Bad Actor
Why are you now limping? Dish me out the dirt.
Are you a malingerer or are you really hurt?
It seems as though you are in pain, especially since
each step you take is punctuated by a little wince.
Feigning discomfort’s sinful—neither savvy nor a notion,
and this you should consider if you’re seeking a promotion.
You must ban such actions and revise your plans anew
to remain a member of my retinue.
Prompt words today are punctuate, malinger, sinful, savvy, ban and promotion.
Tough Girl
She’s a diamond in the rough,
shiny, beautiful and tough.
Not one to be steered by force,
she’ll decide her lifetime’s course.
Not likely to be shamed or battered,
no way will her dreams be shattered.
She will boggle macho men,
for she won’t play the cackling hen.
Won’t be distracted from her goal
of what she feels to be her role.
Be just what she wants to be,
undeflected by any “he.”
Prompts today are boggle, shattered, distracted, cackle, decide and diamond. Image by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash.
Prompt words today are sock, premonition, scud, trendy, trance and vinyl.
Self-Portrait by Judy Dykstra-Brown, Mixed Media Assemblage8″X12″
Tittynope
A small bit of time left over on the windowsill of life,
I am no longer daughter, student, siren, wife.
My new definition is to simply be—
one last leaf that’s clinging to the family tree.
Not merely a copy of those who came before,
I tried to build on what they were and add a small bit more.
First coddled but then soon set free to follow my own course,
the path I took led me away from my original source.
Paper, brush and pencil—all things to amuse
led to many pastimes where life was not a ruse.
Soldering irons, glue pots and thing after thing
that wandering through market stalls and flea markets could bring.
Putting them together became a way to be,
journeying out to find them but ending up at me.
And now that I’m together, gathered into one,
I am still collecting, not sure that I am done.
Prompts today are coddle, copy, tittynope (A small quantity of anything left over) ruse, course and windowsill.
Trump Card
Spin your web. Enact your plan.
Insist you’re of the common man.
Hang a pendant on a chain
Sway it forth and back again
just a dozen times or so,
mesmerizing in its flow.
If you mollify their fears
with promises placed in their ears,
you need give them little proof.
Just call the liberals aloof
and assure them that you’re not.
They’ll overlook your sins and yacht.
Call black white and call white black.
Blame others for what they lack.
Forbid care for the halt and lame.
Point a finger, blame the blame.
Soon they’ll have you in their head.
Certain folks like to be led.
Monkey see and monkey do.
The gullible will follow you
Prompt words today are follow, mollify, monkey, dozen and gullible.
Vacation Plans
Since my store of giddy-up is no longer stellar,
I’m limiting vacation plans to rooftop room and cellar.
My travel guru’s dubious. She says I’ll change my mind.
She thinks I’m merely ground down by the daily grind.
Though I rehearse refusals, the practice doesn’t work.
She merely puts them down as a momentary quirk.
In fact she has been needling me to book a new vacation
and poo-poos my refusals to my great perturbation.
My stubborn change of attitude regarding foreign travel,
she’s sure that she can pick at till it starts to unravel;
but these are the travel plans for which I’d like to vouch.
The scenery is gorgeous between my bed and couch!
Prompt words today are travel, roof, guru, dubious, needle and rehearsal.
Inflated Hopes
What was once a halfpence now may be a dollar.
A whisper given time may turn out to be a holler.
Idealistic bloggers swept away with their next word
may pound away at keyboards not knowing they’re absurd.
Their statements may be loaded with inanities or tears
that may gain profundity through the fog of years.
So if you cannot see the wisdom of this rhyme,
I’m sure you finally will. You need to give it time.
Prompt words today are keyboard, swept, halfpence, tears, load and idealistic.
“Depauperate” ed
Depauperate? I must admit, I’ve never seen the word.
Nor is it an adjective that I have ever heard.
Did I de”pauper”ate the beggar when I handed him a twenty?
Transform him from a pauper into a life of plenty?
My command of language ranks from “pretty good” to “better,”
and usually prompt words leave me in fine fetter,
but when I see a word like this, I end up fuss and fretting.
Just how obscure are prompt words likely to be getting?
Exactly where on Earth did the prompter find this word
that you might admit is overly absurd?
If one needs a dictionary and still cannot use it,
you can bet that some of us are likely to abuse it.
We’re thankful for each prompt word, but when you cook it up,
kindly choose one that makes sense when we look it up.
A prompt word should inspire us and make us want to use it,
but with words like “depauperate” some of us will abuse it!
Note: Meant in good fun…but you will admit it was a hard word to use?
Prompt words today are depauperate, exactly, fret, command and need.
Poor Spousal Support
His espousal of a single life was open to debate,
for with a wife and three small girls, it came a little late.
But he lusted for the “good life” now that he earned a lot.
He yearned for wild night life and planned to buy a yacht.
That their spousal settlement was measly, it is true,
but her husband was a lawyer, so what was she to do?
She made the children T-shirts with an acronym
that best described their father and what she thought of him.
When people were inquisitive, she told them they should say
that CHEAP was an acronym, and without delay,
that the meaning of it was “Chump Husband Earns A Pittance”
and that is why he’s often late in sending their remittance.
And on the T-shirt’s back, she reserved another space
for another acronym for their dad to face:
There it spelled out HUNGER, whose letters expressed fairly
the naked truth: “His UnderNourished Genepool ‘s Eating Rarely!!!
Prompt words today are measly, reserved, acronym, espousal, settlement and inquisitive.
By and By
Lately, when she couldn’t sleep, she debated whether
she should forsake winter for a more salubrious weather.
Hidden under blankets with a heater at her feet,
she dreamed of balmy breezes and the sunlight’s heat.
In less than a day, she could drive down to the border
and find a small posada where she could sit and order
margaritas by the pitcherful beside a sunlit sea—
a novel fallen from her hand, a chihuahua on her knee.
Tacos or enchiladas? In her hometown, she’d be loath
to order either one of them, but here she’d order both,
all her peccadillos unviewed by censoring eye.
She pledged an oath to do it in the by and by.
Prompt words today are border, both, salubrious, peccadillo, winter and hidden.
—lyrics by S. Fillmore Bennett and music by Joseph P. Webster
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 