Hubris
The amber glow of candle light reflects against the wall,
but caught up in your hubris, you don’t notice it at all.
You seize the chance to prattle on about your newest deal,
overlooking table settings and this tender veal
I’ve cooked just to your liking. The asparagus grows cold
as you expound on how intelligent you are, and bold.
While I, my dear, think my own thoughts concerning your bombast,
of how this anniversary might well be our last.
Tsk, Tsk!!!
Though I applaud your intellect, your word-usage and clarity,
I’m taking steps to deal with your outlandish temerity.
Since I sincerely hold that obscure words should be panned,
hereby, I proclaim that such smug words will be banned.
So words like “impignorate”—found in no sane vocabulary
hereafter will be turned in to the lexicon constabulary!
Word prompts today are steps, temerity, impignorate and proclaim
Thanksgiving with the Neighbors
Rendered farctate by turkey and gravy and dressing,
I overindulged, I am hereby confessing.
When they pressed more upon me, I didn’t demur.
I ate all the turkey that I could endure,
but then when they asked if I’d have a bit more,
although I was already stuffed to the core,
I said, “Maybe a little,” and with no compassion,
they piled on potatoes in an equal fashion.
More gravy, cranberries and more candied yam,
and lest they discriminate, a bit more ham.
So in that yearly paradox, they proceeded to stuff
first the turkey, then me, until I’d had enough.
And though I declared I was ready to burst,
when they brought out the pie, although I had rehearsed,
“None for me,” in my head, when they asked, “mince or peach?”
I’m embarrassed to say that I had one of each!
Then I lay on the floor and simply digested
as some guests told stories that other guests bested.
But since I had already been over-fested,
I admit my attention was under-invested.
I tried to moan silently, but fear I failed.
In the end, I complained and I groaned and I wailed.
Yet my friends showed no mercy, but proceeded to laugh
and inquire if I’d rather have caf or decaf!
Then they rolled me next door to my own waiting bed,
where I passed half the night feeling overly-fed.
But by the the next morning, I was ready for toast
some bacon and eggs and a lovely French roast.
And I was bemoaning when time came for lunch
that there were no leftovers on which to munch—
No turkey and stuffing. No leftover pie,
so I had to make do with carry-out Thai.
Prompt words today are compassion, paradox, demur and farctate.
Overdone
All our schemes for summer fun now require healing.
We spent too long out in the sun and now our backs are peeling.
We need to hail a cab and find someplace in the shade
to wait for all our unplanned scarlet hues to fade.
Word prompts today are summer fun, hail, scheme and healing.
Shoe-in
Love is not contractual. It is not trite or buyable.
It’s not dependent on reason to render it as viable.
It depends on qualities more visceral than seeable—
makes one’s considerations more youable than meeable.
In its beginning stages, love may seem aleatory
as though the price of love is to squirm in purgatory.
Waiting by the telephone, in an abject state,
love wonders, “Will or won’t he ask me for a date?”
But this abject terror sometimes gives way to calm
as our object of affection furnishes the balm
that soothes our rash and fearful hopes and turns them to reality,
refining hopeful crushes into mutual love’s finality.
True love is always waiting to drop the other shoe
as “Will he? Will she? Dare we?” finally gives way to “I do.”
Word prompts for the day are visceral, trite, aleatory and abject.
Restoring Qi
Standing on the corner waiting for my qi
to recognize my face and get in touch with me.
I could use its help in restoring my zing,
for I haven’t had exuberance for much of anything.
All the troubles of the world seem to cling to me,
provoking pain and worry. I just can’t let them be.
My need for an infusion of qi has grown so dire
that I fear without it I’ll probably expire.
I hear the bells a-ringing. Could they be a clue
that my chi’s catching up to me to infuse me anew?
But since it’s the good humor truck coming into view,
I guess a double-decker cone will simply have to do.
Photo from Unsplash used with permission. Word prompts today are qi, exuberant, cling, provoke.
Chi, (Qi or Ki) is the energy of life itself, a balance of Yin and Yang, positive and negative, electromagnetic energy which flows through everything in creation. So Chi can possibly be described as an electromagnetic phenomenon, as a form of light energy, as a form of bio-electromagnetic energy or electricity.
Midnight Bully
A constant aberration, it emerges in the night
to assert its domination, for it will have its bite.
It provokes me to assist it as I switch on the light,
and though I try hard to resist it, I always lose the fight.
I wander down the hall and once the kitchen is in sight,
I make a beeline for the fridge as I bemoan my plight.
I am simply not to blame. It’s just my appetite
that draws me from my midnight bed to assert its right.
It is not my choice, for I have been true to my diet.
It’s my appetite that simply must get up and pie it!
Prompts for today are emerge, aberration, provoke and switch.
Happily, this is fiction, at least for the past three months, as I have been true to my diet for that long. 24 pounds as of today, but as you see, my subconscious and the prompt words conspired to take me down a naughty path creatively if not physically.
Different Strokes
She was a paradigm of leisure, a role-model of laziness.
For her, excess mobility was just a sign of craziness.
She thought the act of exercise simply bore no credence.
In short, in her life, exercises had no antecedents.
She thought that the whole fitness craze was simply a vile plot
within which, in all her wisdom, only she had not been caught.
And so while all her neighbors put their bodies to the test,
she just exercised her option to remain at rest.
Prompt words for the day are mobility, paradigm, credence and plot.
Evolution
It is said in the beginning that light was of the essence,
as though the entire world was composed of luminescence.
Then particles of matter as the world went rogue
and cells and organisms finally came into vogue.
Evolution would not falter or heed any denial.
Eve wandered through the garden, then floated up the Nile.
Era after era, she mutated and changed,
her features and her hairstyles altered and rearranged.
The things she hung upon herself from shoulders and from ears
were revised era by era as she sauntered down the years.
Wandering down pathways or sauntering fashion’s aisles,
she flashed her varying feathers while testing out her wiles.
From grass skirts to hoop skirts, bustles to bustiers,
man has followed woman, doing what she says.
It is a grand illusion that men control the world
when the world’s whole future lies so tightly curled
within every woman, just waiting to get out,
for when it comes to reproduction, women hold the clout.
Men may seek to end the world and bring about its doom,
but woman holds the next world safely within her womb.
Word prompts today are luminescence, adept, denial and rogue.
Bully
Of your leering face, I see just a flicker.
I see your eye rolling. I see your rude snicker.
In the course of our day, our paths often merge,
and when they do, I am forced to diverge.
You’re a living example of the term “faitour.”
You’re such a rude person—a buffoon and a baiter.
If I had to endorse a most likely bloke
to make a rude comment or tell a crude joke,
then it would be you—and from how you act,
I’ve no doubt at all you’d be proud of the fact!
Image by Kat J on Unsplash. Used with permission.Word prompts today are eyerolling, endorse, faitour, and diverge.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 