Tag Archives: Word of the Day Challenge

2022 Fashion

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2022 Fashion

There is a dearth of luxury in fashions of today.
All the garments made of fur have been tucked away.
Zibelline and beaver, chinchilla, mink and fox
hide in the back of closets or in the remnants box.

The most ardent fashionista wears clothes shapeless as kelp.
Shoulder pads and belts and pads do not seem to help.
They walk runways like branches stripped down to their bark:
minimal and twiggy, sparse and wan and stark.

Lace and ruffles banished, hot Goth is all the rage.
Tractor Trek-Sole boots and chunky loafers stalk the stage.
Sweater vests and crop-tops, shabby chic and Y2K
have replaced silks and satins, mohair and chambray.

Power Bohemian florals compete with color clashing
For what the trend-setters of the day find most chic and dashing.
The only good that I can see in these current fashion rages
is that fewer animals are being kept in cages!

Prompt words for today are kelp, ardent, branch, dearth, zibelline, shapeless.

 

Love’s Highway

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Love’s Highway

A pilgrim on this long highway of love, he quickly learned how to forsake what was lucrative in favor of what was genuine. He learned how to first cover-up his pain from love’s last skirmish and finally, how to heal.

“Faint heart never won fair lady” and “Hope springs eternal!” became his slogans and in the end, persistence won out. He celebrated his fiftieth wedding anniversary  today, and their celebratory cake read, “Still Companions on Love’s Highway.”

Prompts today are heal, lucrative, pilgrim, genuine, springs and cover-up.

The Embarkation of Miss Emily

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The Embarkation of Miss Emily

He strolled into her module acting all hale and hearty,
issuing an invitation to his birthday party.
He was throwing a big shindig like those raves of yore—
the kind where she was sure she’d be perceived as quite a bore.

They’d sail out to an island on a rented yacht.
A bikini would be clothes enough. The weather would be hot!
She’d have to take a day off work. There’d be no compensation,
but this was not the reason for her main hesitation.

She did not feel affronted. She felt no perturbation.
Rather, she debated her own qualification.
She was no party animal, nor had she ever been.
Her parents both regarded such revelry as sin.

She had no experience with pot, cocaine or gin
and even less experience when it came to men!
So her positive response, though wary, was wholehearted.
if she was going to be wild, ’twas high time she got started!

 

Prompt words are hale, affront, qualification, module, yore and compensation.

Ode to the Las Vegas Buffet

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Ode to the Las Vegas Buffet

After some poker and roulette and craps,
we return to our rooms for some well-deserved naps.
The gambler in me has been curbed at a cost.
One poker chip memento, and the rest has been lost.

As I sink into bed, worries float away,
heavenward-bound as I doze in the hay.
Tomorrow’s buffet—that iconic repast
will insure our regrets over losses won’t last.

We’ll pile our plates, then come back for more
until we pop out of the clothes that we wore.
We’ll recoup our losses, for the assets we left
we’ll take home again in our bodily heft!

 

Prompt words today are float, gambler, memento, repast, heavenward and iconic. Images by Aidan Howe and Kenny Eliason

Purple Passions

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Purple Passions

These purple flowers, blooming in profusion,
create a sharp tang, and at first some confusion
until I remember that purple on lips
painted by numerous slurpings and sips
of grape-flavored Popcicles, iced Koolaid,
andgrape jelly sandwiches that my mom made.

Then they rekindle other metaphors
for long-ago youth: those much-slammed screen doors,
watermelon pickles and lemon ices,
as substitutions, nothing suffices.
Withdrawal from these childhood passions
created lusts for other things— fashions,

Jewelry, shoes and purses and joys
even more luscious, resulting in boys,
contradicting beliefs that naught else would suffice
for grape jelly sandwiches and lemon ice!!!
Thus may a color rekindle fond thoughts
and return us to passions we had as mere tots.

Prompt words today are purple, rekindle, metaphor, contradict, withdrawal, lemon ices.

