Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a poem about an animal (with the animal in the title), and (2) Write a humorous "rant" poem. I decided to have some fun with this, and actually produced three poems today. The last one was inspired by Robert's example of an animal title, "Beside the White Chickens":
Tiny Dog
in my neighbor's yard,
not much bigger than a rat,
you test my love of canines.
That high-pitched squeak
you call a bark
half-an-octave above high C
makes nails against a chalkboard
sound like a lullaby.
You use it constantly -
whenever a human or dog
or any other living thing goes by,
when you see your own shadow,
when you're happy, excited, upset,
sad, hungry, bored, jealous -
it pierces the neighborhood air
like a siren every time,
day or night,
and God forgive me,
I want to punt you into next week,
but that would only give me relief
till Tuesday or so.
not much bigger than a rat,
you test my love of canines.
That high-pitched squeak
you call a bark
half-an-octave above high C
makes nails against a chalkboard
sound like a lullaby.
You use it constantly -
whenever a human or dog
or any other living thing goes by,
when you see your own shadow,
when you're happy, excited, upset,
sad, hungry, bored, jealous -
it pierces the neighborhood air
like a siren every time,
day or night,
and God forgive me,
I want to punt you into next week,
but that would only give me relief
till Tuesday or so.
It's a Zoo Out There
- Norm Peterson on Cheers
Just take a gander
at all the fat cats
who get the lion's share,
and the politicians
like foxes in the henhouse.
It really gets my goat
when they monkey around.
I'd like to see them eat crow
when the chickens come home to roost.
like a deer in the headlights
and the wolf's at the door.
I'm poor as a church mouse,
but I won't go to a loan shark,
and this won't be my swan song.
I need to
address the elephant in the room
and get my ducks in a row.
No more playing whack-a-mole,
and no backing the wrong horse.
The world could be my oyster
if I take the bull by the horns,
get busy as a bee
and loaded for bear,
then I'll be happy as a pig in mud
till the cows come home.
White Chickens (Red Wheelbarrow Part 2)
chickens
leaking
of eggs
depend
1 comment:
Bruce, three great responses to the prompts. I really like the middle one, constructed from clichés. The humor in the first one is infectious, and the last one is inspiring from a craft perspective.
Post a Comment