Tag Archives: RDP

The Butler and the Upstairs Maid

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Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash, used with permission

The Butler and the Upstairs Maid

The butler and the upstairs maid once freed from bed and table
resumed their hugs and kisses whenever they were able.
He wooed her in the garden shed, the pantry and the granary.
Not a place excluded from their extreme chicanery.

When traveling with her mistress, she could not help but fret.
His passions unabated, he was always in a sweat.
Within them both, the hormones were perpetually churning.
How could they do their duties with these fires of romance burning?

At last, master and mistress called the vicar of the parish.
What were they to do about this behavior most garish?
They met this couple making love at every hallway’s turning.
How were they to deal with these excesses of yearning?

The vicar in his wisdom knew the answer right away,
so the problems of their dalliance was able to allay.
Their passions once unquenchable were vanquished all too soon
as soon as they were back again from their honeymoon.

 

Prompt words for today are chicanery, sweat, turning, garish and table.

The Wild Life

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The Wild Life

If you’re yearning for the wild life but haven’t a clue
about how to go about it, here’s a hint for you.
Gratify your need by visiting the zoo
to ogle hippopotami and maybe get a view
of zebra or a lion or a cheetah or a gnu.
Snap photos of a reindeer or a caribou.

See monkeys in their cages or an eagle in its aerie.
Hang out at the petting zoo if eagles are too scary.
Give the lambs sweet clover and all the ponies oats.
Pat their little heads and stroke their hairy coats.
Stop by aerated pools to touch a koi’s smooth scales,
keeping a proper distance from the killer whales.

In this modern world where violence is rife,
one need not act out to enjoy the wild life.
So put away your crossbow, your rifle or your knife
and head out to the game park with your kids and wife.
You need not stalk your game through the forest or the fens.
Better to hunt your wildlife through a camera  lens.

Prompt words today are aerate, scary, zoo, gratify and give.

Ablation

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Ablation

Time temporal drips away like ice cream from a cone.
We cannot help its melting as it leaves us all alone.
Jackpots won, creative gains, come at last to naught.
We cannot leave this world of ours with anything we’ve got.
Every appetite assuaged ends finally in thirst.
We don’t determine the final act, no matter how rehearsed.
Though we avoid the truth of it, alas, all that I say
is truth regarding what life gives and what life takes away.

 

Once again, thanks to my sister Betty for these images of my
childhood. Without her, fewer memories would remain.

Prompt words today are temporal, creative, jackpot, thirst and help.

Doggies of the Realm

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Illustration by Isidro Xilonzóchitl, copyright Judy Dykstra-Brown, 2020

Doggies of the Realm

In seeking to coordinate the canines of the realm,
they formed a grand committee with a countess at the helm
to account for all the dachshunds and classify the terriers,
find greyhounds in their kennels and yorkies in their carriers,
to track down the grand pyrenees up in the highest rocks,
to record all the lapdogs and dalmatians on their walks.

At first strict in her discipline in separating breeds,
in protecting bloodlines and meeting owners’ needs,
when her helpers warned her that they’d run out of spaces,
she had to capitulate in order to find places.
Since they’d run out of kennels, she had to loosen rules.
She locked labs in the closets, tied boxers to the newels.

Put shih tzus in the cupboards and toy poodles in the drawers,
stored retrievers in the boathouse, tied Chihuahuas to the oars.
She felt she’d scored the jackpot when the prisoners all made bail
and so they handed over the former county jail.
She converted all the cellblocks into canine cages
and began to fill up rosters—pages upon pages.

At first she sorted breeds using a system alphabetical,
but later sorting systems became  more hypothetical,
and as her sorting powers eroded over time,
soon she had her doggies classified by rhyme.
For example, in the cages assigned to standard poodles,
she filled the extra corners with the labradoodles.

She recorded canines of every breed and size—
dogs with every length of hair, in every shape and guise,
until at last she had them all down in black and white—
every wagging tail and every growl and bite.
So the snappers and the lickers, the yappers and the yippers
got to go back home to retrieve their masters’ slippers!!

Prompt words today are realm, coordinate, jackpot, capitulate and walk.

