Third Marriage, Seaside.

 

Go down to the greenhouse and gather the blooms,

then scatter them all in separate rooms--

the rose on the grate of the fireplaced cold

to lie there and die there as we grow old.

The arrangements are odd and enigmatic,

the occupants frail and most asthmatic

afflicted with allergies, fear and despair

made worse by the stale and fetid air.

Though we gasp our devotion like fish in a boat

and confess our passion by rite and rote,

we're as blinkered as babes, as clear as bells

as we rise from the drink on our half-assed shells.

_________

for Word Garden Word List--First Love

Word Garden Word List--First Love

 

Hello my lovestruck lovelies, and welcome to this week's edition of The Word List! Long ago when I was not yet the crumbling ruin you see before you today, I found a copy of FOUR GREAT RUSSIAN SHORT NOVELS  in a used bookstore, and that little paperback has traveled with me through the decades ever since. The four stories are: Turgenev "First Love", Dostoyevsky "The Gambler", Tolstoy "Master & Man", and Chekhov "The Duel." It is the first one that concerns us here today.

My copy looks like this.

"First Love" hit me right in the heart when I first read it, and I have re-read it twice since then, but not recently. These days, "The Gambler" and especially "The Duel" hit closer to home, but in my young years it was "First Love" all the way. 

A wild and crazy guy.

Turgenev is known for the novel "Fathers and Sons" and the play "A Month in the Country." Our story for the List was published in 1860.

What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. Then simply link up, visit others as you are able, and then become fascinated with someone charming. This prompt remains active through next Saturday.

And now, your List:

amazing

bell

brickwork

confess

crowds

darkness

describe

enigmatic

fear

fence

fits

garden

greenhouse

honey

intensely

joyful

pale

queen

simply

teeth

Two Sharks

 

I have two sharks inside me

swimming in tandem and holding my heart

between them like a little family 

walking in the dark.

I send them gulps of air from outside

as if I were some sort of oxygenated charity

with a face and feet, operating in the world

on their behalf like a proxy or prosthetic.

Oh fishies, confined and angry in the bowl of my ribs,

here come those old blues again.

Why does life go on so long, demand so much,

slowly dribbling out the cracked glass of years?

I have had ideas all along, fine ideas

to open a ministry in a dumpster,

a ballroom in an attic, a cemetery 

on a space station with the whole Earth for Ouija board.

I'm scared, fishies. Will the moon call you

and will you answer her tidal madrigal?

Will she require three voices, you and my heart?

Will you rise in glory, leaving me hollow, in salt and sorrow?

_________________

for Word Garden Word List--How To Sell a Haunted House

Word Garden Word List--How To Sell a Haunted House

 

Hello my little puppeteers and welcome to this week's Word List poetry prompt! I recently finished a novel by Grady Hendrix entitled How To Sell a Haunted House, and I loved it.

It's about a brother and sister whose parents have both died in a traffic accident, leaving them to sell the family home. The trouble is, there's a haunted puppet named Pupkin in there. He's very charming unless he's turning you into his zombie slave or trying to kill you. Trouble is, he's almost always trying to do either or both. 

Grady Hendrix

The novel is half family dynamics and half horror, with a liberal dash of humor as well. I can't stop thinking about it. Hmm, could it be Pupkin taking over my mind???

What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. Then simply link up, visit others as you are able, and then be sure that new house of yours is really, actually vacant before you move in! This prompt remains active through next Saturday.

And now, your List:

attic

bright

clown

cousins

dolls

dumpster

friends

hammer

haunted

jealous

jumbled

ministry

moon

puppet

remote

safe

scared

snotty

squirrels

thirsty

Peace & Quiet

 

Late for work third day this week

boss say my ice is thinning

can't find my paddle I'm sure up the creek

and I'm not too hot at swimming

Crashed my car late last night

that pole jumped right out at me

I signaled left but the world went right

and bent like origami

If I could only find a little peace

some place that's sweet and quiet

I'd get up off the floor, not do stupid anymore

at least I'd like to try it

My one true love says they've had enough

and got a judge to sign it

If I could get Jesus and still do my stuff

I might really get behind it

All I want is just a little peace

like a room in the Vegas Hyatt

I'll pray from the floor, spray tags on the door

and do the desk clerk to keep it quiet.

______

for "Yearning For Peace" at What's Going On?

Love Song For Donny

 He calls himself a cheerer upper

that drooling simp,

that cretinous, sludge-blooded

syphilitic pimp.

"Come on get happy

and make it snappy

or just shovel shit

if your hair is nappy."

We've had enough

of fatty with the golf cart

with the cabinet he got

on sale at Walmart.

The baby in chief

is just illusion super sized

whose stupid cryto coin

has 'em all hypnotized.

He's filling his diaper

at his ghost town parade

afraid that we're hip to

his strongman charade.

He's a crying, crapping, superannuated fake

with his spineless, goggle-eyed, parroting rummies

who will blow themselves up like fingerless rubes--

his red-hatted cosplay crash test dummies.

__________

for Word Garden Word List--The Catcher In the Rye

Word Garden Word List--The Catcher In The Rye

 

Hello my little outsiders, and welcome to this week's Word List poetry prompt! This week we have a source novel that needs no introduction--The Catcher In the Rye  by J.D.Salinger.

I first read it in high school. My best friend had to read it for class and it sounded interesting. Now, at that point in my life, I was reading less than I ever had before or ever would again, but I read this novel and loved it. I loved Holden tap dancing on the floor of the dorm bathroom, crowing, "I'm the goddamn governor's son!" I thought it was tremendously funny and also poignant.

I read it again when I was around forty, married, and raising a son. This time, it made me want to help Holden in all of his confusion and hurt. I wanted to mother him. I had been where he was once, and hadn't forgotten. I read the book a third time last year, and once again it hit me differently than the first two times. I kept thinking of the song Ripple  by the Grateful Dead.

There is a road, no simple highway

between the dawn and the dark of night

and if you go, no one may follow

That path is for your steps alone.

What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own, Then simply link up, visit others as you are able, and then make your wandering way back home. This prompt remains active until next Sunday.

And now, your List:

aspirin

bores

celebrity

cheerer upper

clock

corny

drooling

entertaining

glued

incognito

limping

madman

museum

nervous

record

school

sleepy

snappy

terrific

wuddyacallit