888 - Less than Radiant

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: radiant, painstaking, queasy.

Less than Radiant

Late night souvlaki

An easy meal, going home,

Nothing painstaking.

◊

Three in the morning,

That queasy feeling inside—

A sense of unease.

◊

A white toilet bowl

Being closely examined.

Odd brand: Radiant.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

887 - Pore Communication

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

The prompt this week: poor, pore or pour.

Pore Communications

A guy who ate garlics by the scores,

Exuded it out through his pores.

The neighbours would talk,

Saying, when he went for a walk

The paint would peel off their doors.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

Disclaimer:  I love garlic.

886 - The Card

The Card

It’s your birthday.

I wonder where you are.

It’s your birthday,

Think of this as a card,

It was not to be, of course,

It all turned out for the best, 

As they say,

As we went our separate ways,

Perhaps it was a test, 

Who would know?

Drifted rather than expelled,

Shifted rather than repelled

We went our separate ways

Slipping silently into the mists 

Turning sadly, not dismissed

Same old story, same old twist,

Slipping silently into the mists

Of time.

Time.

Time that numbs,

Time that overcomes

As they say,

But…

It’s your birthday.

I wonder where you are.

It’s your birthday,

Think of this as a card,

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

885 - A Sign

Haiku Horizons has a prompt: sign.

A Sign.

Life is full of signs.

Most of them say the same thing:

The wrong way.  Go back.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

884 - The Yes-But Lady

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: minor, nebulous and oily.

The Yes-But Lady

I want to tell you of a minor gripe

About a lady of a particular type.

This lady rebuts every word I say,

Sort of agrees, then takes it away

[Yes, but I’m sure I don’t do it every day.]

She’s always adamant and quite forthright,

Nothing nebulous, she loves a fight.

[Yes, but that’s because I know I’m right!]

Everything I say has an alternate view.

Is nothing I say good enough for you?

[Yes, but everything I say is true!]

Here, let’s see if some examples will do:

I like bacon and eggs, usually two.

[Yes, but they are so oily and bad for you.]

I think I’ll drive into the city.

[Yes, but the countryside is really pretty.]

I bought a shirt, it’s blue, quite pale.

[Yes, but I would have waited for the sale.]

One day when she attacks, oblique,

I’ll chuck the wretch into the creek!

[Yes, but it hasn’t rained in over a week!]

No friend or relative, alive or dead,

Should see themselves in what I’ve said!

[Yes, but it’s OK; what you write is never read.]

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

883 - A Few Key Points

Haiku Horizon has the prompt: key

A Few Key Points

The key to the lock.

What treasures lie behind it?

Do we want to know?

◊◊

A happy marriage—

Just love them for who they are,

Don’t try to change them.

A double edged sword

That cuts in both directions;

Acceptance is key.

◊◊

The key to the door

The 21 year old's gift.

Not any longer.

21 year old

Already has ev’ry thing

From the age of 10.

◊◊

A chastity belt.

A Crusader’s parting gift.

But don’t lose the key.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

882 - Lean Cuisine

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘lean’.

Lean Cuisine

A man who had developed a lean,

Put the blame on a lousy cuisine.

But his breakfast was fine,

And his dinner, benign—

It was all of the drinks in between.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

881 - Unacceptable

Poet’s United has the mid-week motif: Acceptance.

Unacceptable.

Acceptance?

What has acceptance 

Ever given us?

Acceptance is the status quo.

Acceptance is more of the same.

Acceptance is the decision to be powerless.

Acceptance is the passive agreement that the current state of affairs is, 

if not desirable, is at least unchangeable and fixed for the foreseeable future.  

Acceptance is the spineless indifference to the poor of the world, 

to the hungry, 

to the sick, 

to the lonely, 

to the lost, 

to the cruelty, 

to the pollution of our air and water, 

to the raping of this planet by people or, worse,

corporations who do not have our welfare in their minds.

Acceptance is indifference.

Well, fuck that for a joke.

That’s not acceptable.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

880 - Fluids

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: icky, jitters and lavish.

Fluids

Lavish meals are fine:

Good wine, good food, good company.

Just not ev’ry night.

