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Ticks ~ Husband vs. Wife

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Wife: Oh, good gracious! A tick!

(gets tweezers, removes tick, flushes it)

7 seconds later finishes

applying makeup, gets dressed and starts

writing before work in her favorite chair

***********

Husband: (hollers from shower)

Can you come here?

I need you to look at something!

Wife: (hollers back) I’m not falling for that again.

Husband: No, seriously.

I think I have a tick.

Wife: I’ll be there when you get out.

Husband: (parading into living room

towel wrapped around his waist,

still half-wet, hair every whichaway,

pointing just under his left nipple)

No wonder I’ve been itching since

we got home from camping!

Wife: Are you sure it’s a tick? It’s

embedded deep. It’s not a mole?

Husband: I don’t think so.

Do you have tweezers?

Wife: Yes, I’ll get them.

(brings them from makeup bag)

Husband: Here, you try! (hands tweezers back)

Wife: (rolling eyes)

Husband: Well, I can’t see that angle

Wife: There’s a mirror right

behind you (digging at embedded

tick, husband wincing)

Husband: Here, let me try

(takes tweezers)

Wait, do you have different

tweezers? These aren’t lining up right.

Wife: (goes and looks for another pair

brings them back 3 minutes later)

Husband: (still digging) I got part of it

Wife: The head is still in there.

Husband: I’ll dig that out later. I’m

going to be late for work…..

(dresses, kisses her, grabs coffee, leaves for work)

Wife returns to chair to finish writing

<writes: Ticks ~ Husband vs. Wife>

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers

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Joy

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it’s true what God says:

joy comes in the morning when

darkness is at rest

heartaches blanketed

God’s loving mercy and grace

lift away the pain

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Decisions

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we looked

you drove

I rode

we talked

we offered

they rejected

we walked

and just like that:

decisions are made

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On Hearing the News

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one of my adult daughters

still calls novels

chapter books ~

on hearing

our family news

she texted:

there I was

listening to my own

chapter book

in my own

little world

of someone else’s

little did I know

there was another

story unfolding

in my own….

I smiled and replied

this could be the start

of a new chapter…….

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Watermelon Offerings

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Watermelon Offerings

what is this?

well, would you

believe it?

a text ~ding~

a random

communication

newsflash

like a game of Yahtzee

nine years after the full house

will this not substitute

for the apology

owed everyone involved?

this we know:

the human heart

slices cleaner

than seedless watermelon

all cut up in cubes

in a parfait dish

for the entitled

wedding soloist

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Day 29 of #VerseLove with Fran Haley of North Carolina

Fran Haley of North Carolina is our host for Day 29 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write Heart Map poems. You can read her full prompt here.

Fran explains that author Georgia Heard created Heart Maps to help younger students find their own meaningful stories. She encourages us to brainstorm “first times” in our own lives – or last times.

The Last Time

The last time I came home

before you died you

stood feebly

in the door

cold rushing in

against your

flannel pajamas

swallowing you

life leaving your body

escaping you

your voice

deep and low

sunk to the bottom

of your being

a soul cry of despair

saying my name

Kim

proving you knew me

there at the bitter end

unlike the times before

your trembling arms

reaching for me

I reeled at

the change in you

in only a few days

and held you up

while we cried

both knowing

this would be

our last

standing hug

our last

cry together

our final

goodbye

before you

slipped away

I watched you die

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Day 27 of #VerseLove with Jessica Wiley: Sound Off Poetry

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Jessica Wiley of Conway, Arkansas is our host today for Day 27 of #VerseLove2024. She inspires us to write Sound Off poems, spouting off about things that irk us. You can read her full prompt here.

Burning Realms

his whole realm

went up in smoke

ashes of trust

soot of believability

smoldering memories

of the way

upon-a-times

once were

the day he

struck the sulfury

match

burning an

entire

kingdom to the

ground

starting with

his own

castle

*sulfury is a play on soul fury, as in Jessica’s original prompt a podcast entitled Sound and Fury was part of the discussion.

