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

---

855 - The First Law of Gardening

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: brutal, clammy and dense.

First Law of Gardening

A man with remarkable hair,

Ran for president, just for a dare.

While apparently dense,

In the cognitive sense,

His success made liberals despair.

Candidates take a risk when they stand—

No questions, it seems, will be banned:

Could appendages, clammy,

Beneath his pajammy,

Reflect the size of his hands?

While media and pundits all groan,

There’s a truism garden’s have known:

While it seems to be brutal,

The only seeds that will fruit’ll

Be the ones that you’ve previously sown.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

854 - Excuses

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

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

This week the word is ‘mislaid’.

Excuses

A user of the red-lighted trade

Was asked why he’d been so delayed.

Not wishing to admit

That he’s slipped in for a bit,

Replied, obliquely, “Not lost, only mislaid”.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

853 - St Patrick's Day 2016

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: uncovered, abrupt, vacant.

St Patrick’s Day 2016 

A green grass carpet

Blankets Ireland, coast to coast—

No part uncovered.

A brief hissy fit—

Snakes abruptly departed

Feeling unwanted.

Was Ireland vacant?

Snakes gone.  Potato famine.

Early refugees.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

852 - Triptych

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: hateful, limp and marvel.

Triptych

A sad, timid soul

Imagines Captain Marvel

While tucked into bed

◊

Shun hateful people.

They suck the joy from your life

And give you nothing.

◊

The call of the wild—

A sweaty genital sneeze;

Limp but satisfied.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

851 - Well, flock me!

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: fearful, grimace and engulf.

Tried to make a light limerick from the words - couldn't.

Well, flock me!

When fears engulf us

We huddle together—a flock.

The wolves then herd us.

Political games!

Every right to be fearful—

We are being used.

We grimace, amazed—

Surely this is not happening?

But, transfixed, follow.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

850 - Empty Promises

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: backbone, cheapen and dangle.

Empty Promises

A backbone 

Is scarce 

Around here;

Stances 

Are not taken.

Re-election 

Is the sole aim.

Morals gone, 

Forsaken.

Votes!  

Votes!

Dangled banknotes!

A con game

Buy the lies, 

Don’t discuss

The promises 

Just disappear

It cheapens 

All of us.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

849 - Potus, the Hamster.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: tearful, unsteady and abrasive.

Abrasive and loud,

Yet it seems to work for him.

What is he thinking?

A giant ego

With an unsteady mind and hand—

Could push the button!

A power junkie—

This could be the tearful end

To a beautiful world.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

848 - The left.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: pathetic, radical and seamless

The left.

Once on middle ground

But the centre has shifted—

Nouveau radical.

Seamless transition

To a bleeding heart leftie

But I haven’t moved.

◊

Fair weather friendships

Just one storm and they are gone.

Pathetic really.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

847 - Quite Frank

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

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

This week the word is ‘frank’.

Quite Frank

There was a young fellow named Frank

Whose hair was both matted and lank.

Those who ventured too near him 

Were driven to shear him,

As, to put it politely, it stank.

◊

A woman who liked a good spank

Was ugly, to be brutally frank,

But the curve of her bum

Was appealing to some

And she improved, the more that they drank.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

Poetry in glass.

If you feel I haven't been writing much...

...I've been doing other things.

.

--o--

846 - We're just wild about Hairy.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: madly, nocturnal, and omen.

It started out as a single limerick and sort of morphed.

We’re just wild about Hairy…

A transformation both weird and nocturnal,

Afflicted a retired army colonel.

An omen to this change,

From normal to strange,

Was an increase in his hairy external.

A transformation both weird and nocturnal,

Afflicted a retired army colonel.

When the moon was the best

He madly undressed

And changed into a creature infernal.

A transformation both weird and nocturnal,

Afflicted a retired army colonel.

In the middle of the night

He slipped out for a bite,

His intentions were far from fraternal.

A transformation both weird and nocturnal,

Afflicted a retired army colonel.

He had no need for sleep

And would simply count sheep

As meals, which he wrote in a journal.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

845 - The Sales

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

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

This week the word is ‘pale’.

Sale Time

The response of the typical male

Is to turn the palest of pale,

When informed by his wife,

The love of his life,

How much she has saved at the sale.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

844 - The Creche

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: eager, frenzy, and guzzle.

The Creche

Women enjoy the frenzy

Of bargain hunting in the mall;

Men as a rule are less impressed,

If they come along at all.

They’d prefer to sit and guzzle beer

And talk of any sport with a ball.

If you take a man out shopping

They make a grumpy noise.

This brings us to a most clever

Of all the marketing ploys:

A crèche designed to entertain

These sooky, sooky boys.

The barmaids are all topless,

The beer is cold and fresh

The patrons say that they are thirsty

But clearly enjoy the flesh.

The wives can all go shopping

And put the husbands in this crèche.

