Tag Archives: #RDP

No Peaceful Kingdom

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No Peaceful Kingdom

The dogs are in the backyard where they don’t molest the cats.
The cats are in the front yard where they monitor the bats
but do not dine on birds because the birds have given up
and all moved to the back yard where the young cats never sup.

The younger cats stay outside and the old cat lives within
and should the outside cats ever escape from where they’ve been,
when they’re inside, they’re  bullies and steal her food and tease her.
Although, since I can’t find a type of cat food that will please her,

it’s no problem for the old cat, yet those cats are getting fat
while every day there seems to be less of the older cat.
True, the older cat is crabby and swats the young cats first,
so it’s hard for me determining which cat is the worst.

I’m tired of these war zones. I wish they’d coexist,
and I wish that I could simply tell them to desist.
Yet with man and other animals, more often you will find 
they can’t exist in harmony with those who aren’t their kind.

 

Annie the crabby cat woke me up before Ragtag was online today, so they get their own individually prompted poem.  Their prompt was “harmony.” Here’ their link if you want to play along:  https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/rdp-sundayharmony/

I’m Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

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I’m Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

I’m not dreaming
of a white Christmas
bedecked with tinsel
and mistletoe.

That bougainvillea spilling down the wall
is festive enough.
Who said a Christmas had to be 
composed of personal memories decades old?

I like a little sand in my Christmas,
good friends and not a holly sprig in sight—
our memories being made,
not dwelled upon.

Where was the snow in Bethlehem?
On what day did Santa finally arrive,
bag laden with gifts more frivolous
than gold, frankincense and myrrh?*

What we celebrate at Christmas
is more than anything
Bing Crosby
might have devised.

The warmth of friendship.
Finding those things,
in spite of our many differences,
that are the same.

That first Christmas
celebrated in the desert,
there was a star.
The animals were its first celebrants.

Only afterwards
came those wise men
who in their gifts
predicted its ending.

*The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. This dates back to Origen in Contra Celsum: “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God.”

The word prompts today were white, compose, bedeck and festive.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/rdp-saturday-white/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/22/fowc-with-fandango-compose/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/bedeck/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/your-daily-word-prompt-festive-December-22-2018/
https://lindaghill.com/2018/12/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-22-18/

Intervening with the Solstice

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Intervening with the Solstice

They’re intervening with the solstice. We’re requiring more light,
though adding one more month to summer simply isn’t right.
They’ll put a manmade light up in the sky next to the sun.
We’ll have summer the whole year through once mankind is done!
Next, they’ll augment infinity and make the rain much wetter.
There’s nothing like a mortal man for making nature better!

For another poem on the subject of the solstice, go HERE.

The prompts are solstice, intervene and infinity.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/rdp-friday-solstice/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/21/fowc-with-fandango-intervene/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/infinity/

Courtships Gone Amiss

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Courtships Gone Amiss

How the young men do persist
in their endeavors towards a tryst
and how the young girls do resist.
The young men dream and make a list
of girls most likely to be kissed,
but the outcomes all consist
of more entreaties to desist—
of “No’s” indubitably hissed.

As their crude demands are dissed,
the young men rage. They make a fist.
Some feel defeated, others pissed
at opportunities they’ve missed.
They simply do not get the gist
of what the dreams of girls consist.
A girl wants flowers, moonlight, mist,
a prom corsage around her wrist.

Wooing comes first, the girls insist.
They want their romance with a twist!

 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/rdp-sunday-persist/

Home Plate: Sweet Victory

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It’s hot summer in the teeming city with tenements piled room-on-room. With narrow hallways and nonexistent grassy plots, where’s  a kid to play?

 

Home Plate: Sweet Victory

They’re playing baseball in the street again, forcing cars to wait,
restless in the intersection, ’til they see the fate
of the ball the bat just cracked, rising in the air
to land in someone’s flower pot or on the tenement stair.
They make such a brouhaha, loud boys and louder cars,
that Grandma rises up a bit to clutch at window bars.

It is a large commitment, for she can’t sit down again
without some help, but still she is attracted by the din.
Are car horns blaring  for the inconvenience or a homer?
The batter’s mad dash down the street and back a slight misnomer,
for first base is the red car and second base the yellow.
Cross the street and third base is the stair stoop of the fellow

who exits from his doorway, briefcase in his hand,
who seems in a great hurry and yet chooses to stand
to see the runner execute his skipping zigzag run
homeward toward the batter’s plate that holds a sticky bun.
Horns blaring as he executes his mission, ends his flight,
bends over, grabs his trophy, and takes his winning bite!

