560 : The Phantom

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

the rest is up to us.

The Phantom, who slept on a board

In the space where the organ was stored,

Would sing from his heart

The whole villain’s part,

For Christine, the girl he adored.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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559 : Weight for it! Weight for it!

Weight for it! Weight for it!

A little Sunday morning rant.

Have you lost weight?

No, damn it!

I haven’t ‘lost’ any weight.

I’ve thrown it away,

Pushed it away,

Told it to leave

When it begged at my door

Disguised as a nice cheese

Or a profiterole

In search of a home 

And a place to rest, 

On me,

For a long time.

Losing weight?

Sounds a rather 

Careless thing to do.

No, this is a premeditated act.

Callous, hardhearted, in fact.

I have learnt

To ignore the pathetic pleas

From the whining and dining 

Little shitake in butter sauce

To take it back,

To take it in.

Like Sisyphus, pushing a cupcake

To the top of the food pyramid,

This may go on for a while.

But have I lost any weight?  

No, I know exactly

Where it has gone.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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558 : Table for Two.

Prompted by, but not entirely in keeping with,

Imaginary Garden with Real Toad’s prompt “Love after Love”.

Written largely, but not entirely, for my mother

Who will be ambushed by “So Far, So Close”.

Table for Two

Memories of all those we’ve loved

Will never truly fade;

They may recede from daily view

But are poised to reinvade.

Well meant but a word, a song, a scent—

And you, 

Ambushed by this refresher,

Are, without any warning, shoved

Backwards through a thresher.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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557 : A Regret

A Regret

The position was an honorary one,

The pay, at best, was lean.

With time, you had to to sever

The bonds that ran between.

And yet, I will not forget,

Never regret, 

The smooth and, too, the rough.

Sadly, I realise, now it’s done,

I never thanked you enough.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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556 : Vacant.

Vacant.

The door is unlocked

And swings open noiselessly.

The house seems empty.

No carpets.

No curtains.

No furniture.

Footsteps are hard

And echo as you enter.

Hello?  No answer.

Is anyone here?  Silence.

No signs of life.

No signs of former life.

Except for one thing,

On the sink,

An empty yoghurt container,

And a plastic spoon.

The gravel crunches,

As if mocking me,

As I leave.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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555 : Creature of Habit.

The alarm is off.

It is Saturday morning.

Why am I awake?

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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554 : So Far, So Close.

Imaginary Garden with Real Toads has the prompt "Loss".

So Far, So Close.

I couldn’t have been much further away,

Up a volcano in Ecuador,

If it hadn’t have been raining

I wouldn’t have known at all.

A spare moment to fill, 

A chance checking of the email,

Yes, even up a volcano in Ecuador,

And the world turned upside down.

The stomach tightening ride to Quito,

The frantic efforts to retrieve our passports 

Despite tales to the contrary 

The Cubans were very helpful.

The eighteen hour transit at Santiago

That seemed like it would never end.

The dash from the airport to the hospital.

And there you were.

Plumbed.  

Drugged.  

Unconscious.

And so you remained until the machines

Told us that you had left the room.

I so wish you could read my poems.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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553 : I Don't Understand

dVerse Poets challenges us to use an Anaphora in a poem.

Anaphora is the repeated use of a starting rhyme.

Amateur psychologists may be tempted to analyse this work.

Put down your inkblots.  It is just a fictional work, 

in response to the prompt.

I Don’t Understand.

Why do you behave this way?

Why do you refuse to say?

Why is every day so grey?

Why do you so want to flay?

Sigh in dismay, I don’t understand.

Why have you become so cold?

Why have the grudges you hold?

Why are your emotions so controlled?

Why is there pain you haven’t told?

Cry every day, I don’t understand.

Why have all the pent up malice?

Why hide away in the icy palace?

Why do you seem so very callous?

(Why is the only other rhyme phallus?)

Try as I may, I don’t understand.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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552 : Don't Press Me.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week were Garbage, Imperative and Traction.

Don’t Press Me
"Koko!  Bring me my list!"

Oh my God!

They speak such garbage!

Journalists I mean.

Everything is imperative,

Indignant or Obscene.

They rail,

They rant,

They hound,

They trail.

They give traction to the lobbyist.

These merchants of cheap verbiage

I'm sure they'd not be missed.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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551 : Crescendo

Haiku Heights has the prompt "Crescendo"

The pressure mounts up,

And, reaching a crescendo,

Denouement follows.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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550 : Step Back.

Step Back 

Take a step back now faults are seen

On what had seemed so white and clean,

Had seemed to be the nicest kind

Of its type that you could find.

Alas, a mirage lies past the screen,

The grass beyond is a faded green.

The world becomes much less serene

As troubling doubts creep into your mind—

Take a step back.

Reality is cruel and mean,

It makes you see what was unseen,

To see a world that's misaligned,

And realize that you have been blind.

