Tag Archives: Word of the Day

Long Story

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Long Story

Your makeshift fidelity is now a laughable matter.
I have grown bold in my approaching old age
as my own life story now seems more fable than reality.

Every good tale needs its falling action—
its climaxes mainly based on comparison,
and, ironically, you were also its denouement.

But, we are the authors of our own drama,
and, much as I would have chosen otherwise,
you were just the coda of the second act.

 

Prompt words today are bold, makeshift, fidelity and laugh. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/rdp-monday-bold/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/18/fowc-with-fandango-makeshift/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/your-daily-word-prompt-fidelity-march-18-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/laugh/

Dumbing Down

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photo from Rolling Stone

Dumbing Down

I bailed on calculus but I excelled at long division.
Illustrious in wood shop, I flunked nuclear fission.
Knights in suits of armor were never quite my thing.
I never learned to play an instrument. I do not sing.

My illustrious school career came by fits and starts.
Loved auto mechanics. Couldn’t hack the arts.
I admit I’m not well-rounded. I studied what I liked,
and after school was over, I skateboarded and biked.

I never was a bookworm. I had no use for culture.
I had no fear of teachers who hovered like a vulture.
A comic book inside a textbook made for pleasant reading.
I only paid attention to what I would be needing.

The same is true now that I’m grown. I skip over the news.
I have no need of knowing  about Arabs, Serbs or Jews.
I fixate on my own needs. I can’t bother with the rest.
I read enough to pay my bills and pass my driver’s test.

What more is necessary? I have TV and my phone.
When I am ensconced in them, the world leaves me alone.
I’m tired of ecology and its boring explaining,
so voted for a president who is more entertaining.

Now that news is comedy, it holds my interest well.
Who believes those scientists who ring the warning bell?
When the air’s too bad to breathe, I’ll simply stay inside
watching news on Stuppid  that is more bona fide.

(Click on the Stuppid URL for a list and description of “fake news” news sources and some of the biggest disinformation posts.  Chilling. )

Prompt words today were bail, division, illustrious and armor.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/rdp-sunday-bail/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/17/fowc-with-fandango-division/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/illustrious/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/your-daily-word-prompt-armor-march-17-2019/

Our Better, Nature

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Our Better, Nature

We hoard her in our gardens where we force her into plots,
confine her in our vases, crowd her into pots.
Ambitious men plan towers—trade grass and trees for gold.
They overlook one simple fact. We’re all in nature’s hold.
Man’s illustrious plots and schemes always come to naught,
for the power of nature can’t be sold or bought.

I found it in the city, extending from the curb—
a simple little chain of green, a subtle rus-in-urbe.
Where men would install order, nature overrules.
Those trying to best nature are always proven fools.
For eons, we have buried her, time and time again.
Yet still she prods up from her grave. Nature will always win.

 

The prompt words today are order, hoard, illustrious and rus-in-urbe.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/rdp-saturday-rus-in-urbe/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/16/fowc-with-fandango-order/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/your-daily-word-prompt-hoard-march-16-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/illustrious/

America is Frozen

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America is Frozen

America is frozen—held fast in winter’s maw,
her government held prisoner under a greedy claw.
For any children but her own, her arms grown arch and cold.
No room for diversity. No room for her to hold 
any but the richest, the whitest and the chosen.
No room left in liberty for any but the frozen.
“Give me your tired and your poor” relegated to the past
by the chilling Nordic air that holds us in its blast.

The thaw that brings the blush of spring—the budding of the flower
is held for ransom by the few who have usurped our power.
Our ship of state held fast by ice, its sails still bravely strain
to crack the ice and open up to justice once again.
If they only had the power to billow they might start
to bring us back to sanity and thaw each frozen heart.
The poor would share the power that only the rich can buy
and have their proper portion of the great American pie.

Prompt words today were thaw, power, sail and justice. Here are the links:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/14/rdp-thursday-thaw/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/14/fowc-with-fandango-power/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/14/your-daily-word-prompt-sail-march-14-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/14/justice/

Out of Order

9 Replies

Out of Order

My Wi-Fi’s ills I must relate,
Its constancy I must delate.
For though I’m much in need of it,
Telmex won’t take heed of it.
It’s off and on by its own whim.
When most in need, its lights go dim
or flash a mock emergency
uncaring of my urgency
to post a blog or read my mail.
When most in need, it’s sure to fail.

I’m in great pain, I must confess.
I am a maiden in distress
who needs a knight who might be able
to bring me fiber optic cable
so when I get the writing urge,
I’ll always get that welcome surge
that allows my words to hit the air
in weather inclement or fair.
So if you’re friends with Carlos Slim,
please tell him I’m in need of him.

We’ve filled his pockets and his banks,
now we’re deserving of his thanks.
It’s time that we received the perks
of a router system that really works.
Perhaps he’ll look at all he’s got:
his houses and his massive yacht,
and realize that it’s only fair
to give a hoot— to really care
to deliver what we pay him for.
Wi-Fi that’s fact and not just lore!!!

