Picky Eater
I can’t stand mushrooms, abhor liver.
To dine on brains just makes me shiver.
Drinking milk’s against my wishes.
Fish is simply for the fishes.
Raw tomatoes? I’d rather die.
And one more mouthful I won’t try?
I have no taste for humble pie!
Missed Americas
Now that they are runway-bound,
those extravagantly gowned
are oft-driven to expound
with words not overly profound
about beliefs they’ve newly found
(overheard and swiftly downed)
just because they love the sound,
hoping in the final round,
their golden tongues will get them crowned.
For the dVerse Poets Quadrille Challenge: Crown.
Image from BBC.
Zombie Ball
Slice of liver, ooze of spleen—
add them to the soup tureen.
See all the pallid corpses preen?
They seek to woo the zombie queen.
Complexions chalky white or green
through the haunted house careen,
much rowdier on Halloween
than all the holidays between.
For dVerse Poets Quadrille Challenge: Careen
Ash
Wood to ash and flesh to dust,
stone to sand and iron to rust.
Leather snaps and fabrics fray.
All things living must wear away.
What we seek to save, we save in vain.
Nature wipes out every gain,
and blessedly, also our pain.
For the dVerse Poets Quadrille prompt: Ash (44 words only)
Gauntlet
Cold as ice, brittle as bone.
Lethal as a well-aimed stone.
Nonetheless, it’s you I crave—
calculating, clever, brave.
Though you fit me like a glove,
you’re not predisposed to love.
How long will your memory linger
as you’re peeled off, finger by finger?
Hermit’s Creed
Although they stand stiffly at attention,
these walls reach out
and hold me safe within their middle.
They stand guardian,
cushioning sound,
deflecting sharp edges.
Lucky me to have their protection.
Foolish me to leave their arms.
Yet the butterfly
soars over and away.
For dVerse Poets “Stand” Quadrille prompt. The only rule for a quadrille poem is that it must have exactly 44 words. If you want to read other poems written to this prompt, go HERE.
Mentor
That seed of you planted in me
directs me to turn from daily tasks
to look for lost things.
Then the dust of my past,
brushed from some recess of memory,
mixes with imagination to fabricate
a scrap of art, a poem, a tale.
After I wrote this, I couldn’t decide who to use to illustrate it. Then I noticed the “art, poem and tale” and realized I’d had a mentor in each genre. My mother for poetry, my husband for art and my father as storyteller.
A quadrille is a poem with exactly 44 words. The dVerse poets prompt asks us to write a quadrille that contains the word seed. Here is a link to the dVerse Poets page where you can read other responses to the prompt.
The theme of the camp is “When you Wish Upon a Star.” This camper has taken the theme seriously on his mask.
‘STRUTH
Your computer shares
whatever you choose for it to share.
If what leaks out is happiness,
then you’ve enriched us all.
Let humor be an infection you spread.
Share files overflowing with empathy,
documents that are the organs of kindness,
And above all,
Truth.
For dVerse Poets Quadrille Challenge: Happiness
I wrote this intending to edit it, but when I counted the words, it was exactly 44 words, so I am going to try to let it be. In itself, it formed the star shape. I only discovered it when I centered it.
I changed two words because I had totally left out humor and had truth called for twice. So it was justified. I also switched “have folders” overflowing with empathy.” to “Share files overflowing with empathy.” The reason for the change is probably obvious. Okay..I am also changing “stores” and “store” with “shares” and “share.” Really need one letter more in line two, but leaving it alone. For now. Stay tuned.
Harvest Moon
Peeking in the window,
blanketing our dreams,
It is a welcome harvest moon
whose straight and narrow beams
filter through our window blinds,
bathing us with light,
coming once again
to fulfill its yearly rite—
a calm and soothing presence
that mitigates the night.
Not the blue of a heart before forgetting.
The blue of the sky above Colima Volcano,
no other clouds in it except one puff
of earth’s hot breath becoming visible
in the cool morning air.
Like blue caught in icicles.
Give me that blue.
A personal note of interest. The water in my house is heated by this volcano!
For dVerse Poets Quadrille Challenge: Sky
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 