Tag Archives: the daily spur

2022

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2022

In every corner of the globe in far-flung civilizations
I imagine folks are planning tonight’s celebrations.
This finale of the year will bring a brilliant end
to last year’s resolutions that we saw fit to bend.

This year we will get it right. There will be no debate.
We’ll resolve to start again. We won’t equivocate.
We’ll get pally with old friends we haven’t seen for years,
clean out stuffed closets and pay debts that are long in arrears.

This year as midnight approaches and we sing “Auld Lang Syne,”
the mistake that we made last year in drinking too much wine
will not be repeated, for we’ll avoid the bars
and start our New Year resolutions under the brilliant stars.

Spread out under Orion, we’ll construct our list of “do’s”
to become perfect in those ways that only we can choose.
We won’t eat so much chocolate. We’ll exercise each day
and weigh each night to see how many pounds have slipped away.

We will not play loud music so won’t be held to blame
and hope that all our neighbors will resolve to do the same.
We’ll keep our yards trimmed neatly and repaint all our shutters,
relieved that for this year at least we won’t hear neighbors’ mutters.

We’ll take bags when we walk the dogs and bring their poops all home
so folks for blocks around will not dread it when we roam.
We’re not perfect now, but in twenty-twenty-two,
we’re weeding out bad habits and starting out anew.

 

 

Prompt words today are finale, brilliant, auld lang syne, pally and civilization.

They’ll Be Sorry!!!

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They’ll Be Sorry!!!

She’s stuffing Mommy’s reticule with necessary stuff,
putting on her bunny coat and leaving in a huff.
All the sundry items contribute to its thickness—
pajamas for her dolly and candy pills for sickness.

She’s packed her favorite nightie and her dolly and her bear,
a pair of extra panties and a hairbrush for her hair.
She grabs a sun umbrella as she passes by the rack,
squishes up her raincoat and stuffs it in her sack.

So now she’s set for sun or rain as she sets off to roam.
She’ll make her parents sorry when she runs away from home!
The hall clock ticks its countdown as she sets off on her lark.
She’ll have to run away right now to be back before dark.

 

Prompt words are reticule, sundry, countdown, cohere and sickness.
Image by Zahra Amiri on Unsplash

New Year Resolutions

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New Year Resolutions

When the new year zaps us with our last year’s reflection,
it brings up all our defects and flaws for our detection.
It goads us to be better and to bend our crooked way
to plot a straighter game in life than we’ve been prone to play. 
It’s January 1st that prods our consciences to make them,
giving us a whole long year in which to go and break them.

 

Word prompts are zap, play, reflection, goad and bend. Image, Kate Hliznitsova on Unsplash.

Make Mine Tanqueray

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Make Mine Tanqueray

A gin and bubbly with a twist?
Sufficient reason to exist.
As integral to daily life
and in deferring pain and strife
as a good psychiatrist.
Better, in fact, I must insist,
than thrusting all one’s problems on
some overworked Freudian don.
On days when feeling near-demonic,
nothing soothes like gin and tonic!!!

 

 

Prompts today are twist, integral, bubbly defer and thrust.

Peace on Earth in ’22

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Peace on Earth in ’22

If only we could clear the world of every tragic issue
as though we’d wiped the slate clean with one gigantic tissue.
If Pollyanna ruled the world, there’d be no end of cheer.
There’d be no hungry children, no drunks crying in their beer.
But in our potential Shangri-La, perfection’s not to be.
The playing field’s not even and there is no guarantee
that things will all be equal regarding happiness.
In fact with every passing year, the world’s more of a mess.

Yet before we shed this mortal coil, there’s something we can do
to try to bring some happiness to this human zoo.
Before this year is over, it would be stupendous
if each and every one of us could do something tremendous
like deflect a bit of gossip or curb a caustic quip,
 resist an impulse to defraud or cheat or bilk or gyp,
 see a foreign culture as exotic, not as wrong,
 join hands with the universe and try to get along.

As this old year’s winding down, if we could make a pact
not to steal or plunder, not to blame nor to react
in anger to each other. Treat each woman as our mother
and try to view each man on earth as our potential brother,
then maybe things would straighten out and throughout the Earth
our population would be healed and all would feel their worth.
Warfare would be abolished and kindness seize the day.
Oh that this was reality and we could find our way.

 

Prompt words today are coil, stupendous, cheer, caustic and tissue. Image thanks to the New York Public Library on unsplash.

December 26

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December 26

We’re all mindful of the date. Christmas has been done.
Jingle bells are now passé. “Noel” has had its run.
Mall Santas can be irascible for another year
until Christmas season once again draws near
and they must again be jovial, mindful of the tykes
who must be assuaged with their promises of bikes
or quantities of other toys as parents hovering near
make lists of wished-for plunder they’re meant to overhear.
Cash registers the whole mall through will jingle jangle jingle
as crowds of Christmas shoppers brave the crowds to mingle
and provide their little darlings with all that they desire.
So do stores and Santa Claus every year conspire
to insure our economy continues to expand.
So as he bows and leaves the stage, give Santa Claus a hand!

