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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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* 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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.”

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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!

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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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.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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