Tag Archives: your daily word

Swift Retribution

8 Replies

 

Swift Retribution

Out of all who came to court her, she had picked him as the winner.
It was later, after the wedding, that she discovered he was a sinner.
He had planned her initiation to the gambling and the grog—
her debauchment, his ego told him, easy as falling off a log.
But she had not shown an interest in the wild life he preferred,
so though he vowed that with his marriage, his earlier vices had been cured,
his sporadic bad behavior had her climbing up the wall.
His raw language and deportment weren’t acceptable at all.

Like she hadn’t known his weakness, he did not know her power.
She was not a wife to follow nor a girl to cringe and cower.
When they married he had few prospects—not a nickel nor a dollar,
so when he came home one night with lipstick on his necktie and his collar,
she chose not to be tearful, nor to scream or make a threat.
She just threw him into the driveway sans the keys to his Corvette.
And as he hoofed it toward the highway, perhaps he felt his first regrets
as he learned that one who gambles always has to pay his debts.

 

Prompt words for the day are sporadic, raw, winner, initiation and log.
Photo by Zach Rowlandson on Unsplash, used with permission. 

Art and Industry

9 Replies

 


Art and Industry

The languid win no prizes, the slothful not one plaudit.
The lazy artist paints no masterpiece for us to laud it.

The book that is not written finds no reader to adore it.
The man who scores no symphony, no audience to “Encore!” it.

“Popular” wins friends but draws no masses to applaud.
The rarest genius unexpressed will fail to leave us awed.

What movie that was never made has won box office fame?
Lighting a little fire won’t do. You have to fan the flame.

Enthusiasm on its own is rarely oohed and aahed.
It takes a little elbow grease to leave us open-jawed.

 

 

\

Prompt words today are enthusiasm, masterpiece, popular, languid and win.

Jurisprudence

7 Replies


The Defendant
The Claimant

Jurisprudence

One litigant a teddy bear, the other a stuffed bunny.
The plaintiff acting churlish, the defendant merely funny.
The judge’s view obstructed by the toy box’s high rim,
she declared a change of venue out to the jungle gym
where the judgment was decided by an animated race
to see who could swing highest without plummeting through space,
but before the final verdict could even be recited,
it seems a higher ruling had already been decided.

A necessary recess was called for by the judge.
She told the bear and rabbit they should not dare to budge.
When her mother declared nap time, she said that they’d resume
as soon as she was given the chance to leave her room.
She left Barbie, the bailiff, to insure that they’d be good
and both of them assured her that of course they would.
But in the end both parties wound up in custody
after the judge’s jailer called an emergency

made necessary when hard rain and a gusty wind
tumbled teddy bear and bunny both end over end.
So by the time the judge woke up, a power that was higher
had sent claimant and defendant to confinement in the dryer.
Then the rabbit hung from one ear and the teddy from his tie
from the clothesline in the laundry until both of them were dry.
Then there was a happy ending with all of them set free
as judge and bear and bunny wound up on daddy’s knee!

The Judge

The higher power and the bailiff

The prompt words today are view, emergency, churlish, animated and funny. I asked Forgottenman for a sixth and he gave me litigant.

Chopstick Savior: in Honor of National Chop Suey Day!!!

19 Replies

DSCN2810

Chopstick Savior

Faced with rush hour traffic, I was already leery
that any meal I’d cook tonight would turn out rather dreary.
This day was not abnormal. At its end, I was a wreck.
My colleagues in the office? A true pain in the neck.
My story is not poignant, but it’s sad enough, I guess.
Most days I end up bushed once they are finished, I confess.
So faced with thoughts of cooking, once again I murmur, “Phooey!”
And thank the Lord for takeout. Tonight? Egg rolls and chop suey.

Prompt words today are bush, abnormal, poignant and wreck. Since this is National chop suey Day, I’m adding chop suey to the prompt list.

If you feel inclined to help me honor chop suey today, please give a link to your post in comments below. At the very least, eat Chinese today, take a photo, post it and send me the link. Happy Chop Suey. (If I’m not wrong, it was an Americanization of Chinese food, anyway.)

 

Puzzled

25 Replies

Puzzled

Life is an exquisite puzzle whose pieces do not fit
each and every time that we seek to conquer it.
Its pieces are not shaped ahead. We form them as we go.
No solutions irrefutable. We grow them as we grow.
Caprice may may make life difficult—impossible to match
the present situation to pieces in the batch
cut out when life was scheduled, predictable and set
to lead in a direction where we will never get.
Life is wild and errant. It goes not where we lead.
We think that it’s the flower, but sometimes it’s just seed
that’s sewn in rocky soil that does not heed its growth.
Good fortune and adversity? We need to fit them both
into the picture of our lives. Each has its unique power
to turn what looks impossible into a thriving flower.

My guiding words today were caprice, irrefutable, errant, exquisite and puzzle.

Having Friends Over for Dinner

6 Replies

remi-spider2-e1442909307631

Having Friends Over for Dinner

I very nearly missed out on her graceful zigzag gig
beneath my bougainvillea, suspended from a twig.