 

Prompt words today are jovial, mindful, bow, irascible and quantity. Images by Chris Murray and Mike Arney on Unsplash.

The Great Reveal

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Click on photos to enlarge.

 

The Great Reveal

When it comes to Christmas gifts, I hope you get a passel
and you find unwrapping them to be a task most facile.
Every bound up package, may it be in bow or tassel,
a rip-roaring pleasure instead of any hassle.

And though we are adults now, let them be mementos of
all those bygone childhood years that all of us just love
to retain with pleasure in our memories—
how we would  prod and finger gifts and ogle, guess and squeeze.

Then, finally, on Christmas morn, we’d wake up like a shot,
barreling downstairs at dawn to see what we had got.
Before the church bells drew us out, we had to do our duty
and reveal just what Santa had left us for our booty.

Thus however much we’ve tried maturity to hone,
at Christmas time we find how very little we have grown.
As we untie ribbons, rip off paper, pry off lids,
we discover in our hearts that all of us are kids!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!!!!

Prompts today are gift, memento, bells, facile and shot.

Weddings Banned–Market in a Tailspin

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Weddings Banned–Market in a Tailspin

They’re banning marriage in America. The vote has just come in.
Such illicit gatherings are now declared a sin.
No flower-littered church aisles. No presents neatly wrapped.
Ring bearers are now passé, honeymoon routes unmapped.

Parsons and priests are limited to un-bridal functions:
baptisms and funerals, sermons and  extreme unctions.
Department stores will probably have to cut back hours
when they feel the drop in sales from no more bridal showers.

The diamond market has gone bust as have sales of cake.
Bakeries are trying to think of other things to make
like maybe first-date cookies or three-tiered valentines,
make-out brownies, passion pies or set-up clementines.

Nationwide, each future bride is busy now, I’m certain,
altering her bridal veil into a window curtain.
The only positive result is no more bridesmaid dresses
of nylon net or taffeta or other gauche excesses.

No reason has been given for this bizarre decision
that’s met with voter outrage and the whole world’s derision.
The press without exception declares this law as dastardly,
declaring that an entire generation will be bastardly.

Kids will not bear fathers’ names. Connections will be lost,
with only mothers being the ones to bear the cost
of doctor bills and dental bills and clothes and vaccinations,
of summer camp and prom dresses and college educations.

The men will all be free to sleep with any random hottie
and spend their dough on gambling debts or a new Maserati.
Perhaps that is the secret of why nine out of ten
legislators voted for the law–they are all men!

Prompt words today are illicit, gathering, unction, flower and wrapped, Image by Ben White on Unsplash.

“Why Don’t You Let Me Iron That for You?”

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“Why Don’t You Let Me Iron That for You?”

When there is a wrinkle, she works fast to smooth it out.
She loves to plug the iron in and move it all about.
Steam wafting all around her, she executes arm action.
She finds it scintillating dealing with each new infraction
of the rule that each garment should hang seamless and true,
without a single furrow dividing it from you.
She feels no reluctance in relieving clothes of wrinkles—
no puckers and no creases. No scrunches and no crinkles.
Because of her I’m faultless. My wardrobe is sublime,
for in Yolanda’s view, a wrinkled garment is a crime!

 

Yolanda has been my housekeeper, accomplice and friend for twenty years now. She rearranges my belongings, leaving little jokes, removes dust and fingerprints and generally rules the roost when it comes to the state of my house. In addition, neither I nor any houseguest can leave the house without meeting with her discerning eye. and if she spots a wrinkle, you can be sure she’ll whip the iron out and insist that it be dealt with. I’ve never yet won an argument to the contrary.

Prompt words today are scintillate, smooth, waft, reluctant and fast.

Family Christmas Visit

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Family Christmas Visit

“Halleluiah” she cried when I walked through the door.
It was clear I’m the sister she tends to adore.
My mercurial rise to the top of her list
began on the day that I chose to exist.
In particular, days when she finds her life taxing,
she finds me essential to aid her relaxing.
It’s tempting to say it’s because I’m so cool,
but I don’t think it’s that as a general rule.
I think that my charm is that I’m so familiar.
The power of my presence is merely familial.

After 24 hours with no sleep and a crazy two and a half hour trip through Guadalajara airport and still nearly missing my plane, it was a blessing to finally arrive in Phoenix and to eventually
sink into a bed for a four-hour sleep. It took another hour or so to get online, where these prompts awaited me. Now it is 7:23 at night—twelve hours after I arrived—and I’m finally getting my prompt poem written. I showed my sister the five prompt words and asked her to give me the first line, which I changed a bit and used as the first line of this poem. Blame her, partially, for prompting the rest.

Prompt words today are hallelujah, mercurial, essential, relax, tempting.

Forgottenman suggested I add a few photos of Patti and me from the past and I always mind, so here they are. Click on photos to enlarge.

With our Xmas dolls, in Betty’s green checked bedroom.
First day of school.
Patti and I under the rose trellis.