◊◊

Life can be icky—

Bodily fluids of all kinds

Are responsible.

◊◊

Take care with coffee:

Drinking can give you the jitters.

Not drinking can too.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

879 - Breaking News

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: fatal, horrendous and gaping.

Breaking News

The headline news is a horrendous show,

Build around some disastrous glow,

Often fatal, usually tearful,

The net result’s to make us fearful:

The news we didn’t really need to know.

The bystanders are interviewed, apropos,

And display the intellect of an escargot.

As some mangy cat’s extracted from a drain

Only to turn and run back down again:

The news we didn’t really need to know.

Half the Middle East’s aglow,

There’s crop failure in Bordeaux,

(Australia makes a better red)

An ancient pop-star’s passed away

(Most people thought he was already dead)

And quinoa will soon be passé;

The news we didn’t really need to know.

Politicians support the status quo,

There’s an elephant that paints just like Van Gogh

Drug cheats lament that they were caught

Unconcerned for the name of sport,

While we celebrate the wars that we have fought:

The ones we won and the ones we ought

The news we didn’t really need to know.

Gaping kids at some puppet show,

New fungal diseases attack our toes,

The sudden demise of some dot.com,

Fashion critiques of some high school prom,

The ease with which you can make a bomb

It's a hundred years since the Somme,

Can someone please protect me from

The news we didn’t really need to know.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

878 - The Unfolding Daughter

The Unfolding Daughter

A long way from home.

Brought into our family,

Japanese daughter.

Origami skills

With crisp folds and sharp angles.

Flower, fish and stork.

Just like Pearl Harbour,

An unexpected attack.

A disappointment.

Paper conceals rock.

Time to use scissors,

Say Sayonara.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

877 - Limerick

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘about’.

A girl who oft’ slept about,

Found she had one up the spout.

She observed, with chagrin,

“While it was fun going in,

I fear that it will hurt coming out”.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

876 - Perfectly Wrong

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: wasteful, addicted and bruise.

Perfectly Wrong

The supermarkets 

Reject the food

That fails 

To meet their specs.

A bruise, 

A mark, 

The oddly formed

Instantly 

Are rejects. 

Wasteful

And distasteful.

Malformed

Should not mean 

Rejection

But does 

Due to preference 

Crude—

Addicted 

To perfection.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

875 - Oh Gold! Oh Gold! Oh...oh...oh!

The Australian Government is providing 

Zika-proof condoms to our Olympic athletes.

It seemed the stuff of limericks.

Oh My Gold! Oh My Gold! Oh...Oh...Oh!

The Olympics will shortly begin,

With a latex protective skin.

It’s a Zika protection

For the sporting erection—

The neatest correct entry will win.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

874 - Two themes, not unrelated

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: taboo, taut and tattered.

Two themes, not unrelated.

We can live together

Politics keep us apart

Some things are taboo.

Suspicion divides.

Fear is something that is taught,

No-one is born scared.

We need a leader

But we don’t chose them wisely:

Herd mentality.

◊

Our economics—

Get money now, pay later.

Nature remembers.

We reap what we sow?

No, we just planted the seeds,

Our children harvest.

Climate is changing.

Denial will not help us,

Tattered policies.

Taut social tensions.

Who will be the next boat people?

Climate refugees.

Greed makes us follow

Incontinent policies,

We shit our own bed.

Consumption will grow.

But we’ve forgotten one thing:

A finite planet.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

873 - Not the Girl Next Door

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: Quick, Raw and Sassy.

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘lease’.

So, combining the two, we get…

Not the Girl Next Door.

A harlot, a young sassy piece,

Saw her business quite quickly increase.

“The example I see

Is Airbnb—

It’s a rental and not a full lease.

The woman, well known to police,

When arrested, protested “Pul-leese,

As I’ve told you before,

I like to sleep in the raw;

The men are just visiting their 'niece'.

Like Jason and the Argonaut caprice,

Men look for the famed piece of fleece.

Their sweet offers to pay,

Make me invite them to stay

But those who slip in, I release.”

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

872 - Happy-Go-Lucky

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: Happy-go-lucky, ignorant and joyous.

