766 - Yes, I Remember.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: blood, cripple and lurk.

Yes, I remember.

In Canberra, 

There is only one show,

A blood sport above all others, 

Where socially crippled MPs,

Spawned from unwed mothers,

Debate dull matters 

Like state decrees.

You can’t really call it work.

As soft and cushy jobs go,

It’s a pretty good lurk.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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765 - The Psychic

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #183) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

shine, crazy, diamond, martyr, seer, secret,

laughter, prisoner, childhood, steel, stranger, shadow

The Psychic

She sat quietly, reflectively.

She could see what was coming.

Around her a small crowd had gathered.

A man, a farmer, speaks up: 

“Tell us", he asks, "of the seasons.”

The sun will shine but ever more so,

The earth will crack and dry;

Even shadows will be crisp and hot,

The crops will wilt and die.

The crowd murmured anxiously,

Unhappy with her words.

A woman asked 

“Will there be wealth?”

You will have enormous wealth,

Diamonds, gold and silken thread,

But none of this will feed you,

And you’ll die both rich and underfed.

The woman called her crazy 

And stormed away in pain,

While a nervous laughter 

Rippled through the crowd.

A soldier stepped forward.  

“And what of us, defenders of the realm?”

She was quiet a while before she spoke.

You are a martyr to another’s dream,

A pawn on a checkered board;

It’s no secret that you are used

For the benefit of our lords.

A small child then asked, nervously

“What of me?  What do you see for me?”

Your childhood is an illusion

Your future even more so;

You will forever be a prisoner 

To the will of the status quo.

Finally, a stranger to the village spoke up.

“Is there anything to give us hope?”

She looked at him blankly before saying:

Will the people steel themselves

To take control of their daily things?

Will they tackle the issues

And bear the pain this brings?

Probably not, 
she added, underneath her breath.

The crowd, unhappy with the message,

Regardless of its truth,

Then beat the seer to death.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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764 - Post-Mortem

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: gifted, intense and rot.

Post-Mortem

When, at last, the veil is lifted

On the stewardship we’ve shown,

When the rot is all dissected,

When the true neglect is known,

The inquest 

Will attest:

“Connected but intensely unaware.

To them, a paradise was gifted,

But they didn’t seem to care."

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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763 - On The Other Hand

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #182) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

machine, flesh, tease, lotion, gimmick, hypnotizing,

lust, chickens, torture, uniform, liquor, brains, trains

On The Other Hand

There are machines that take our jobs

But do ones that have been fatal to children in the past.

Whores sell their flesh

But some use the money to educate and feed their family.

Advertisers tease us

But commerce is what pays for our jobs.

The cosmetics industry sells fake lotions

But placebos have been shown to work.

Every week there is a new gimmick

But we crave variety and change.

We are hypnotized by affluence

But few can really achieve it.

We are expected to lust for more

But we live in a finite world.

We imprison people

But demand chickens be released from their cages.

We are promised uniform opportunity

But the promise is never kept.

We are told we over-consume liquor

But have seen the effects of prohibition.

Our brains are used to devise evil things

But they devise miraculous things as well.

The media trains us to be compliant

But we sometimes rebel when we see a wrong.

We take firm ‘moral’ stands on every issue

But refuse to consider the value of the other side.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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762 - A Class Act

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: arrogant, crude and supple.

A Class Act

There is a certain elegance, 

A certain je ne sais quoi 

In everything they do.

An aloofness 

That is not so much arrogant 

As disdainful;

A presentation to the world 

That is one of entitlement

A regal stance that oozes class 

And separates the social strata.

They walk with a fluidity, 

With a liquid motion 

That captivates, hypnotises.  

There is nothing crude about them, 

They are a quality act.

They display a suppleness 

In their actions and, indeed, 

In their personal hygiene that, 

If extended to teenage boys, 

No homework would ever be done.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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761 - The Expedition

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #181) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

sense, speech, sheets, goblets, signs, vital,

name, broken, away, strips, connected, poem

The Expedition

The word had reached the Empire

Of riches far away;

Of spices, gold and willing girls,

Of reindeer and a sleigh,

The vital signs that are required

For a mercenary foray.

The expedition was assembled,

Five bankers had been found,

Endless speeches had been given,

The boat they had was sound,

They filled its hold with puddings,

Rejecting those not round.

The sails were sheets of onion skins

Cut  into even strips,

The ballast was unbroken plates

Though some of them had chips,

And a passing poet was shanghaied,

To record the epic trip.

The captain was a cantaloupe,

The crew, a herd of sheep,

The first mate was a three-toed sloth

And spent the day asleep;

The cook was known to drink a bit

And predisposed to weep.

The bosun was well connected,

His father was an earl,

Who’d sent his son off to the sea

To teach him of the world,

But couldn’t dampen his inner love

Of dressing like a girl.

They charged their goblets and raised a toast,

They named the ship ‘Ptomaine’,

The crew all sensed the moment too

And tried to break their chains,

They then sailed into the setting sun

And were never seen again.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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760 - Left Luggage

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week were: barren, worry and intense.

Left Luggage

Waiting for God with a vacant stare

Your mind has wandered who knows where.

You have long lost your early bloom

And now test-drive an early tomb.

It’s not exactly intensive care—

They hose you down and comb your hair

And leave you strapped into a chair

In a sparsely furnished room,

Waiting for God.

“You’ll have no worries” they declare

But quietly hope that they wont go there

They leave you there to meet your doom

And never share the twilight gloom,

Life’s a pretty barren affair,

Waiting for God.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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