750 - The Anti-Killing

The Anti-Killing.

He performed so poorly in bed

She decided to poison his bread.

While cyanide was intended,

A Viagra was vended

And she actually raised up the dead.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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749 - A Rather Odd Taste

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

The rest is up to us.

The meal had a rather odd taste,

Rather like marzipan paste.

It lead to the demise

Of a number of guys

Whose affections were badly misplaced.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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748 - The Demimonde

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #174) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are: 

demimonde, candle, grand, oranges, abomination, allegiance,


transgression, asylum, myself, rites, Africa, reborn, gray.

The Demimonde.

noun: a class of women who have lost their standing 

in respectable society because of indiscreet behavior 

or sexual promiscuity.

Sultry, primitive, inviting,

With her ‘come and spend the night’ in 

Looks and demeanour,

Sophisticated, in a worldly sense,

Rings, curtains, candles,

Aromas that betray their allegiance

To the most basic of desires:

Orange, cinnamon, musk.

She speaks to the core of humanity

That is an abomination to the puritans,

The same ones who queue at her door, at dusk.

Sultry, primitive, inviting,

Echoing the fertility rites and acts

Practiced since the gray dawn of time,

Since we walked out of Africa,

Born and reborn,

To face death, 

Real and petite,

There has been a desire to meet.

This is not a transgression,

Just a brief asylum.

A meeting of minds,

And bodies.

Complete.

And then composure, 

Without remorse.

A part of the grand cycle of life.

Sultry, primitive, inviting.

I wouldn’t go there myself, 

Of course.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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747 - Apocalypse Rat

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: eradicate, mercenary and squeamish.

The opening life was said in conversation by my mother.

Apocalypse Rat.

I love the smell of dead rat in the morning,

The tell-tale odour of a ratty demise.

The cat, bless her furry fatness,

Has long since given up mercenary ambitions

And will not countenance otherwise.

So a more mechanical means was required 

To eradicate the ratty hordes

As one by one their ratty souls are hurled

Into the pits of the afterworld.

Sharp, quick and, I’m told, painless,

Though not by any of the ratty crew

Who have had to pleasure
Of the sudden launch into that vast abyss—

They go forth with a spring-steel kiss.

Of course, there is still the sombre duty,

To deal with the furry, rigid corpse,

Not for the squeamish to be sure

But easier than those former trophies,

Half chewed by the once mercenary cat,

And left by the kitchen door.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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746 - Abruptly cut off.

Haiku Horizons’ prompt:  Cut.

Abruptly cut off—

Click! Click! Hello? Operator?

There is no-one there.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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745 - The Intriguing Mystery of Ms Pommeroy.

A comic has presented to me

A puzzle quite hard to foresee:

I had wanted to explore

Ms Pommeroy more

But there wasn’t a page twenty three.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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744 - Take with a grain of salty water.

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #173) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are: 

bend, east, lane, limit, case, grain,


sound, parts, straight, water, eye, way.

Take with a grain of salty water.

Their eyes look straight at the camera,

Firm, determined and oh so sincere;

With voices rich in warm plummy sounds,

They are unbending in their cast-iron ideology

And push their case for the 

Incarceration of the powerless

And the removal all limits on the powerful.

We know best.  

We will protect you.

Trust us.  

It’s good for the powerful to be more so,

The benefits will trickle down south, they say,

Like water through an aquifer,

To find its way to the lower parts, they say

Ignoring the evidence that this fiscal

Tide seems to be being diverted east and west

Into large private reservoirs

At the end of leafy private lanes.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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743 - The Spy

Sunday Scribblings2 has the prompt ‘safe from prying eyes’.

The Australian Government is pushing to have 

greater surveillance powers to ‘fight terrorism’.

The Spy

The Government, or possibly worse,

Is watching what you do.

Nasty folk who watch your life

And twist or misconstrue

Your choices

Against their inner voices

And knife

You for apparent failings.

Revile them with a fiery curse,

Ignore their hapless wailings.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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742 - Les Invalides

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: liberated, muddy and vicious.

100 years since WWI and we have learnt nothing.

Les Invalides

Lest we forget the fallen dead

Who died for what our leaders said

Was a cause both good and grand

Only to die in some muddy land,

So far from home and so misled,

Only to receive a wound instead.

There they fell and slowly bled,

Liberated by a death unplanned—

Lest we forget.

And those who didn’t die by lead,

Died internally, in their head;

Hearing the vicious inner command

To relive the torment of the damned

Until they withered on their bed—

Lest we forget.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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741 - Lost in Translation

A sign in Monet’s garden at Giverny.

The intent was to give some peace

To the creatures roaming the lease,

But the invocation 

Was lost in translation

For all but the wrens and the geese.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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740 - Hollow Ambitions

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

The rest is up to us.

A fellow was offered a post

He’d secretly wanted the most.

And when in command

He exported our land

And retired on the money he’d grossed.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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739 - The Heavenly Retirement Village

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #172) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are: 

irritation, sound, disclose, bliss, last, signal,

appetite, sun, flamboyant, jumbled, point, tire.

The Heavenly Retirement Village

What would life be 

Without irritations?

We humans, or some of us at least,

Pine for the eternal and unending 

Bliss of Heaven,

Possibly, for some, with added virgins,

Possibly with unending blue skies 

And glorious sunshine

And the sounds of golden trumpets.

But really? 

For an eternity?

For ever and ever and ever?

Surely we would tire of it?

Just as our earthly incarnations

Have little appetite for uniformity

And unending repetition,

Thinking of clothes, 

Of food, 

Of music,

We thrive on a jumbled life,

On a mixture of the flamboyant,

Of the mundane and of the different.

And that’s the point really,

Variety is truly the spice of life,

We want each day to disclose new things,

Granted, not disastrous things, but new things,

Each different to the last in some way,

In a way that tantalizes us, 

That surprises us,

That signals that today is different 

To yesterday.  

And to tomorrow.

If every day is the same

Where is the need for emotion?

For laughter, for tears, for surprise?

And, without emotion,

Where is life?

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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738 - Armchair Athletes.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: farce, glistening and lucky

Armchair Athletes

It’s a farce really.

The headlines scream

AUSTRALIA WINS GOLD!

Well, no, not really.

Australia is a large lump

Of old, mineral-rich desert,

Slowly being shipped

Overseas,

One boatful at a time.

Shipped overseas to make

Commonwealth Games medals; 

Lovely glistening discs

Of gold, silver and bronze,

Rewards for effort,

Rewards for 

Early mornings,

Hard days and 

Early nights.

And the occasional

Lucky break.

But they belong

To the athletes.

Meanwhile

The armchair athletes

Cheer on Australia,

Take reflected pride

In the country’s medal tally.

Take a reflected 

And rather queer pride

In things they never did

Or wanted to do.

But somehow they are

Proud of it anyway.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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