Happy-Go-Lucky

We travel not for trafficking alone:

By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:

For lust of knowing what should not be known

We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

- James Elroy Flecker.

◊

Holidays?  Where are you going?

Uzbekistan.

[pause] Do you mean Pakistan?

No.  Uzbekistan.  

Oh.  Why?

It's time.

Alexander the Great went there,

Genghis Khan went there,

Marco Polo went there,

They have no excuses

If they are not prepared 

For a visit from me.

◊

People are ignorant

Sheltered from the outside world,

Ignorance is fear.

◊

An inner conflict:

Climate change is very real

But travel is too.

In a heating world

Flying is a moral question

But camels are slow.

◊

Taste other cuisines

Rub against ancient cultures

Spread understanding

See joyous people

From all corners of the world

One large family.

◊

And so we go.

Bags packed.  Taxi booked.

A long way from the caravans of old.

But close, too.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

A Poetic Interlude

Many moons ago, I read and loved

The Golden Road to Samarkand, 

by James Elroy Flecker.

Unfortunately, Flecker was one 

of the many talented young men

sacrificed in The Great War.

But I loved his poem.

Later this week, I too am taking

the road to Samarkand.

Never underestimate the power of a good poem.

◊

871 - Bits & Pieces

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: enchanted, fanatical and giddy.

A state of your mind:

To seek out the enchanting,

To avoid the dross.

◊

“Oh my giddy aunt!”

Swearing in a gentler age.

The intent’s the same.

◊

The fanatical—

They come from all the extremes:

Social outliers.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

870 - The Hall of the Damned

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: damned, babble and cherished.

The Hall of the Damned

The Hall of the Damned is seething,

There’s smoke and fire and din.

There’s filth and there is misery

And the only way is in.

In this sorry hall of agony

The place is fiendish hot;

The people writhe with endless pain,

And struggle with their lot.

They have no way of knowing

What lies beyond its walls

But babble on in endless hope

That it's a better place that calls.

In this verdammt and musty hall

All faint hopes are cherished.

As those who did not grasp a dream,

Invariably just perished.

But what if this depressing place

Was reality, in the raw?

What if this is all we get—

Just this and nothing more?

What if we knew we had one shot,

Just one crack at our heartfelt dream,

Would we be quite so tolerant

Of those who skim the cream?

In the darkened Hallways of the Damned,

There is smoke and fire and din.

Is it because we have been fooled,

To let the bastards win?

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

869 - It's sedimentary, Dr Watson.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: unselfish, winding and amoral.

It's sedimentary, Dr Watson.

An hypothesis—

It’s like a kite flown on the wind:

It can crash to earth.

◊

That is how it works:

You launch your idea skywards

And others throw rocks.

◊

With no agenda,

All ideas are unselfish;

Proponents not so.

◊

You must take a stand,

You cannot be amoral,

Unless you are a rock.

◊

As far as kites go,

You build them with gossamer.

Using rock wont work.

◊

Knowledge is a path:

Winding, forked, heading for light.

But does it find ‘truth’?

◊

Truth is quite fluid

This year’s sphere of molten rock

Is last year’s flat earth.

◊

Yet, what is a rock?

Science agrees on one thing:

They make a good pet.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

868 - Not the sharpest knife

Not the sharpest knife.

A yobbo, let’s call the boy Steve,

Was a dullard, let’s call him naïve,

When faced with a review

Where a ‘thank you’ would do

Carried on like you wouldn’t believe.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

867 - Case Closed

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘case’.

Case Closed

A guy felt he was up for the chase

Of a gangster’s girlfriend called Grace.

By the end of the day

He’d washed up in the bay—

As suicide, an open and shut case.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

866 - A Crying Shame

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #249) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

grace, join, yearning, silken, any, fire,

eggs, moment, skin, cell, light, boundless

A Crying Shame

First they came for the Socialists, 

and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, 

and I did not speak out— 

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, 

and I did not speak out— 

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—

and there was no one left to speak for me.

- Martin Niemöller

Verse Two,

Lines five and six,

Of our National Anthem reads:

“For those who've come across the seas

We've boundless plains to share”

And come they do,

Yearning a new and safer life,

Any life really,

After we, 

And our mighty military,

Have rained fire,

Mayhem,

Death and misery,

Upon them in their homes.