 

Prompt words today were delate, WiFi, knight and pledge. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/rdp-wednesday-delate/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/13/fowc-with-fandango-wifi/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/your-daily-word-prompt-knight-march-13-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/pledge/

Buried Treasure

9 Replies

 

Buried Treasure

Though my diurnal actions may be slower now and measured,
imagination’s richer—its journeys fully treasured.
I feel the whole world opening. I roam it at my will,
unhampered by long distances—undaunted by each hill.

I explore new continents, revisit former haunts.
In nocturnal wanderings, I enjoy surreal jaunts
joined by friends departed, unhampered by my years.
I do those things undone before, conquering all my fears.

Daily, I relate to friends by voice or screen or paper,
confessing past  adventures, admitting every caper.
Laugh over pains and  learn from misdeeds that I may have done—
each ill-advised decision transmogrified to fun.

Life in the doing’s richer when we have vigor for it,
and when our energy runs out, we still can re-adore it.
Our memory is a treasure box with contents vast and rare,
made richer by each telling. Increasing as we share.

 

Memory boxes and photos by jdb

Prompt words today are diurnal, opening, action and treasure.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/rdp-tuesday-diurnal/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/12/fowc-with-fandango-opening/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/your-daily-word-prompt-treasure-march-12-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/action/

Inscribing an Epitaph for the King of Music

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Inscribing an Epitaph for the King of Music

When it came to lyrics, his wit was finely tined. 
His words were sharp and pointed. He had a rapier mind.
When he was at his zenith, his music was sublime.
Perfect in its sentiment, exquisite in its rhyme.
His tunes were like a river moving words along.
All the world’s fine miracles occurred in every song.
Each run an apparition that faded out of sight
just as the next melodic ghost appeared to take its bite.

His music effervescent, then thundering, then gory,
devoured all our senses, flooding us with its glory.
He raced us through emotion as though running out of time.
Each opus was a mountain, exhausting in the climb.
Then when we reached its zenith, he released us from its hold
with one brief caesura that freed us from the fold
to barrel down the mountain in one euphoric sweep—
sliding from the summit down to the deepest deep.

They scribed a single word in stone over his burial mound
to describe this musician who married words and sound 
to take us all on journeys magical and euphoric,
and yet the label “Maestro,” just seems too categoric
to conjure up this genius who could transport us all
to every corner of ourselves within that massive hall.
He deserves a finer word. A more distinctive label,
but words fail me as I choose what I’d inscribe if I were able.

Prompt words today are tune, occur, apparition and zenith. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/rdp-sunday-tune/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/10/fowc-with-fandango-occur/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/your-daily-word-prompt-apparition-march-10-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/zenith-2/

The Spoils

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The Spoils

Walking is elemental. We do it night and day,
but if they could, they’d meter it and we’d have to pay.
They charge us for our water, but so far air is free.
Until they find a way to own it, they will let us be.
Every element on earth is one they’d like to own,
but how to possess all of it so far is still unknown.

They find new ways to own us and to control our voting.
They open up our coffers and soon they’re busy toting
all of our resources off to their own coffers
so they can sell it back to us, slaves to their pricey offers.
If there were a tournament for greed and avarice,
it would be one our billionaires wouldn’t want to miss.

Golf might be their game of choice or perhaps chess or tennis.
The rules would be cut-throat, and their game plan full of menace.
But no matter what their plots to gain chess pieces or ball,
no matter what their motivation to possess it all,
no matter what the game or how many players are in it,
all the rules would ensure our president would win it!!!

trump coin

Prompt words today are walk, meter, tournament and elemental. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/rdp-saturday-walk/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/09/fowc-with-fandango-meter/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/your-daily-word-prompt-tournament-march-9-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/elemental/

Her Highness Contemplates a Seemly End

15 Replies

greg-daines-1376875-unsplash
Her Highness Contemplates A Seemly End

Nobility in dying is something I shan’t botch,
for I know it shall be one that the whole wide world will watch.
I cannot go by fire, for I’m sure I would be screaming
as the water quenched the fire and set my flesh to steaming.

So unseemly and so crass. I’d find it unappealing.
So, too, a rope around my neck, hanging from the ceiling.
Jumping from a roof won’t do. Nor will a gun nor pills.
Every sort of suicide just sports too many ills.

It’s clear that death by avalanche is the only one
that will really suit me when the day is done.
A certain swift clean fall of snow seems such a pristine death.
A queenly mode of dying. Such a regal final breath!

photo by Greg Daines, Unsplash  Today’s prompt words are avalanche, watch, nobility and fire. Here are links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/rdp-friday-avalanche/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/08/fowc-with-fandango-watch/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/your-daily-word-prompt-nobility-march-8-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/fire/

Love Charm

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Love Charm

You can put away your broadsword. Swashbuckling’s not in style.
You need not kill a dragon to bring about my smile.
Chivalry is so passé. It’s gone right out of fashion.
It does not raise my temperature nor bring about my passion.

If you wish to start a love affair where we will never part,
if you would win my empathy, my ardor and my heart
and bring a love light to my eyes—that certain telling glisten,
then when I talk, just do one thing.  Really, really listen!!!

Prompt words are temperature, empathy,  broadsword and passion. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/07/rdp-thursday-temperature/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/03/07/fowc-with-fandango-empath/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/03/07/your-daily-word-prompt-broadsword-march-7-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/03/07/passion/