In Summation
Words have been my teachers and in their composition,
I’ve found my life’s real purpose. In making them my mission,
I’ve faced my major phobias and without a doubt,
I’ve reined in quite a few of them to somehow work them out.
I have no feelings of regret, no reason to repine.
Of any life that I could choose, I think I’d still choose mine.
Prompt words today are composition, repine, teacher and phobia.
Matchless
I fear I am a novice at getting romance right,
for every run I take at love ends up in my flight.
My first love was too cheerful. He was constantly jocund.
His physique was rolly-polly, and in time he grew rotund.
Once I escaped his clutches, I was happier by far,
but my next love was bittersweet, as seconds often are,
for I had found an athlete, less clownish and much fitter,
but I could not keep up with him, so once more love turned bitter.
After that I tried a lawyer, a butcher, then a teacher,
a roust-about, a cowboy, a restaurateur, a preacher.
But nothing ever seemed to work, for those I found disarming
were the ones that always seemed to find me less than charming.
Somehow I never quite matched up when it came to matching.
Every time I fell in love, it didn’t end up catching.
So all-in-all, much as I love a fond embrace and kiss,
I think that when it comes to love, I’ll just give it a miss.
Fiction, folks…no consolations necessary. Prompt words today are escape, novice, bittersweet, jocund and bitter.
Words
By their adjustment,
I change their drift,
but when I alter their lilt,
I am as transformed by them
as they are by me.
I am inebriated by words.
I reel in their power
as they call my bluff.
They reflect the changes in me
I would otherwise not know.
I can float in their buoyant comfort
or shoot the rapids of emotion.
Words are my river and my raft,
my cushion and that daredevil conveyance
into a new stream of thought
from which I never return
to the exact same world
I left from.
Prompt words today are bluff, inebriated, adjustment, lilt and shoot. Photo of the Current River in the Ozarks by jdb.
“That” Friend
My friend is amenable, but she is clueless.
If memories were sticky notes, hers would be glueless.
It seems like her calendar’s up for debate,
and if she shows up, she is, chronically late.
She’s always slow to get the ball rolling
for our monthly date for dinner and bowling.
Her memory’s airy. It blows where it blows.
Her socks are unmatched. There are tags on her clothes.
Her hair is disheveled, and It’s often the case
that traces of night cream are left on her face.
In short, she’s a space case. Her life’s in arrears.
If she were a car, she’d be missing some gears.
We gave up long ago in trying to change her.
We can’t straighten her out or fix or arrange her.
Over the years we’ve become less perplexible
figuring she’s here to keep us more flexible.
Prompts for the day are amenable, late, clueless, airy and bowl. Photo for illustrative purposes only. The friends in this picture are anything but clueless. Not necessarily so for the person in the foreground, however! ;o)
Wedding Dalliance
Though it’s a lovely wedding, after the seventh toast,
you’re tired of the well-wishing and each new smart riposte.
You’ve had too much champagne. You can’t face another bubble,
so you ask for a martini and say, “Make it a double!”
You’re fatigued by the spectacle and need to get some air,
so you wander to the terrace to view the cloudscapes there.
Your shoes are less than comfortable, so you slip them off,
and find that you are lost in dreams when you hear the cough
of an interloper who has joined you in escape—
another wedding attendee who’s come outside to gape.
He joins you at the railing and elbows you for room,
and before you know it, you are flirting with the groom!
When you feel his arms around you, you take it in your stride.
You’ll have no regrets later, for luckily, you’re the bride!
Prompt for today are cloudscapes, attend, spectacle, riposte and comfortable. Image by Marcus Lewis on Unsplash.
Panty Girdles and Merry Widows
It was another day, another time way back when girls wore girdles
in which we sat tightly confined—no jumping over hurdles
or doing other boy things like breathing with great ease—
as waist-cinchers contributed to our daily squeeze.
Our efforts for confinement may seem to you as needless,
but your suggestions way back then would have turned out heedless.
Emphatically, we all believed in our need for constriction.
Our bodies couldn’t just hang out. They called out for restriction.
And what we squeezed and corseted lest parts of us might flop–
those parts down on the bottom and the other parts on top?
Those assets that were hidden in the past by all the rest of us,
today, by the Kardashians, are revealed as the best of us!
Prompts for today are another day, suggest, needless, emphatic and effort. A
merry widow, by the way, is what we called the corset pictured above.
Impromptu Shopping Trip
Drop everything you’re doing and come with me boutique-ing.
They have a drop-dead sparkling gown like the one you’re seeking.
Change your dress and grab your lipstick, mascara and a comb.
Dishes can wait and dust will still be there when you get home.
Luckily the shop I found isn’t very far.
You can put your makeup on while I drive the car.
Looks can kill, you know, and you’ll be lethal in this gown.
It’s sure to make a smile of any fellow’s frown.
There’ll be no vestige of the housewife when you wear this gown.
Your spouse will want to take you out dancing on the town.
When he sees you in it, his objections will be nil.
Just make sure he sees you first before he sees the bill.
Prompt words for the day are: lethal, boutique, sparkling, vestige and drop. Photograph by Hush Naidoo Jade on Unsplash.
The One Thuosand Dollar Error
It was duplicitous lithography that landed him in jail,
for he found the thousand dollar bill impossible to nail.
Mr. Cleveland’s mustache was a bit askew,
and he messed up the order of the “o” and “u.”
And even though he crows about his quality of paper,
sure he could subsist for life just on this one bold caper,
the first bill that he tried to pass put him in a cell.
If you’re going to be a counterfeiter, best you learn to spell!
Word prompts today are crow, duplicitous, lithography subsist and paper.
A little humor to dispel the effect of the paintings presented above: Mealancholy: The remembrance of the day’s repast.(Those meals taken before your diet began.)
That silly definition was prompted by the fact that I noticed I’d misspelled the first prompt below while establishing the link. Here is the real word plus its companions:
The actual prompt words today are melancholy, Kafkaesque, gallery, cosset and black.
The Docent of the Midnight Gallery
Stark and grim and melancholy—harsh and Kafkaesque,
she ruled the midnight gallery from behind her desk.
Far from being cosseted, viewers were oft upbraided.
She moaned and screeched at visitors as though infuriated.
Skeletal and shrouded, her visage veiled in black,
she insured no visitor ever ventured back!
Bridge Game
Free from any adversary, safe from all deceptions,
the captain ruled his ship without yielding to exceptions.
So the cruise proceeded with ease from day to night,
and if any denizen was made to feel contrite,
it was not the captain who was made to feel the shame,
for when upon the water, he was spared from any blame
and so felt no contrition for all that he declared,
no matter how incongruous or how reason-impaired.
He was not held accountable for any misjudged thing,
for within his dominion, he was undisputed king.
Prompt words today are adversary, exception, cruise, contrite and safe. Image by Daniele D. Andreti on Unsplash
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 