-contained.
All dangerous encounters simply mimed and feigned.
Flirting with the dark side, but reined in by the light,
only skirting stealthily the pleasures of the night.
(Photo for illustrative purposes only. In no way is the poem really about the person pictured!) The prompt words today were vagrant, range, slime and haunting.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/rdp-thursday-vagrant/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/24/fowc-with-fandango-range/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/your-daily-word-prompt-slime-january-24-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/haunting/
No Head for Business
I fear I must be adamant in stating my demands.
In this I am unshakeable. My initial sales price stands.
I do not like this bargaining. I find it all a chore.
I’d rather be off wandering. Business is a bore.
And though I must admit that your demeanor is most affable,
your offer is too little. In fact I find it laughable.
It will do no good to counter offer. I’m set on the price
that would reimburse me for leaving paradise.
I have no bottom offer. This is no power game.
To nickel and to dime it is a practice I find lame.
The palm trees are all swaying, there’s hot water in the pool,
and the more I think about it, I see that I’m a fool
to leave this little Shangri-la. Where would I find its sequel?
It’s clear that for the price I ask I could not find its equal!
Here swinging in my hammock with a cocktail and my pup,
I am so contented that my sales price just went up!!
Prompt words today were chore, affable, adamant and power.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/rdp-friday-chore/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/18/fowc-with-fandango-affable/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/your-daily-word-prompt-adamant-january-18-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/power/
Click on any photo to enlarge all.
Journeys
Every conversation is a quest two people enter
from opposite directions to converge at its center.
The hard part of the journey commences with their greeting—
an intricate endeavor not completed with first meeting.
With each new associate, we visit a new land.
With each conversation, our horizons expand
into lands exotic, tragic or entertaining.
Perhaps enemy territory—often with no training.
Do we take umbrage with their words or enter, unprotesting,
the world that they offer—experimenting, testing
new mental mountains, jungles where vivid birds might call,
beckoning us onwards, or do we meet a wall
that offers us no access—sealed up, rigid, cold—
closed to all explorers, nearly obscured with mold?
What journeys do we offer ourselves to those we meet?
Do we offer easy access or promise sure defeat?
Life was designed for journeying. Daily, new vacations.
Some conversations novels and others mere quotations.
Some trips an experience you wouldn’t choose again—
just another whistle stop on life’s commuter train.
The prompt words today are quest, umbrage, intricate and associate.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/rdp-wednesday-quest/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/16/fowc-with-fandango-umbrage/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/intricate/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/your-daily-word-prompt-associate-january-16-2019/
Out of Order
If you’re an avid planner—an agenda sort of man,
life seems to have a fondness for screwing up your plan.
Ideology is fine so long as you take note
that fate seems to have other schemes than life lived out by rote.
Providence is naughty. It thinks irony is divine.
It likes to move our decimal points, nudge columns out of line.
It screws around with calendars, plays jokes with weather, too.
It messes up your Windsor knot, conceals one favorite shoe.
It messes up collections and puts them out of sequence.
confuses medication in its timing and its frequence.
So if life changes the rules after you think you’ve won,
learn what it seeks to teach you: spontaneity is fun!
Prompt words today were collection, avid, ideology and plan.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/ragtag-daily-prompt-tuesday-collection/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/15/fowc-with-fandango-avid/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/your-daily-word-prompt-ideology-january-15-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/plan/
Basking
Cats love of apricity is more than just a fluke.
It is a vital tendency and so we can’t rebuke
our cats for lying prone a lot in any ray of sun.
A cat’s in need of toasting as much as any bun.
If you can imagine a Kardashian without
the flash of any flashbulb, you will without a doubt
be able to imagine a cat without the rays
filtered through venetian blinds, or fully in the blaze
of a scorching summer sun. A cat can withstand all
the heat that we can give them, in summer, winter fall.
And if there is no sun at all, a cat can just make do
with the full attention of a surrogate like you!!!
(Enlarge all photos by clicking on any one.)
Prompt words for today are vital, rebuke, apricity and imagine.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/rdp-monday-vital/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/14/fowc-with-fandango-rebuke/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/your-daily-word-prompt-apricity-january-14-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/imagine/
The Memento
Yes, I received your letter and the enmity enclosed.
And yes, it has accomplished what you probably supposed.
I here enclose your photograph. I have no further need of it.
If I want to end the grieving, I must dispose of the seed of it.
I’m burning all your letters and crumbling your dried roses,
disposing of your paintings of me in different poses.
I’m in need of no mementos to bring you back again.
I need no souvenirs to remember all the pain.
These ashes are the lovelock you asked me for that night.
I found it in your pillowcase the morning of our fight.
Its cremated remains were easiest to send.
They are so easily scattered to signify our end.
The prompt words today are letter, enmity, photograph and accomplish.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/rdp-friday-letter/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/11/fowc-with-fandango-enmity/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/your-daily-word-prompt-photograph-january-11-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/accomplish/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 