As you teeter on the ravine,

Take a step back.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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549 : A Tectonic Relationship

A Tectonic Relationship

The plates only have sex every few years,

Things are tense whenever they’re too near.

“But, tell me”, said the gent,

After a seismic event,

“Did the earth move for you too, my dear?”

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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548 : A Piece of his Mind

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

the rest is up to us.

A guy was annoyed to be fined

For giving a piece of his mind

To the arresting cop

Who told him to stop—

He didn’t, so now he’s confined.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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547 : Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #114) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:  

tracks, edge, files, lie, mess, complex,

gas, forest, still, pale, answers, class

Liar!  Liar!  Pants on fire!

Children are such terrible liars.

The lies they tell are so transparent

And create a mess of loose ends:

Wrong tracks,

Muddy tracks, 

Back tracks, 

Side tracks,

That lead you beyond 

The edge of credulity.

But still, they would have you believe them

Even though they fail the basic

If-this, then-that test:

What? A dog ate your homework?

Shouldn’t you have a dog, then?

They file a complex forest of loose ends

That defy explanations

And answers to any questions 

Breed only more bizarre explanations

That make the first pale by comparison.

Oh, I see, an imaginary dog.

But they are a gas, a joy to watch, 

And in a class of their own.

Adults, on the other hand—

Well, they are no better.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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546 : Wrinkles

One Single Impression has the prompt "Wrinkle".

Wrinkles

Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind

than it does on the face.

- Michel de Montaigne 

On the rollercoaster of life,

Where, on some days, dramas build 

In unpredictable way’s,

Others are, most thankfully, joy filled:

We’re bent by the events we’re sent.

And stay crinkled, not immaculate.

While life passes by, both joy and strife,

Wrinkles just accumulate.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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545 : The Crystal Ship

Imaginary Garden with Real Toads asks us 

to incorporate a Jim Morrison song title into a writing.

The Crystal Ship

The crystal ship that we live on,

That carries us from when were born,

Is a tough but brittle sloop

That seldom tells us what to do,

Or the course to set our bearings to,

Or what currents we can count on

And leaves us there to dwell upon

The nagging demons who also crew

The crystal ship.

The winds we catch are not foregone,

We have little choice but sailing on,

Some days the skies are clear and blue,

Others, storms we must pass through,

As each one of us travels upon

The crystal ship.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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544 : Buddhist Soup

Haiku Heights has the prompt "Lunch".

This time of the year we produce some stunning 

but unrepeatable soups from leftovers.

Buddhist Soup.

Bowls of warming soup,

Made from sundry leftovers,

Reincarnated.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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543 : Life

Life

A balancing act --

The heart will pull you one way,
The brain, the other.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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542 : The Zombie Army

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week were phantom, agile and flaccid.

The Zombie Army

The convulsive genital sneeze

Propels the phantoms of mankind,

Only semi human but still determined;

Relentless, agile and blind.

Billions storm the battlements

But only one will have succeeded.

The rest are just left to die;

Superfluous and unneeded.

The commander of the forces

Stops once his goal’s obtained,

And slips into a peaceful sleep

Contented, flaccid and, well, drained.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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541 : Post Hoc

Post Hoc

The victors create the records

To ensure their place is set.

The losers cower from the blows

But they will not forget.

Both sides construct the next divides

And so history is altered.

A fence constructed afterwards

To prove the horse has bolted.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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540 : The Enigma

Haiku Heights has the prompt "Enigma"

She smiles so sweetly,

Is so kind in many ways.

Why am I bleeding?

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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539 : The Professor Expounding.

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

the rest is up to us.

A professor would often expound

A theory, long proven unsound.

He thought a man oughta

Swim well underwater

But sadly, in trying, he drowned.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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538 : The Voices

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #113) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:  

moonshine, anything, scoop, cave, shatters, wake, 

giggle, cut, load, sense, splits, crazy, chattering

The Voices.

The moonshine plays on the meadow,

As I lie in bed, awake.

A thousand voices chattering,

Leaving questions in their wake.

In my sombre cave of fat and bone,

A host of goblin’s whispers churn,

They then overload my senses,

Giggle at my concern.

They dance a crazy, frantic dance

Where anything can be,

They scoop and dive and then contrive

To cut up my sanity.

The alarm splits the revelry from the dawn,

Shattering the dreams gone by.

So now I recall that I couldn’t sleep

But can’t remember why.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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537 : Family Pet

A family is a unit composed not only of children

but of men, women, an occasional animal,

and the common cold.  

- Ogden Nash

Family Pet

Ogden say the family unit

Includes the common cold;

It seems to fight all attempts

To evict it from the fold.

It mocks.

(And you can’t just change the locks).

So, hence,

Resigning to our lot,

We formally adopted it

And named the bludger “Snot”.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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