Delivering moments of terror

And lifetimes of trauma

Through the machinery of greed,

Thinly disguised

Beneath a skin of righteousness.

But our silken leader

Tells us not to be “misty eyed’;

Code for “toughen up”,

Code for “they are not really people”

Graceless and lightweight,

He beats on an empty chest.

How long, I wonder,

Before those who point 

At our national disgrace

Are politely but firmly 

Invited to join the others

In a distant island cell?

As eggs precede chickens 

And chickens precede eggs,

It is the next logical step.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

865 - Code Red in Aisle 6

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: tantrum, tear and temper.

Code Red in Aisle 6

You’ve seen them, of course.

You’ve seen them and turned away, 

Embarrassed.

Public tantrums.

Shouting, 

Crying, 

And loud.

So very loud.

Nothing will temper their mood

But submission

To their demands.

Privately too—

Tears and noise,

Hands over ears,

They run to hide

“La-la-la-la-la…

I can’t hear you!”

Only to find them back

Peeking around a doorway

Watching you,

To see if you have missed them

And to then burst out

All smiles 

Wanting to play again.

Clean slate:

No regrets,

No scruples.

Yes, you have all seen them.

Well, children are like that too.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

864 - Taking Flight

Midweek Motif: Openness.

Taking Flight

You open your heart

And give it to someone else—

Can they be trusted?

◊

Forget the sweet words,

Openness means vulnerable,

Trust is essential.

◊

You leave for the day,

Full of smiles, they wave you off

Then bitch to their friends.

◊

The skies are open

And yet like will attract like:

Birds of a feather.

◊

Old habits die hard—

Leopards will keep all their spots

And old dogs, old tricks.

◊

Life is a playground:

Some things work and some things don’t.

Learn from the mistakes.

◊

You take back your heart

And lock it safely away—

Somewhere sweet and warm.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

863 - Here Lie The Bodies

Here Lie The Bodies

Here lie the bodies 

Of countless young men

In cold, earthen graves

Across hillside and glen,

Sold the old lie

“It wont happen again”

But wars are made to make money.

They joined up to fight,

To do the right thing,

Believing it worth it

For the peace it would bring

But they couldn’t hear

The cash registers ring

Because wars are made to make money.

Politician proudly declare

“It's how we are defined:

Courageous defenders

Of the weak and maligned”

But they hide from us

How their pockets are lined

Because wars are made to make money.

Their talk is of peace

As protocol demands

But behind the scenes 

Are the corporate plans

Of how to ‘liberate’

Neighbouring lands

Because wars are made to make money.

All wars are the same:

The weak and poor die,

Our armies are recruited

By a fake battle cry.

So when will we stop 

And start to ask why?

When the wars no longer make money.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

862 - Can real punks spell cappuccino?

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #248) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

scar, hide, fire, prophet, vision, unholy, 

naked, sin, close, hills, climb, light

Can real punks spell cappuccino?*

It was sung that

The words of the prophet 

Were written on the subway walls.

Alas, this is no longer so.

The walls hold no prophetic vision now,

Just the unholy scars 

Of narcistic tags

Of the graphically talented

But cognitively vacant.

Mongrels,

Pissing on the walls

To mark their territory.

Their sin is a naked ego,

Devoid of a cloak of thought

Or wisdom.

What has become of clever graffiti?

Stuff that made you laugh?

Stuff that made you think?

Stuff that shined an awkward light 

On life’s foibles

Or injustices.

Sure, the new breed are equally athletic,

Not wanting to hide their work,

They climb fences, fire ladders,

Anything necessary,

To urinate their particular

Close and curlicue scent

On society's walls.

But where are the clever ones now?

Retired to the hills?  

Tired out? 

Died out?

Writing Facebook memes, perhaps.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

* A wall on the train line, outside Melbourne, 

used to declare: "Real punks can't spell capuchino".

861 - One Day At a Time

Sunday Scribblings has the prompt : sequel

One Day At a Time

Yesterday was a pleasant day,

Today has promise too;

The leaves are switched to autumn,

The sky, a cobalt blue;

The past is just a memory,

The future, known to few.

