Tag Archives: the daily spur

Vulture

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Vulture

I am not too fond of this peculiar guy
who seeks an invitation to see my latest buy.

He barely fits the envelope of people I can bear,
for he is always scouting out possessions that are rare.

So it is with priceless antiques that he says are just old
and so he makes these propositions that are brash and bold.

When I replace this table with one brand spanking new,
he could haul off this old one for me (for a buck or two.)

He thinks I do not know the value of all that I buy
and so he reconnoiters with a greedy eye,

and when he sees an object that has seen a bit of wear,
he’ll focus on the object with his greedy stare

and say that when I’m done with it and go to buy another,
he could take my old one and give it to his mother.

Friends like this, I’m sure you’ll say, come a dime a dozen,
and I’d agree and shun him if he weren’t my only cousin!

Prompt words today are envelope, peculiar, invitation, seek, latest and spanking.

Smart Wooing

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Smart Wooing

He met her on the parkway where she sold her sweet confections
in a lot where merging roads made their first connections.
He, too, sought a connection for he found her very fine
as he viewed her from his place at the end of a long line

of some who sought her pastries, but others who sought more.
Clearly, not the only man who’d felt his heart to soar
when he viewed her classic beauty, he had known at once that she
was the perfect partner to balance on his knee.

And though his first  reaction was to woo her with dramatic
declarations of his love, he was more pragmatic.
When finally it was his turn, he simply bought each bit
of confectionary she had left and asked her help with it.

So as other hopeful suitors had to fade away,
there being  no excuse for all of them to stay,
he asked if since his car was small, if she could deliver
to the homeless shelter that was down there by the river.

And then if she wanted, she could even stay
to see the excitation as he gave the sweets away.
The occasion was his birthday and he thought the greatest lift
that he could get in celebrating was to give this gift.

And so he got into his car and she followed after,
stayed for the party afterwards, enjoying all the laughter.
You might guess, he won the maiden, for it’s no surprise
that sometimes in giving, one wins the greatest prize.

Prompt words today are partner, connections, homeless, pragmatic
diplomatic and parkway.

Makeover

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Makeover

She yearned to be apocryphal, a legend in her time.
Her face on Wikipedia would make her feel sublime.
She yearned to be a feature in all the major papers.
To be of national interest would give the girl the vapors.
Her impact on the fashion scene she knew could change the world.
They’d want to know her lipstick brand and how her hair was curled.
The collapse of world markets would be based on her whims—
where she took her refreshments and where she took her swims.
It didn’t really matter what was inside her head,
for everyone would concentrate on what she did instead.
Her bikin waxes and her French manicure
would be the accomplishments destined to endure.
No one would remember the plain girl that she’d been
once that she had changed her name to Kardashian.

Prompt words today are face, feature, collapse, apocryphal,  impact, refreshments. Image by Freestocks on Unsplash.

Sweet Dove

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Sweet Dove

Sweet peas and petunias fill the gutters on this morning,
and bluebirds buzz your head and land on shoulders without warning.
Curmudgeons sprout wide smiles and doubters grow proactive.
And even grim Chernobyl becomes less radioactive.

Guns forsake their targets and missiles stop their tracking,
and mathematicians give up seeking what they’re lacking.
It’s Universal Peace Day, and for once all enter in
as the hand that holds the grenade pauses to pull the pin.

 

Prompt words today are curmudgeon, proactive, apocryphal, target, gutter and morning. Image by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash.

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First Love Reignited

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First Love Reignited

I fall into the great abyss
of my lover’s tender kiss.
He kisses eyebrow, cheek and hair,
almost too much for me to bear.
Then hovers near, as though to see
what is left of the rest of me.

I hope for more, and yet I fear
that this one that I find dear
will find my passion somehow lacking—
that this passion I find wracking,
will, indeed, not translate to
this lover that I’ve met anew
years after our first furtive touch—
the one that I have missed so much.

“It’s typical,” you say, and fold
me in—that tender act of old—
“to question love that has been cast
away from us in years long past.
But I, for one, still feel the flame
and I hope you feel the same.”