Mountaineers

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Mountaineers

However many acts we stage, however many innings,
we’re constantly made vulnerable by our new beginnings.
One resolution brings another problem to be mounted—
a new one starting just as soon as the last one is counted.
We ascend each mountain, and when we reach the top,
we see summit after summit and know we’ll never stop.
It may seem that for some others life is a flat plain.
We may resent our struggles, but as much as we complain,
catching sight of that new mountain, we begin the climb again.

 

Prompts today are new beginnings, vulnerable,resolution, ascend and stop.

3030

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Photo by Ria Puskas on Unsplash. Used with permission

3030

Today we all breathe easy in our kingdom by the sea,
wondering how much longer the air will still be free.
We’ve heard the air is sickening and folks will have to pay
to buy it in large cylinders one not-too-distant day.
It’s best that people stockpile their air just like their water
for that upcoming day when our weather will get hotter
and we will have to stay secure within our houses
and purchase air and water for our children and our spouses.
Machines will roam our world for us. We think it will be best.
They’ll do all our shopping and play golf at our behest.
We’ll tuck away our bodies and exercise our minds
as we simply view the world outside from behind our blinds.
The reality show outside will be one that we all view
once the air and water is not safe for me and you!!

 

Photo by Fred Rivett on Unsplash. Used with permission.

Prompt words today are breathe, best, kingdom, confidence and think.

New Year Greetings for a Fashionista

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New Year Greetings for a Fashionista

Can your wardrobe accommodate clothes tight and loose?
Yellow and purple and pink and chartreuse?
What say you of maroon and mustard and puce?
Have you anything velvet? Silk or charmeuse?
Do you leap to acquire the newest of fashions?
Are ripped jeans and bare midriffs your current passions?
Are clothes an impulse, a way that you play?
Do they fill up your dreams and round out your day?
If so, then my wish for two thousand twenty
is that you have closets and hangers aplenty.
May you be fully satisfied trying on clothes,
and be shrouded with fashion from shoulders to toes!!!

Prompt words today are puce, accommodate, leap, impulse and play.

Perfect Ending

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Perfect Ending

Reflecting on the old year, he was glad that it was over.
The past year had been full of weeds, devoid of four-leaf clover.
He’d lost his job, divorced his wife and now that he took stock
of all the horrid happenings ticked out on his clock,

he devised a way to end it all. Compiled  every ingredient.
If he was to do this thing, he thought it was expedient
to make a resolution to stage a perfect exit.
He’d do the whole deed solo so no one else could hex it.

He staged a stellar ending—one beyond compare.
He chose the perfect outfit, fussed over nails and hair,
then raised a glass of bubbly as the old year died.
Were you, perhaps, confused at first, expecting suicide????

(Nope, a new beginning!!!)

Prompt words today are stellar, ending, begin, reflect and clock.

Bright

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Bright

Why do all our memories fade out to pastels?
The dulling of the colors, the muffling of the bells?
Often we discover that a happening once dated
becomes a strain of music half-remembered, mostly faded,
and we labor to remember a life so full and vast
that fades down to a shadow relegated to the past.
Better to infuse the present with such light
that all its various colors shine out vividly and bright.

Prompt words are pastel, musical, labor, discover and why.

Trading Vices

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Trading Vices

An inherited tendency that rendered him pugnacious
was a quality that caused his friends to label him audacious,
but luckily this acting out, though maddening, was fugacious,
because they’d found his surly mood was frequently contagious.

In between his pouty moods, he had a great ambition
to write great works and stun the world with his erudition.
He’d be a star. The Pulitzer would be his life’s great crowning.
Sadly, his words rarely occasioned moods other than frowning.

In the end he turned to a lifestyle less vivacious
than the pen. Alas, he chose a comfort more herbaceous.
His solace was that healing weed that smoothed out disappointments
and made action barely possible—let alone appointments.

He stopped visiting taverns to hang out with his mates.
Did not return their phone calls and cancelled dinner dates.
His doors, once open, stayed sealed tight with vapors only seeping
under their cracks to hint at the company he was keeping.

He ceased to be pugnacious, erudite or anything.
Dust blanketed computer keys. He heard his cellphone ring
as friends all tried to reach him but I fear it was in vain.
They tried a dozen times before not calling him again.

Sometimes, cures are worse than the thing that they are curing.
To have their crusty friend back would make bad moods worth enduring,
but, alas, it was too late. In life it is allowed
to make our own decisions. Thus, he vanished in a cloud.

The prompt words today are fugacious (good grief!) open, star, ambition and write.