949 - Trick

Haiku Horizon prompt:  Trick

It is trick or treat;

Something that’s been lost with time.

But dare I say ‘trick’?

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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948 - Divide and Conquer

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: 

vapid, adjoining and bouncy.

Divide and Conquer.

The world comes to us through TV:

Talking heads give vapid chatter

And cover up the things that matter

With bouncy echoes of page three.

We accept what others want to give;

Fed warm pap, served with distain.

Discounted as they know we will remain—

Expected to exist but not to live.

I hurts to accept the bleeding truth:

We have permitted idiots to rule us.

So they, in turn, feel free to fool us:

Did we not choose them in the booth?

As, on all horizons, disaster looms,

We watch TV in adjoining rooms.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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947 - Fence Sitting

Poet’s United Mid-Week Motif: Neutrality/Objectivity.

Fence Sitting

For those on the fence:

Objectivity is claimed

But is not displayed.

No-one is neutral—

Saying nothing speaks volumes:

Tacit approval.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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946 - Hell

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: shift.

Opinions can shift,

It’s not an unheard of thing—

But Hell will freeze first.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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945 - Birthing Day

Birthing Day

It is your birthday.

But there were others present;

Remember them too.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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944 - P is for Perverse.

P is for Perverse

Is it civilized

To use phosphorus weapons

On civilians?

◊

Victim turns bully,

Abandons moral high ground.

How soon they forget.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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943 - Talking Point

Poet’s United Mid-Week Motif: Conversation.

Talking Point

“Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, 

always runs more smoothly when lubricated.” 

― Marquis de Sade

While the Marquis raised a wry snicker,

Conversation increases with liquor.

And as the Romans opine

There’s truth in that wine

So you get to the climax much quicker.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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942 - The Gamble

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: 

symbolic, tendency, unhinged

The Gamble

The Oval office

Symbolic of the Power

Invested in One.

◊

The tendency, wrong,

Is to assume sanity

Is also present.

◊

We hope for the best.

But what if they are unhinged?

What do we do then?

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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941 - Gone Cuckoo

Sunday Scribblings 2 prompt: forbidding

Gone Cuckoo

Convicted porridge thief, Miss Goldilocks,

Wore flannel nightgowns and thick socks.

Her forbidding stare

Could curl your hair

And scare the cuckoos out of their clocks.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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940 - Mentor

Mentor

You worked on me,

Taught me things

That now seem so obvious.

Taught me that starting 

Was the only way to finish,

That a good book

Contains all you need to know

If you are willing to learn from it.

Showed me how to create,

To paint, 

To cook,

To pause,

And to look around at the world

And marvel.

At night, 

In the fading

I can see you:

Uniformed, 

Overalled, 

Frocked and smocked,

Wielding equally a hammer or a paint brush,

A rolling pin or a pen.

These were your tools of trade.

I can see your kitchen,

Your easels

And your workshed.

I can hear your music

And your words,

I can smell the linseed oil 

And the lavender.

You are now me

And I thank you for it.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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939 - Shape

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: shape.

It is a cruel truth,

Unexplored by science-

Bathroom mirrors lie.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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938 - Cab

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

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

This week the word is ‘cab’.

A politician with the gift of the gab,

Too rich to have ever travelled by cab,

Got tired of his tower—

So had a shot at real power

And anything else he could grab.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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937 - No Tulips.

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #270) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

spin, limit, flash, state, park, line,

flip, insulate, mimic, fade, rim, kick

No Tulips.

Have I parked in the right place?

Can I mention the war?

Did that player deserve the free kick?

I mean, will mentioning it cause me grief?

Will you turn on me?

And what if I state my preference

For the coming elections?

Will it flip the switch from docile

To hostile?

To a spitting monster of ridicule,

You with your flashing eyes and cutting words?

Can I live with my timidity?

Can I live without it?

Religion, of course, has even tighter limits,

Everything is spun  and recited

In a domestic mimic of a street

Purveyor of fine apocalypses.

Doomed.  We are all doomed.  Repent.

Lines, well rehearsed, are fired back

With the fine precision born of repetition.

Memories of past encounters,

Past eruptions of disapproval

Do. Not. Fade. 

Reborn with each remembrance

They resist attempts to insulate,

To forget.

But survival can depend on remembering

Where the rim of the precipice is,

Or the path around the minefield.

Tiptoeing helps

But is no guarantee.

It is curious that the phrase

Is ‘walking on eggshells’—

If the eggs are already broken,

Does it matter any more? 

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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936 - Moonlight

Sunday Scribblings has the prompt "Overnight".

“Come up for coffee” was the invite,

Then the suggestion she stay overnight—

But the the moonlight revealed,

The fangs, once concealed,

And she quickly disappeared, in fright!

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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935 - Rich People Die

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: 

radiance, rasp and rhythm.

Poet’s United has the prompt ‘Wealth’.