 

Prompt words today were play, intersection, commitment and brouhaha.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/15/rdp-saturday-play/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/15/fowc-with-fandango-intersection/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/15/commitment/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/15/your-daily-word-prompt-brouhaha-December-15-2018/

No Energy

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No Energy

When he made his overture on electronic media,
it read as though he’d copied it from an encyclopedia.
Each sentence was incongruous with the one before,
his transitions nonexistent and his details all a bore.
He was indubitably boring, so she gave the guy a miss.
Judging by his message, imagining his kiss.

The prompts today are overture, electric, incongruous and indubitable.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/rdp-friday-overture/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/14/fowc-with-fandango-electric/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/incongruous/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/your-daily-word-prompt-indubitable-December-14-2018/

Heavenly Retirement

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Heavenly Retirement

She was the center of attention, a magical surprise.
She rivaled Cleopatra both in manner and in guise.
Her courtiers all fumbled in their desire to please her.
Her courters milled and tumbled in their urgent need to squeeze her.
For she knew well the subterfuge of makeup and of dressing
to keep all of her paramours both interested and guessing.

A masterpiece of camouflage, she dressed to win their favor—
the cynosure of attention who changed in age and flavor
from audience to audience—one day serene and regal,
the next day fluffy as whipped cream, appearing barely legal.
She kept admirers captive for so many years
that she outlived all her children and outlived all her peers.

But when at last she succumbed to inevitable fate,
making her grand entrance through that pearly gate,
all the hosts of heaven bowed down to all her glory
having no idea how wrinkled and how gory
she was beneath her raiment and the mask that met their eyes.
It was only the next morning that they saw through her disguise.

For alas, on trips to heaven, carry-ons are not allowed
and responsibility for checked bags disavowed.
So she arrived without her makeup, her wigs and all the stuff
she’d used throughout her lifetime to powder, paint and buff
herself to fine perfection. Without her wigs and clothes,
she had no other choice except to finally disclose

that she was just the girl next door—albeit so much older—
her visage creased and wrinkled, stooped over at the shoulder.
Her breasts were much deflated and her color merely sallow.
Without the false eyelashes, her eyes were strangely shallow.
And as she looked into the mirror, she finally faced the facts.
She could sink into her rocking chair and finally relax!

 

The prompt words today are fumble, magical, masterpiece and cynosure. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/rdp-thursday-fumble/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/13/fowc-with-fandango-magical/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/masterpiece/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/your-daily-word-prompt-cynosure-December-13-2018/

Hide-and-Go-Seek

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Hide-and-Go-Seek

My attempts at active leisure are challenged by the rain,
so it’s possible that I will go back to bed again.
Raindrops slash and pummel. Rain soaks my shoes and hair.
I wouldn’t mind it half so much if I were wash and wear,
but, alas, I crumple up. I languish in the cold.
I’ve a propensity for colds and coughs. My shoes develop mold.
And so with no more ceremony, I’ll remain inside.
When rain seeks my company, I choose to spare my hide.

 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/rdp-tuesday-rain/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/04/fowc-with-fandango-leisure/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/pummel/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/your-daily-word-prompt-ceremony-December-4-2018/

Trouble Crossing

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Trouble Crossing

Fjords, ravines and crevasses are hard enough to cross,
but when it comes to intersections, I am at a loss.
I excel at parallel parking and my merging is just fine,
but when negotiating stop lights, I simply do not shine.

Perhaps it is the colors that I find distracting.
There’s something about yellow that I find too exacting.
Red is most definitive. I know I shouldn’t go.
And green is also clearly meant as a sign to go.

But yellow’s indecisive. Should I go or should I stay?
Should I linger or should I be upon my way?
This solitary factor is what makes me balk.
As a means of transportation, it is true I’d rather walk!!!! 

The prompt words are color, parking, fjord and solitary. Here are the links:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/10/rdp-wednesday-color/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/10/fowc-with-fandango-parking/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/10/fjord/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/daily-addictions-2018-week-40/solitary

Meters and Rhyme

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Meters and Rhyme

I really cannot fathom a routine that involves running.
The meters that I deal with are in rhyming and in punning.
My decision to work out in feet that do not meet the track
stems from going with my talents, not pursuing what I lack.

For me, excessive exercise is simply not the norm.
I don’t have the deportment nor the interest nor the form.
To blog and not to jog is a decision that’s well-founded.
Apparent by my figure, which is plump and amply rounded.

Putting one foot before the other can be done with fingers, too,
for when  I’m forced to run, I find I’m likely to turn blue!
When it comes to exercises that we’re called to face,
every finish line need not be got to by a race.

 

The prompt words today are plump, routine, fathom and apparent. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/rdp-monday-plump/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/08/fowc-with-fandango-routine/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/fathom/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/daily-addictions-2018-week-40/apparent