Prompts words for the day are bear, indeed, hover, typical, hope, abyss. Image by Devin Avery on Unsplash.

Scrabble Quibbles

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Scrabble Quibbles

I move the tiles back and forth but still I cannot lick
the secret to which words may be made from my weird pick.
I cannot spell “memorial” without another “m,”
so instead I settle and simply spell out “rim.”
Before too long I find another perfect word to make,
but, alas, I do not have the “u” to spell out quake.
I spy the final “u” when my opponent shifts her rack,
and so I skip my turn to return some letters back.
And this segment of the story will prove I was to blame
when my sister drew the “q” and spelled out “quick” to win the game!

Prompt words today are segment,lick, memorial,back,spy and tiles.

Not the most thrilling poem ever, but at least it used up all the words. Mea Culpa.

Epitaph on a Hilly Gravesite

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Epitaph on a Hilly Gravesite

Claim custody of the mourning that has led you to this place
and cease your arduous journey so that you may face
that foggy veil of sadness and the fiery coals that burn
deep in that place within you as you sink into the fern.

The sentence of your heartbreak becomes a paragraph—
that surety you’ll never love again, or smile, or laugh.
But nature is a circle that spins us on its wheel,
balancing the joy and pain of what we feel.

What we have been given will be taken in the end,
for all of nature’s riches are only here to lend.
Give thanks for what you’re given and accept what must be rendered,
for every happiness is preordained to be surrendered.

Prompt words today are fern, paragraph, mourning, arduous, fog and custody.

Quartets of Memory

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Quartets of Memory

To what extent
do you lament
losing the blush
of teenage crush?

Tease and chuckle,
tight-gripped knuckle,
that challenge of
teenage love—

to cultivate
a future mate—
dawdling where
a certain stare

might meet with yours.
These sweet amors
left in the past,
nonetheless last.

Some afternoons
listening to tunes
of a past kind,
they come to mind.

 

Prompt words today are knuckle, challenge, lament, cultivate, dawdle. Image by Eric Krull on Unsplash.

Tonala Adventure

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Tonala Adventure

When my family visited, we took a little drive
to Tonala for shopping and all that tourist jive.
And no, you’re not hallucinating. I met a new guy.
I think he is stunning and I’m apple of his eye.

I found him at my favorite store, on a small settee
that had room for two only and the other half was free.
But shortly after I sat down, his hand was on my knee!
I told his wife about it and she said “It’s fine with me.”

She was busy at the desk, adding up their sales,
balancing their ledgers and polishing her nails.
So in spite of her presence, we started our romance.
With no further touching, it was woo by speech and glance.

It’s true he was a smoker and that really got my goat.
I told him he was likely to get cancer of the throat.
 I had a quick solution that I hastened to propose,
that he take his cancer stick and stick it up his nose.

Our flirtation was soon over as I left the store with nieces,
sadly fearing that my heart had been reduced to pieces.
I never had an inkling that I would ever meet
such a stunning cowboy so handsome and so sweet.

But alas, it was inevitable that we two would part,
for I learned that in his stuffing, they had failed to add a heart.

Prompt words today are drive, hallucinate, stun, spite and inkling.

Breakfast Sandwich

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Breakfast Sandwich

My puppies heed no boundaries. They flop down where they  will.
Coco crowds me, head on shoulder, in my bed until
I need my arm for writing and to gratify my need,
I nudge her very gently, but still, she does not heed

the necessity for space between us on the bed,
so promptly she moves closer to lie on my arm instead.
She appreciates its flavor as she licks it fondly, then,
extends her pastel tongue to lick it all again.

Then Zoe comes to join us from her place down by my hip,
and expresses her love likewise with a little lip.
Then her tongue extends as well so I am doubly tasted.
massaged with love’s caresses until I’m thoroughly basted.

At length, both fall asleep again, their energy depleted,
and our morning’s sandwich is finally completed.
I wedge myself out gently so our sandwiching is done,
extracting my meat from between  its canine bun.

 

Prompt words for today are boundary, gratify, flavor, likewise, pastel and promptly. It is almost impossible to get photos with one’s arms pinned to the side but this was as close as I could get.