It serves a useful purpose,

And keeps husbands in one place;

Not only are the women able

To wander at their pace

The men were eager to come along,

Which is rarely commonplace.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

843 - The Machine

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #233) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

mouth, spill, possible, keep, change, head

skeletons, step, wire, gift, moon, present

The Machine

[Narrator]

In the regular cycles of his life,

Punctuated by the moon and sun,

Man persists through joy and strife

As previous generations all have done.

[Man]

It seems to me that joys are rare,

While strife is in excess!

[Narrator]

But man has few excuses there,

A victim of his own success.

[Businessmen]

We must make profits while we can

And each year must increase as well.

[Priests]

We offer heavenly rewards to the exhausted man

You keep him calm not rebel!

[Narrator]

Man’s afraid to step out of line,

He walks a high wire act.

He needs to work and can’t resign—

[Man]

It’s a most distressing fact.

[Narrator]

Pulpits and print houses spread the lie

That no possible change can begin,

They want that man will work and die—

[Politicians]

We legislate to lock him in!

We love to mouth warm platitudes

That feel they may be true.

[Priests]

We love to recite beatitudes

To help avoid a coup.

[Man]

And all the while we are made to run

On the treadmill of desire,

Told that we are having fun

If we are constantly a buyer.

[Narrator]

So man toils thoughout his time

And ends, as skeletons beneath the earth.

[Businessmen]

While we have nice homes beyond the grime

Where accountants check our worth.

[Narrator]

Should the notion enter man’s head

To change his present fate,

Blood would be spilt, with many dead,

As the military obeys the state.

[Priests]

So we sell the lie of God’s sweet gift

To stop the crowds rebelling

[The Media]

We peddle fear to induce a rift

[Politicians]

That makes our lies compelling.

[Narrator]

So there, dear reader, is man’s sorry lot

Living another’s base agenda.

[Man]

I’m never happy with what I’ve got!

[Businessmen]

We can recommend a good lender!

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

842 - Set Adrift

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has the prompt ‘dawn’.

I took the less obvious meaning.

Set Adrift

You think you have left

But you have been set adrift.

Reality dawns.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

841 - Kicking an Own Goal

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: fresh, new, and resolute.

Kicking an own goal

Fresh has its value

But not for resolutions;

Fresh is for raw meat.

Improve on the old,

You already have a start;

The new is harder.

Negative goals fail,

Be resolute if you must

But be positive.

Flexibility

Offers more choices to use,

More paths to follow.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

840 - Odd Loose Ends

Odd Loose Ends

(Tune : Auld Lang Syne)

The year is coming to a close,

It’s time to make amends;

Time to bring some order to

The odd loose ends.

Chorus:

The odd loose ends must go, I fear,

The odd loose ends;

We’ll take the trimming shears

To odd loose ends.

Life is better when it’s neat,

Trimmed of what offends,

The first things you must offload are

The odd loose ends.

Chorus.

The camel knew than the single straw

Gives a back that bends,

They build up upon each other,

The odd loose ends.

Chorus.

Acquaintances are both well and fine 

But nothing beats good friends,

Make more room by discarding

The odd loose ends.

Chorus.

New projects will bring you joy,

With happy dividends,

Close the book on lost causes

And odd loose ends.

Chorus.

 .

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2015

---

839 - Operation Manual

Mad Kane has a weekly limerick challenge.

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

This week the word is ‘lewd’, bless her.

Operation Manual

The Karma Sutra is frequently viewed

As wicked, licentious and lewd.

But it’s simply recounting

How a consensual mounting,

Should start, progress and conclude.

 .

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2015

---

838 - Stony Indifference

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: savage, vengeful and tense

Stony Indifference

The planet is most bountiful

And so sustains its riders.

As it has done, age to age,

A generous provider.

Diverse, its passengers

Pillage their most generous host;

Destroying what is beautiful

In a race to own the most.

And what will they have got?

Carnage, in the most tragic sense

If we do not act respectful,

The future is past tense.

And yet we must not forget,

Savage, though scrupulously fair,

A planet cannot be vengeful,

It doesn’t even care.

 .

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2015

---

837 Lackadaisical Sunday

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: lackadaisical, makeshift, and nude.

Plus a bonus extra.

Apologies, by the way.

Haven't written much lately.

Been doing stained glass work.

Lackadaisical Sunday

Lackadaisical

There is nothing wrong with that:

It’s time to think.

◊

A woman who hated folk nude

Found the modern-day fashions too crude

But beneath all her clothes

Where no-one else goes,

She was as naked as those she eschewed.

◊

We plan our future.

The future has other plans.

They can overlap.

It’s a makeshift life.

All the plans of yesterday

Are just a guideline.

◊

There once was a fellow called Dave,

Who lathered his balls for a shave.

But an unsteady hand

Had an result, unplanned—

No children to mourn at his grave.

 .

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2015

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