Gone Troppo

Running off to the tropics for three weeks.

Play nicely while I'm away.

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624 : The Cinema

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #131) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

amalgam, gravel, trash, nothing, cheat, vacant, 

brick, mouth, tentacles, fence, notices, everything, balance

The Cinema

We sit, as zombies,

Focussed on the screen in front.

Watching everything

But noticing nothing.

Cars explode, as they never would.

Slimy and cupped tentacles explore.  

Prodding.  Hunting.  Threatening.

Husbands cheat on wives,

Ruin lives. Or not. 

Singlets and bras survive explosions.

While brick fences offer scant resistance.

Ammunition is in plentiful supply.

Story lines vary.  Some trash.  Others more so.

All is black and white, good guys bad guys,

There is no balance.  No shades of grey.

We sit, as zombies,

Focussed on the screen in front.

Our faces, not vacant, but animated.

We laugh as one,

We scream as one,

Like a room of ruminants, 

We eat as one.

The rhythmic passage of crisps, bag to mouth,

Replicating a battalion of troops,

Marching on a gravel path.

Toffees, the arch enemy of amalgam, 

Sucked in open-mouthed absorption.

Popcorn, in vast tubs, comes and go.

The low nutritional input from the screen

Closely matches the viewer’s diet.

Which, I wonder, does the most harm?

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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623 : No wonder he never married.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were daunting, fastidious & intensify.

No wonder he never married.

A habit that’s daunting to relate,

Intensified to a daily debate:

With precision most hideous,

The guy was fastidious

How peas were arranged on his plate.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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622 : The Nest

Artist - Lucy Newton

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #129) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

chance, nest, secret, clever, swept, ripe, 

blinked, stars, basket, flesh, saw, hand

The Nest

It was a chance meeting,

All first meetings are.

She saw him before he saw her,

Saw him walking alone 

Along the unswept, 

Flower-edged country path

That skirted the copse.

The copse where the first berries appeared,

Where small and noisy children

With sticky hands and wicker baskets

Fossicked for the plump flesh of ripe fruit.

She saw them as they reached past her

But they didn’t see her.

Anxiety fluttered her breast

But people, no matter how clever,

Don’t see what they are not looking for.

That’s why they no longer see the stars.

The man was different.

He walked as if it was all that he had to do,

As if it was the most important thing in the world,

As if, at that moment, it was his world.

He saw her, of course.

Their eyes met.

And, as if sharing a secret of the universe,

Locked together for a moment,

Acknowledged each other,

Blinked,

And moved on.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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621 : The Clocks

The Mag had the above illustration (image by crilleb50) as a prompt.

It reminded me of Segal’s law:

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. 

A man with two watches is never sure."

Which then morphed into a limerick:

The Clocks

The dreadful tyranny of clocks

Is worst when they travel in flocks;

With one you’re aware

Of the time it declares

But more are sure to flummox.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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