Tag Archives: the daily spur

A Marital Discourse on The Subject of Light Exercise

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A Marital Discourse on The Subject of Light Exercise

You breakfast, lunch and tea and sup,
hardly ever getting up.
I say that we should take a ride
just to get us both outside,

and thus do I precipitate
a lively marital debate—
you flummoxed by my rude suggestion
that interferes with your digestion.

So I employ another means
to distract you from your franks and beans.
Feeling youthful and impulsive,
I chance your finding it repulsive

and suggest that we go dancing
and perhaps do some romancing,
whereupon you rise and shriek
that your demise I surely seek.

Dancing at our advanced age?
You spit and sputter, in a rage,
and since for minutes you don’t pause,
at least you exercise your jaws.

Prompt words today are precipitate, flummoxed, shriek, impulsive, employ and ride.

Sisters

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Sisters

Was your relationship with your sister both giggly and nudgery?
Making up with silliness what otherwise was drudgery?
Tic-tac-toe on scraps of paper passed from her to you
but hidden from your parents farther down the pew?
Finding fun in naughtiness when things were at their worst?
Holding down your chuckles when you thought that you would burst?

Climbing out onto the roof to see your older sister
leaving for the prom with some high school dressed-up mister?
Your sister clad in net and lace so lovely and exotic
that for once your ribaldry was replaced with hypnotic?
If so, what naughty girls you were, for my sister and me
were perfect little angels, as good as we could be!!!!

 

Prompt words today are burst, drudgery, exotic and fun. (The other prompts weren’t ready in time for me to use them. I’m going on a day-long writing retreat with friends and had to get up early to do the prompts.)

Self-Improvement

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Self-Improvement

I can magnify with optics or reduce with diet pills,
but there is no solution to another of my ills.
When I’m feeling challenged by a flurry of activity,
overwhelmed and harried due to my proclivity
to stave off any tedium by means of overbooking,
with one too many bubbling pots on my stovetop cooking,
there is one solution that is valid and concrete.
I need to find a method to turn down the heat!

Prompt words today are magnify, optics, flurry, tedium, concrete and when.

Wayward Duck

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Wayward Duck

A wayward duck up on a hill.
He don’t come down and never will.
He invents reasons to stay up.
Comes down to buy his food to sup.
Recharges rum, then up he goes
to computerize and then to doze.
Seeks neither censure nor promotion.
Tries to fend off gross emotion.
Keeps himself up on a shelf.
Communes with no one but himself
except online where he comports
with on-air folks of different sorts.
For though he might seem misbegotten,
here on air he’s not forgotten.

Prompt words today are recharge, promote, wayward, invent, duck and hill.

Vitiligo

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Vitiligo*

Mighty sol’s ubiquitous in regions that are tropical,
but when it comes to sunlight, I have news that is more topical.
I’m evidence empirical that all folks aren’t created
to lie out in the sun’s rays until their lust is sated
for skin transposed to honey brown from a whitish hue.
For folks like me, such practices simply will not do.

Unlike my lucky college chums, my best friends and my sister,
when I’m exposed to sunlight, I am more prone to blister.
I see them put their swimsuits on and take turns rubbing oil on,
anxious to go greet the sun to get their bake and boil on,
but once they’re spread out on their towels with all adjustments made,
I’ll be covered up instead, sitting in the shade.

 

*Vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color. This happens when melanocytes – skin cells that make pigment – are attacked and destroyed, causing the skin to turn a milky-white color. People with vitiligo have no natural protection from the sun.

 

Prompt words today are empirical, topical, ubiquitous, mighty, cover and sol,  Image by Hanan Boubahri on Unsplash.

Finicky Lovers

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Finicky Lovers

Finicky lovers inspect water glasses,
ask if you’re vaxed before they make passes.
Chuckle at jokes, but only the funny ones,
eat hard-boiled eggs, but balk at the runny ones.

They run the gamut of each picky habit.
See every spot and are certain to dab it.
Do not buy on clearance, for things are picked over.
Will lie in the grass, but only in clover.

They sweep off your driveway before they can park,
but first cover their tires so they’ll leave no mark.
If you think this is odd, when they remove their pants,
they must make a crisp fold before they advance!

Prompt words today are chuckle, sweep, finicky, gamut, clearance and advance. Image by  Jonathan Cosens on Unsplash.

“Sin”chronicity

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“Sin”chronicity

I’m circumspect about temptation,
for though it may cause elation,
due to its duplicity,
it may lead to toxicity.

I believe the oft-heard rumor
that fate has a sense of humor.
Example: you are running late
and seek the airport taxi gate.

When you arrive and reconnoiter
you say you have no time to loiter,
so they let you jump the queue,
but then the taxi runs over you.

Perhaps that only goes to show
there’s some advantage to going slow,
but I believe man’s jubilation
comes from avoiding temptation!

Today’s prompts are temptation, circumspect, toxicity, loiter,
and taxi. Image by Jordan Andrews on Unsplash.

Mentor

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Mentor 

He’s an agent of enchantment, the guru of his flock—
a professor who can mesmerize with ordinary talk.
A master of expression, his descriptions weave their spells
that hold students in their thrall through the stories that he tells.

They copy down in notebooks each word that he has shared,
humbled by the wisdom  of the heart that he has bared.
They will never know that their stunning visionary
is inspired by Wikipedia as well as Wiktionary.

Prompt words today are copy, description, enchantment, flock, professor and express.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

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Big Rock Candy Mountain

Have you heard the allegory of enchanted mountain
with its chocolate boulders and raspberry soda fountain?
Snow on the top is ice cream, but beware, for it’s precipitous
and only accessible to the most felicitous
children who the lessons of politeness have well-learned.
Children who are naughty and selfish will be spurned.
If you think this is impossible and just a silly story,
remember that I told you that it is an allegory.
The wisdom that it teaches is good manners are rewarded,
and though there is no list in life where they are all recorded,
still life tends to give back to us exactly what we give.
If you desire sweet things, that’s what you have to give.

 

Prompt words today are mountain, spontaneous,
allegory, felicitous,  ice and enchanted,

Unlove Spell # 2

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Unlove Spell #2

I don’t swallow your poetry, it’s lacking rhyme and meter.
You fancy yourself as a bard, but you are just a cheater.
Your words are all disposable. I’ve heard them all before.
Your melody discordant as you walk out the door.
I have a little fetish that I stick needles in.
They say it’s made expressly for expunging faithless men.

Prompt words today are  bard, disposable, fetish, cheater, swallow and melody. Joke folks. Not autobiographical.  If you want to read the original Love Charm, go HERE.