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Day 25 of #VerseLove with Tammi Belko: Where I’m From Poems

Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host for Day 25 of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us today to write Where I’m From poems, based on George Ella Lyon’s “Where I am From” poem. She provides a template to create a “Where I Am From” poem.

Photo by Xuan Hoa Le on Pexels.com

Royal Fortress Meadow 

I’m from the Royal Fortress Meadow

from Breck shampoo and Johnson’s No More Tears

from wispy locks of amber gold, windblown in the breeze

I’m from chain-woven crowns of wildflowers, dandelions, and daisies

from backlit sunlight exposing the truth: there will never be no more tears

from churning butter and wondering why the pants don’t fit

I’m from ancestors of the lye soap stirred in the backyard tin tub

from the front porch swing and swigging Mason Jars of sweet tea

from wash behind your ears and do a good tick check

from a don’t you slam that screen door one more time! flyswatter granny

who swatted more than flies

I’m from the country church of the cardboard funeral fans

with the off-key piano

I’m from Georgia, Cherokee blood three generation branches up-tree,

still searching for the bloodstained earth of my ancestors

from Silver Queen corn, husks shucked

from shady pecan groves and Vidalia onion fields

from Okefenokee swamplands and railroads

that side that tallied three pees before flushing

from clotheslines of fresh sheets teeming with sweet dreams

from sleeping under a box window fan in sweltering summer heat

from folks doing what they could to survive

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Day 24 of #VerseLove with Kevin Hodgson

Kevin Hodgson of Massachussetts is our host for Day 24 of #VerseLove. You can read his full prompt here.

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Kevin says, “Ada Limon’s amazing poem for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission – In Praise of Mystery: A Poem For Europa – often lingers in my mind, particularly as its launch into space is on the horizon in October. The sky is full of inspiration as is the mission of discovery. Her poem has me thinking of constellations, in particular, and how people across time, in different geographic places, have so often gazed up at the night sky and sought connections between the pinpoints of light, and told stories and created poems, and shared experiences.”

Kevin urges us to “consider a constellation as a starting point for a poem. Here is a list of the 88 “official” constellations.”

Connecting the Dots (Lepus the Hare)

on the screen

a couple hops

off a train

in Vienna for

an evening together

strangers taking

a chance on love

~before sunrise~

a palm reader

ambles over in

her flowing dress

and head wrap to

read their destinies

when the stars exploded

billions of years ago

they formed everything

that is this world

everything we know

is stardust, so

don’t forget:

you are stardust…..

you are both stars

then she walks off

into the night

where they go, too,

to do more-than-

stranger-things

before he recites

an Auden poem

the years shall

run like rabbits...

and so I

connect the

dots….{Lepus!}

because

As I Walked Out

One Evening

I saw them

yes, I saw

those rabbits

running like years

through the

meadows of heaven

through this

grassland galaxy

through this

Royal Fortress Meadow

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Day 17 of #VerseLove with Erica Johnson

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Erica Johnson of Arkansas is our host today for the 17th day of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here as she inspires us to write Echoes from the Past.

Erica explains her process of writing an echo sonnet:

As I told my students, don’t worry too much about the traditional sonnet structure; focus instead on keeping it to a brief conversation of 14 lines between yourself and an “echo” of your choice. 

I’ve been down and out with vertigo this week, so the echoes have been loud in between the world spinning.

##!@ ##@* Vertigo Meadows

Green grasses sway and bend and spin (like wind!)

look less like blades, way more like monster fur (sure!)

I’m praying for this vertigo to end (when???)

It’s hard to think when all the world’s a blur (duhrrr!)

Who’s Epley? I get sick from his maneuver (a mover!)

Oh, wait! I jerk my head ~ear crystals shatter (scatter!)

This could be true – a vertigo improver (a soother!)

Just keep a barf bag close so things don’t splatter (it matters!)

Even chirping birds sing sideways songs (gongs)

and baby bunnies loop like Ferris wheels (banana peels)

I need this meadow back how it belongs (it’s all wrong)

my countryside set back on even keels (not these feels)

Royal Fortress Meadows sing their woe (echo)

This dizzy/jacked-up/whirling Vertigo ($h1t Sh*w)