Behold the nimble spider, spinning out her floss
determined that no insect will turn out to be her loss.

See her web’s tenacity, holding fast her prey—
those delicious visitors who rarely get away.

She sucks out their elixirs with minimal delay,
having guests for dinner every single day.

 

Prompt words today are web, tenacity, nearly, nimble and delicious.

Frisky Business: Animal Mischief (In Celebration of National Dog Day)

26 Replies

dsc07914

Frisky Business

My dogs aren’t highfalutin. Don’t compete by size and weight.
All that classy dog shows preach, they repudiate.
Diego never notices where a thrown stick lands,
and neither one’s consistent in following commands.

On stormy days, Morrie’s been known not to chance the rain
to go about his business in the usual terrain.
They’re murderers of  possums. This is no fresh news.
And when six pork chops vanished, I followed all the clues

down to where the evidence lay “hidden” in the yard.
How did six chop bones get there? It wasn’t very hard
to figure out the mystery. Diego was the thief
tall enough to bring about my dinner party grief,

swiping all the main course directly from the pan.
When his master’s back is turned, a dog does what he can.
But at least they are consistent in appearing for their meals.
No dog can only live on the comestibles he steals.

For more frisky business, go HERE or HERE or HERE or HERE! Or HERE, HERE or HERE or HERE! The entire story of the purloined pork chops is HERE, and, if you want it all in a nutshell, THIS ONE pretty much wraps up the whole story of my misbehaving dogs.

Prompt words today are highfalutin, repudiate, consistent and, since none of my other prompt sites has posted a prompt yet and since August 26 is National Dog Day, I’m declaring  my fourth prompt word to be dog!! If you see this and want to play along, just post a link to a photo or poem or anecdote about your dog to this site.

Here is my link for your pingbacks to this site: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2019/08/26/frisky-businessanimal-mischief/

Testing Affection

8 Replies

IMG_5554

Testing Affection

When I booked a sea adventure with a lover, I confess
that traveling together put our passion to the test.
It’s true I grate on people. I’ll attest to this one fact,
but it’s also true at times that my guy could use more tact.

When he kept daily tallies of the cookies on my plate—
a definite statistic I preferred he not relate—
he meant it as a joke, but I considered it as snide.
Comments about my appetite are ones hard to abide.

He maintained a steady pace and told me not to dawdle,
and even though his rapid steps made him sort of waddle,
I should have kept that to myself, but I fear I did not;
and that is why things got as heated as they finally got.

I said I’d zero tolerance for what was going on
and before he knew it, I was off that ship and gone.
And this is often how it goes when new love goes out traveling.
It’s often hard to face new climes without romance unraveling.

 

Full disclosure: Although the imagery in this poem reflects a recent sea voyage taken with my sister, the content is purely fictional. Well, except for the cookies harvested from the abundant buffets, which we both consumed in rather embarrassing numbers, but really, no one took a tally and no one waddled!! Nor did it put sisterhood to the test.

The fact that traveling together can put friendship or romance to the test, however, can be all too true. The first European driving vacation I took with a certain lover, I couldn’t wait to get home so I never had to see the jerk again, and at one point I really did tell him to pull over and I got out of the car and vanished into a forested tract for awhile. Thankfully, he waited patiently and I eventually emerged and got back into the car. Things evened out when we got home and within a year, we were married. Nonetheless, there is a reason for the old adage  that “true love (and traveling together) never did run smooth.”

Guided by the needs of these prompts, I have combined the two stories and the frictional lovers’ driving misadventure has been transformed into a cruise.

 

Prompt words for Aug 25, 2019 are friendship, excursion, snide, attest and zero.

Too Much Information

12 Replies

photo by joel muiz on Unsplash. Used with permission

Too Much Information

Substantiation of your sex appeal is shown in your tattoos—
illustrative options in so many different hues.
It’s true that your charisma is there for all to see,
inscribed upon your body be it thigh or calf or knee.

If I might take a moment, I could read you like a book.
A hieroglyphic record in your body’s every nook.
The snakes around your biceps and thorns circling your neck,
beer bottles on your forearms and the joined hearts on each pec.

All the ladies of your past hidden here and there.
Mandy on your wrist and Susan nestled in your hair.
Lucy on your pinkie and Maxine upon your shoulder—
might you regret them later as you get a little older?

That tear that’s sliding down your cheek, the stars beside your eyes,
that naked lady on your neck—do you think it wise?
I’m thinking of your grandchildren, for when your shirt you doff,
you won’t have any secrets, for your stories won’t come off.

Prompt words for today are charisma, tattoo, options, substantiation and moment.

Scoreless

4 Replies

photo by Ben Hershey for Unsplash, used with permission

Scoreless

As a jock he’s overrated. He’s insipid and a bore.
He dishes out the dirt on all his dates that’s mainly lore.
By their choice a second date is rarely in the works.
They have their radar out for all such predatory jerks.
On the field he’s second rate at passing and advancing.
But those skills are stellar when compared to his romancing!

Prompt words for today are insipid, dirt, jock, overrated and choice.