Kiddie Lit

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Kiddie Lit

Kids’ writers should not share advice or issue proclamations,
give retorts to news reports or deal with exclamations.
Pervasive thoughts that they promote should be more of the soul.
Promoting  thoughts of mermaids should rather be their goal.

Reality will find us no matter where we look,
in news stands or on Twitter or in every printed book.
It’s fantasy that needs support in this day and age
when bad news is what we get on every written page.

Early on, a kid is taught to exercise and hustle,
but it’s equally important to develop other muscle.
A brain needs exercising, too, and after its gestation
is best served by means of an active imagination.

 

 

 

 

Prompts today are mermaid, writer, pervasive, retort, advice and proclamation.

In A Society of Women

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2007

In A Society of Women

No patriarchal dominance rears its violent head.
Birth fluids and menses are the only lifeblood shed.
No lifted guns or measured gait. No uniform or boot
disturbs the regal silence of the calmness at our root.

Spontaneity rules the day. We follow no set path.
Not guided by testosterone, we do not extoll wrath.
The crack of no whip guides us. We can’t be led like sheep.
You cannot boss or bully us. We live by what we reap.

Your rules buzz around us like mosquitos in the brain,
centered around principals that we hold in disdain.
Dominance and power and unlimited riches
would not be an option in a world that’s run by bitches!

Prompt words today are crack, mosquito, spontaneity, patriarchal, root and moonlight.

Dietary Doldrums

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Dietary Doldrums

Her eating habits, luckily, were found to be most corrigible,
for her personality was found to still be porridgeable.
Oatmeal formed her breakfast and salads formed her lunch
as she foresook the bad foods on which she used to munch.

Buttery popcorn banished as an unhealthy mistake,
she snacked instead on kale chips for her figure’s sake.
Rare steak was  soon banished, for she relished it no more
once she foresook flesh meats, shuddering at their gore.

Her electric grinder ground chickpeas up instead
and this was the protein upon which she fed.
Healthy ever after once her war with food was won,
meals sugarless and greaseless, alas, were not much fun.

 

\Prompt words today are buttery, personality, gore, corrigible, Steak and electric. Image by Deryn Macey on Unsplash. 

Strappy Stilettos

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Strappy Stilettos

I languish in these pointy shoes with their flimsy straps.
My ankles teeter with their height, I poke out through their gaps.
I don’t appreciate the fact that they’re the current style.
You try walking in such shoes mile after mile!

The material that forms them is so sparing and so meager
that I’ll be darned if I can figure out why gals are eager
to teeter down the street in them or wear them out to dance.
Trying to walk on shoes like this is taking quite a chance!

The truth lies in the fact that shoes like this must be the fashion
of men for whom the look of things is their only passion.
Safety and walkability cannot be their goal,
for feet were not created to balance on a pole

held in by straps that mean the heels can slide from side to side,
prompting a proclivity to stumble and to slide.
Mr. Choo and Ferragamo, if they ever tried to wear them
might have found their shoes inclined to torture and to scare them.

There should be a special Hell made for designers who maintain
that for the sake of passion one must succumb to the pain
of shoes that are a torture. They should have to walk a mile in them
and while they are in agony, be forced to feign a smile in them!!!!

 

Prompt words today are: pointy shoes, languish, lie, meager, appreciate and flimsy. Image by Femme Spirit @Unsplash.

False Prospects

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False Prospects

The young are often credulous—open to chains of lies—
reaching out for the brass ring, desirous of the prize.

Hopeful, naive and buoyant, they flit from thing to thing,
desirous of the riches they hope that fate will bring.

With age their hopes are truncated as reason rears its head
and they discover the reality of what life gives instead.

Toil, sweat and labor and responsibility
supersede those youthful dreams of nobility.

Fuming with fate’s injustice, we are pulled into line,
as sour grapes replace youth’s hopeful dreams of honey wine.

This is a dreary little poem and not really reflective of my experience in life, but blame the prompt words and the fact that I have to be at art camp in an hour!!!!!

 

Prompt words for the day are buoyant, truncate, lie, credulous, chain and fuming.