Rich People Die

Rich people die.

Wealth is no buffer,

As they lie there—

The linen may be crisper,

That’s all.

At the closing of the day,

As the radiance of what was

Slowly slips away,

It is worth remembering

That whatever wealth you possess

Buys little of value.

Life has a rhythm,

An ebb and flow

That we sense

But never fully know.

Only as the last

Throaty rasp

Exits weakly

Do we finally

Understand.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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934 - The Melbourne Cup

Sunday Scribblings 2 : Cups.

Once: The Melbourne Cup,

Then Emirates hopped on board

Now: A logo-ed mug.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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933 - The Mask

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: mask.

The Mask

We all wear a mask.

Few see who we really are—

It is protection

◊

We all wear a mask.

We wear many masks, in fact.

Playing many roles.

◊

We all wear a mask.

Clowns have known the truth for years.

Survival tactic.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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932 - The Game

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #269) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

view, needles, breeze, sky, mist, spill,

bridge, still, trail, trip, trim, fill

The Game

It is a game.

Played with needles.

Played with a view 

To getting a response,

To rattle a cage,

To bypass reason

Into the uncontrolled

Realms of red mist,

Panic and confusion.

Hunting season.

It is a game.

And you play it well.

Correction—

You play it often. 

Have for years, probably,

But familiarity lessens

Its effects.

But still, you play.

Maybe it is all you know—

Follow the past trails

Of successful sorties,

Successful campaigns.

Following the rules,

Your rules,

Trimming them

As needs must.

It is a game.

It has expectations.

Actions that beget 

Reactions,

Beget emotions,

Get emotions

To rise and spill,

To take control,

To make me trip,

To fill my mind

With nothing—

But the game.

It is a game.

But it is your game,

Not mine.

I can choose not to play.

Outside, as the bridge 

Between our worlds

Decays,

The sky is clear,

The breeze is cool,

And the sun is shining.

I can smell freesias.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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931 - Normality

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: 

notable, oddball, and perky.

Normality

It is notable

But quite unremarkable—

Oddballs are outcast.

◊

Why are folk so glum?

If they meet someone perky

They suspect the worst.

◊

He’s odd, they whisper.

He’s not normal, like we are.

Drugs.  I bet he’s on drugs.

◊

You can’t be happy.

They feel the need to pull you down

Then they feel better.

◊

I’m not an oddball.

If everyone was like me

I would be normal.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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930 - Show Class

Poet’s United Midweek Motif : Teaching.

Show Class.

Small eyes.

Friendly eyes.

Curious eyes.

Jealous eyes.

Government eyes.

Electronic eyes.

Neighbours.

Friends.

Colleagues.

Strangers.

All making 

Mental notes

As they watch you.

Every moment

Of your life

Someone

Somewhere

Is watching you.

And what you do,

What you say,

How you live your life

Is teaching them

A little bit more

About you.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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929 - Dining in a Swamp

A neighbour has not learnt to

eat with his mouth closed.

While the meal was unwrapped with much pomp,

He annoyed when he started to chomp—

As his lunch headed south,

He left open his mouth,

And it sounded like gumboots crossing a swamp.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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928 - A Fine Grind

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

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

This week the word is ‘grind’.

A Fine Grind.

Coffee is a wicked and sensuous find,

It feeds all of your fantasies, combined.

In coffee, you'll discover

Your perfect dark lover:

And a good coffee rewards a fine grind.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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927 - Ideas

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: Birth

Ideas are born—

But, if they’re not acted on,

They just stay ideas.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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926 - A kindly, light-hearted melodrama.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

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

The words this week are: 

kindly, light-hearted, and melodramatic.

All the world’s a stage:

Play an interesting role—

Melodramatic!

◊

Light hearted banter.

Don’t take it seriously.

Or perhaps you should…

As Freud would tell you

Those things that are said in jest

Reveal inner thoughts.

◊

What does it hurt you

To say a few kindly words?

Base civility.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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925 - The Ant-y Hero

Theme Thursday has the prompt “Ants”.

The Ant-y Hero

Once upon a time

In a little ant-y nest

Was a little ant-y fellow—

A little ant-y pest.

This little ant-y rebel

Pushed back against the law

Of working through the summer

To fill the winter store.

But as so oft the case

He met a kindred soul—

The one that everybody needs:

The half that makes the whole.

While the passion inside his heart

Warmed his whole inside,

The passion in his belly

Flickered out and died.

Plans were then proposed

To become a family ant

Our little rebel hero

Had now become obedient. 

And that my gentle reader

Is how this story ends:

A simple little wedding,

With a million closest friends.

They danced away the evening,

They toasted with a smirk,

They put away the dishes

And all went back to work.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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924 - A Clean Limerick

A lady, demure and well bred,

Had a bath before going to bed.

“I know that I oughta

Be more frugal with water

But the bubbles just went to my head”.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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