The Poetry Marathon

Honeybees

Busy, busy little bee
Making honey just for me
Taking nectar for each flower
Buzzing it home hour after hour
Drying it out with the breeze from you wings
You place a cap over the little honeycomb things
Keeping it safe for the beekeeper’s harvest
To bung into jars and take off to market
You’ll start anew to make more honey
Busy, busy little bee you’re clever and funny

They came

The day the world drowned
And all was dark
Reality masked by hues of blue and green
Obscured from view
Untold nightmares awaited
Creatures from other dimensions
Custodians of our fate
Bathed our battered souls
Gathered our broken bodies
And soothed our damaged minds
Eager to learn they observed
Probed
Calculated
No others had survived
We were now all there was
Three to power of many
Our future uncertain
Our lives no longer our own

42

A perfect number
The natural progression from forty-one
Feathers on a thrush
Time through the centre of the earth
The number of laws in cricket
Illustrations in wonderland
The sum of the first six positive even numbers
The ultimate question of life

What is the number?

[Prompt: The last line is a question and the answer is the title.]

Colour my World

Draw me a picture with your words
That I may share the treasure of your mind
Paint me an image in letters and rhyme
Describing how fine
The details within
Can colour my world

Make lines on a page
Of the inspiration I crave
To help me through the day

Inspire my life and appease my strife
With poetry
Fiction and prose
To make me believe
That all I read
Was written for me alone

The Garden Party

The sun blazed
Insects buzzed in air heavily scented by honeysuckle
The table was set
China teacups
Fancy cakes on ornate metal stands
Cucumber sandwiches and freshly picked strawberries

The mad hatter (her father) played croquet on the lawn
With Tweedledum and Tweedledee (her younger brothers)
But there was a distinct lack of hedgehogs and flamingos
The Queen (her mother) was screaming
Scattering the headless servants in all directions like card people
The cat casually scrutinized the pig child (her baby sister)

Shutting her book
Alice considered
If she was actually in Wonderland

[Prompt: Tell me an old story – give it your own twist.]

I Don’t Want a Cat

You just arrived
I came home and there you were
Happy as can be
Lounging about as if you had a given right
I put you out
You came back in
How I didn’t know
But you did
I was adamant
No matter how cute you were
There would be no encouragement
You were not mine
And I was definitely not yours

Yeah right …
A lifetime later I broke my heart
Over the cat that I never wanted

[Prompt: A time when something really bad happened…that later turned out to be a good thing.]

Traveling Light

Lockdown is over we can finally go out
Day-trips, holidays or even a flight
The end is now really in sight

Packing the bags
The weather’s unclear
Best be prepared for whatever’s out there
I have coats and hats
Gloves and a scarf
Wellies and flip flops just for a laugh
A T-shirt and fleece
Trousers and shorts
A first aid kit ready for all sorts
A thermos and cold water
Heat pads and sun cream
A rain mac and umbrella … the prep makes me scream

So where shall we go
Now we can roam
Let’s save all the hassle and just party at home

[Prompt: Gathering with others.]

Come to bed

Uncontrollable
Choking on thin air
Snorting bubbles
Rising from deep within a fancy
Well and truly tickled
Unexpected reaction
A gene hidden from view
Elated by an unseen force
Stirring lusts
That lead to much much more
If not suitably restrained

[Prompt: Write about laughter without ever using the words, laugh, laughter, or giggle.]

King of the Jungle

He strutted up to the pack
To the kill
And growled
And growled again
They all looked at him but no one moved
He pounded the floor
Front feet together
Standing his ground
The spoils were his
He was the king
The king of all living beasts
Master of all he surveyed
They watched with feigned interest
Amused smirks behind closed faces
He roared again
Again and again …
The clip round the ear was not expected
Not something he would tolerate
Someone would pay for that
He rounded on his attacker
And slunk to the floor on his back
Tummy exposed
Mother lion nuzzled him gently
“All in good time my son” she said softly
“All in good time”

[Prompt: Personify an animal.]

My-mite

One thing will always make my day just right
Scoffing anything smeared in sticky marmite
I indulge my guilty little secret alone
Then shove it to back behind the tins
To keep it safe and out of sight
As the last thing I need when I have a craving
Is find my jar’s been plundered
Which leaves me to wonder
Just who it was
For everyone that shares my life
Insists they are in the haters gang
And would never in a million years
Touch the stuff so I should have no fears
There should always be enough to satisfy my urge
But more and more I find the jar’s been purged
Of all but the slightest scrap
Not enough to cover toast
Just a buttered crumpet at the most
Love it or loath it
I couldn’t care less
But remember … my jar is mine alone
So go please go out and buy your own

[Prompt: Look in your cupboards and find a food that brings up a childhood memory.]