Mostly Covered
Sheep keep snug because they’re fully
covered by a coat that’s wooly
rising right up from their thighs
to the heads above their eyes.
(Though why their legs and feet aren’t covered,
not one of us has yet discovered,)
The two remaining prompt words today are wooly and rise.
Neither of these prompts had been published yet when I wrote my earlier poem, so here they are with one of their very own. Image by Judith Prins on Unsplash.
Duelling Chefs
I try to think up a riposte
to my neighbor’s blatant boast
his guacamole is the best,
well-noted for its creamy zest.
He made it for my solstice party,
cilantro sprigs to make it arty.
And, concerned that we’d run out,
he brought an extra carton out.
Superfluous, for, undiminished,
even his first bowl went unfinished,
for I made guacamole, too,
and it was mine that counted coup.
The two were polar opposites.
Mine was the best. His was the pits.
For though his pot of guac was fine,
I put the pot inside of mine!
Prompt words today are solstice, superfluous, riposte,
polar, concern and carton. Image by Yakshi Virmani on Unsplash.
I sat in the food court at the mall yesterday and watched an eight or nine-year-old girl and her baby sister, who couldn’t have been more than three, posing for selfies at a table, the smaller girl mimicking her “older” sister’s every pouty, hopefully sensual grimace. They finally became aware of the fact that I was photographing them photographing themselves and they shifted chairs, turning their backs to me, but went on for another few minutes, determining the face they wanted to turn to the world by what they saw reflected in the older sister’s phone.
Selfie Generation
I like a crinkly sort of smile
that lacks a single trace of guile.
Smiles sinister are not my thing,
nor are the polar chills they bring.
Selfies contain In their morass
little I might label class.
Sexy smiles, much composed
of postured puckers, planned and posed.
Babies imitate their sisters,
miming come-ons to strange misters
who might stumble on their page
that online might become the rage.
They learn the lingo and the walk.
Mime the postures, talk the talk.
Mindful of how they come and go,
everything done for the show.
Prompt words today are morass, sinister, crinkle, polar, talk and come.
Rude Reception
I don’t forgive the kidney punch, sharp and sure and quick.
Your sapless smile an icicle, cold and stiff and sick.
Once they’ve repaired the damage and my tactics I’ve refined,
I’ll return your greeting, in fervor and in kind.
Prompt words are sharp, repair, icicle, sapless, kidney and don’t. Image borrowed from the internet.
Vicissitudes
Vicissitudes of fortune occur to everyone.
At the very best of times, they snuff out all your fun.
You find the perfect dress and shoes then find that you are cursed
with a hellacious haircut that presents you at your worst.
Neither fame nor fortune is a perpetual state.
The only constant for each one is that they will abate.
You hop up on the carousel and grab the golden ring,
but can’t hold on forever to any precious thing.
Luck ebbs and flows like tidal waves, advancing and departing—
an ending just as sure in life as every action’s starting.
So get used to life’s vagaries, for you may be sure
that they are the only things certain to endure.
Prompt words today are hellacious, neither, vicissitude, grab, haircut and hop.
A Lemonade Stand!!!!
Teetotalers do not mind
refreshments of the softer kind.
A lemon sliced, plump and terete
once squeezed, they feel, cannot be beat.
A lemonade is sure to please,
their thirst to quench and thus appease.
On the other hand, some folks
consider drinks like this as jokes.
They prefer their lemons sliced this way
along with mint served in a spray
that serves as garnish or a kicker
for a drink that’s laced with liquor.
Liquids served with temperance
will rarely warrant a defense.
In short order, they will rate
demands at once for a rebate!!!
If you serve lemonade, please thin it
with hefty slugs of gin within it!!!!
Prompt words today are terete, rebate, lemonade, appease, spray and mind.
((Click on Photos to Enlarge)
Reinvention
Am I on a teeter-totter or an even plane?
Interestingly kooky or a bit insane?
I try to reinvent myself to fight off signs of dolor.
Does this mean I’m adventurous or that I am bipolar?
I stretch myself upon a rack, fresh insights to inspire.
Initiate new interests, hoping they’ll light a fire.
But there is no assurance that this new me will last
any longer than the other me’s that I have cast.
Prompt words are reinvent, rack, initiate, assure, plane.
I know I went a bit crazy with the photos. I had just a few and then kept filling in gaps.
Mismatched
By what draconian measures might you cure your spouse of snoring?
No amount of pushing, shoving, poking, shouting, roaring
will rouse him from his sleep, and it does no good to smudge him.
No pungent fumes from spruce or sage can do a thing to budge him.
As maddening as a girl might find a husband who is boring,
there is no match more irritating than one prone to snoring.
Prompt words today are it, spouse, draconian, spruce, push and pungent.
We’ll Be Having S’mores!
He’ll rid the cupboards of food he abhors
and refurbish them with the makings for s’mores:
marshmallows, Hershey bars and then for backers,
he’ll purchase a surplus of packs of graham crackers.
A triple pleasure, this snack is the star
of any snack found in packet or jar.
Let the unimaginative shop in stores
for pre-made snacks. He’ll be serving us s’mores!
Prompt words today are triple, unimaginative, marshmallow, refurbish, star, surplus. Photos by Autumn Mott and Jessica Rusce on Unsplash.
Cantankerous
Grandpa is displaying his usual disposition,
expressing all his anger with excessive exposition.
He’s feeling most litigious and says that all the dang
liberals and Democrats should be sentenced to hang!
To Hell with all the secrecy. Sound the fire sirens
and lynch all left wing voters found in our environs.
If it were up to him they’d draw and quarter, limb-from-limb
every gol-durn voter who does not vote like him!
Prompt words today are hang, litigious, secrecy, disposition, sound. Image by Charles Buchler on Unsplash.
Fiction, Dolly!!!!
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 