The Poetry Marathon

The Aggressive Giraffe

The Aggressive Giraffe

“I can’t believe the library is closing early today.

Everyone must get out of my way,”

Barked Annie, the aggressive giraffe.

“A three-day weekend with the kids off at camp.

My husband laid up with writer’s cramp.

I need a new book and a fresh cup of tea.”

Pulling into the lot with minutes to spare,

Annie stormed through the doors without a care.

“I need a new book, a mystery or thriller.”

Around the shelves, she started to sprint.

“I’d prefer a book with extremely large print.

The one’s with fine print are a pain in my neck.”

The librarian brought her a stack of the latest fiction.

Annie skimmed through them all with great conviction.

“I thought you had the latest John Grisham.”

Her long neck allowed her to spot it across the room

“It will be mine,” Annie assumed.

She raced to the book without a care.

Knocking down people and toppling stacks of books

The entire building trembled and shook.

The aggressive giraffe was almost there!

Touching the book on the tip of its corner,

her fingers slipped off and she became a mourner.

“You snooze, you lose,” said a prickly hedgehog.

13. Escape

The throbbing pain,
the deafening noise,
and bright lights.
Its everywhere,
they are everywhere,
where to escape?
Whom to escape from?
Today’s far away land
and tomorrow’s hell,
it’s all the same.
Maybe its some game,
maybe this is life.
Chains and tiny cubicles,
torture and pain.
‘Big Brother’ is watching.

(‘Big Brother’-inspired from 1984 by George Orwell)

Subbing in America through Haiku: Hour 14

he cannot focus

yet he stares out the window

maple leaves dancing

The Move

Prompts for Hour Thirteen  Write a poem about a time when something really bad happened…that later turned out to be a good thing. – a prompt by Harvey Schwartz

Catharsis Haiku (2022 Poem 13)

You left me alone
I can be so much more now
Create what I need

Growing into me
Without you holding me back
I find who I am

Painfully, I grow
Time to find my purpose here
Expanding, I rise

(Prompt: Write a poem about a time when something really bad happened…that later turned out to be a good thing. – a prompt by Harvey Schwartz)

Prompts For Hour Fourteen

Text Prompt

“Tell me an old story (like a folktale from your culture, a fairytale you heard when you were young or a story passed down in your family). You can give it your own twist as well.” Prompt submitted by Bhasha Dwivedi

Image Prompt

Contributed by Cindy Whitaker

No. 15: A Race of Paradox

Ancient humans were a paradox of
Genius, intellect, cruelty, and depravity

Astounding feats of engineering and construction
Were all achieved on the backs of slaves

Closer to home the industrial revolution
Created machines to make life easier progressive

Steam engines, flying wings, automobiles
Achieved their peak as instruments of war

Humans take the best of inventions for humankind
Pervert it for the worst against the same

This still holds true for our time as technology is used
To hack our vulnerable systems -- just because "they" can

We humans, no matter, our good intentions
Cannot help but sully a decent thing

Epitaph.

On my epitaph what will be there?
Day I night I cry for it
for I know what will be there.
Though I work for the best word
but what is yet to come
Is very still untrue.
What will be the word of remembrance?
Did I just exist or u live?
I can’t say about it Until I’ve gone
I wonder what people shal talk about it
My epitaph,I know not what will be there and the memory I’ll leave behind.

Prompt 13: For Better or Worse

There used to be Parsley,

Fennel,

Dill.

But the Swallowtail ‘pillars

Have eaten

Their fill.

 

Truly, I don’t mind.

The herbs will grow back.

In time for a yellow-winged

Butterfly to snack!

Paradox

You have to die
to go to heaven
and new beginnings
need an end.
Sometimes the road
that blew your tire out
leads you to a place to mend.

Sometimes the knife stuck in your back
Cuts you free from chains that bind.
Sometimes cold betrayal
gives you a chance to redefine
all that you have wanted
the life you want to live.

It’s a paradox that’s sometimes painful
that there’s no get without some give.