All sequels are not really so,

Everything is new;

What happened once cannot return

No matter what you do:

Your age, the date, your state of mind—

The recurrences are few.

But we humans love our patterns,

They help explain our lot;

We try to reason out our lives,

To justify the plot.

But tomorrow comes regardless,

Prepared for it or not.

Tomorrow will be just as sweet,

Whatever you may say.

The sun will rise, the earth will turn,

The children laugh and play

The secret to a happy life

Is to live it day by day.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

860 - Modern Slavery

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: pacify, rage and scarce.

Modern Slavery

Maintain your rage with what you see

As zealots gut democracy.

You cannot pacify those fools

By asking they obey the rules

That do not come from times BC,

That are not of a theocracy,

A book has told them what should be

And if allowed, they’ll make us mules—

Maintain your rage.

As ‘priests’ they hope that we will be

A compliant society.

When the doctrine’s taught in the schools

Are both harsh and wilfully cruel,

Freedom’s a scarce commodity.

Maintain you rage.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

859 - Alfalfa

Poet’s United Mid-Week Motif: Organic.

Alfalfa.

It is,

He said,

The most dangerous

Food on the planet;

Caused more deaths

Than any other;

Made countless sick;

Especially the weak

And vulnerable.

It has triggered

Miscarriages.

And yet it hides

Behind

The magic shield

Of organic,

Of green,

Of natural.

And it is.

Quite organic.

Quite natural.

Perhaps

Too natural.

That doesn’t mean

That it is harmless.

Nor that it is malicious.

Just that it is

Treacherous.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

858 - A Seal of (Dis)Approval

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘seal’.

Be warned: limericks are meant to be a bit naughty.

A old harlot who used oatmeal 

Said it helped her clients a great deal:

“They enjoy the effects

During vigorous sex

As they get a much better seal”.

A mermaid let out a big squeal

When waking, post party, with a seal.

Said the seal “Never fret,

We just had a light pet—

The real damage was done by the eel.”

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

857 - The Stalker

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: melancholy, opaque and nimble.

The Stalker

[The Boy]

As I embrace my pirate dream

With galleons, swords and lots of gold,

The world is simply what it seems

What I see today, the future holds.

[Chorus]

A trusting lad,

A trusting lad,

He thinks that what he sees today

Is like the sword that’s set in stone

And it always will remain that way,

Always will remain that way.

[Youth]

I know it all and I’m not scared,

I think that I am worldly-wise,

Immortal and so quite prepared,

To dance across Death’s sweeping scythe!

[Chorus]

With nimble feet,

With nimble feet,

He’s hop across the swinging blade,

But should he hap to trip and fall 

He’ll be sliced and diced and then filleted,

Sliced and diced and then filleted.

[Man]

Sure I know that life must end,

But no idea when it will be,

So I just live and so pretend

It will somehow bypass me!

[Chorus]

It’s quite opaque,

It’s quite opaque,

The future is so far from clear;

All that we can know for sure

Is that Death is grinning ear to ear,

Death is grinning ear to ear.

[Old Man]

The melancholy fact has dawned,

The sand is draining through the glass,

That of which I had been warned

Relentlessly now has come to pass.

[Chorus]

Relentlessly,

Relentlessly,

The future is a ball of twine,

Tangled and of unknown length…

[J Cosmo Newbery]

Oh, give me strength and pass the wine!

[Chorus]

Give him strength and pass the wine!

◊◊◊

Alternative ending for Rallentanda

[Old Greek Man]
With a four day stubble that celebrates
A serious session with fine ouzo;
Who gives a damn!  Smash the plates!
When your time is up, then youse go!

[Chorus]
A smashing time!
A smashing time!
Retsina is just recycled pine
Only for the rash or brave…

[JCN]
Um, pinot noir will be just fine!

[Chorus]

Pinot noir will be just fine!

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

856 - Bits and pieces

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: knotted, livid and impolite.

It’s called ‘seeing red’:

Livid, a hot haze descends,

Reason is absent.

◊

People do stupid stuff.

If it’s impolite to point

Can I just snigger?

◊

“You should just stay calm”

“Don’t get your knickers knotted”

Neither advice helps.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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