In the breadbasket,
the last loaf is telling jokes
to the hungry knife.
A breadbasket
has become a bowl of blood and mud.
The steel claws of hawks
crush concrete towers.
Peace shelters in cellars
bread is broken,
a thin soup stirs the dying.
A droning in the sky,
rabbit ears alert in a backyard cage,
a boy's hunger stole a carrot,
but it did not eat the rabbit -
not yet.
Trapped in meaningless whirling thoughts
Boundaries draped around the body
Unsaid words confined in laughing gear
Dread sentiment flowing in breadbasket
Trembling uncertainty waving inside the stump
Sealed in anticipation of a utopian epoch...
Distress travels instantly through me, A samurai sword, Greek mythology, Zeus gulped kingly ideas and in his breadbasket he stored, reminiscent of the ancient times, emergency Er Hoard, feels like a billion increased/decreased Forbes, a penniless fellow hustle in no way can be bored.
- Loverboi
Look again
Towards the breadbasket of civilization
They hold up a mirror
To our own looming confrontation
Upon the beautiful shores of Greece
Comes a class warfare that has divided the cultural peace
Forced down his throat the Noble Greek will not swallow
The European Austerity Plan he's expected to follow
Damning their working class culture and not approved by Apollo!
Quite fitting this eternal struggle has returned to this original arena
When the working class people are exploited
They always find it anathema
Pray
May their Truth be guided by the Sword of Hercules
And the Wisdom of Athena
I live in a state shaped by glaciers long ago
In the middle of the heat, we want it to snow
The breadwinner of many homes is what we grow
Here comes another winter, around forty below
Watch out for black ice roads wherever you go
Summer is six months away, yep, don't ya know
Melting snow makes for one big old muddy hole
Changing seasons so often, a backcountry expo
Minnesota fearing Green Bay Packers on a roll
Wilderness found up north, catch it on a pole
Mississippi flowing to its west into the soul
Universities preparing us, system educational
Wisconsinites moving forward on our loam soil
Architectonics with Frank, ingenuity and toil
Hydroelectrical powered first on the Fox flow
Conservationists residing, protecting fallows
Sesquicentennials of livestock, corn in silos
Characteristically unique, breadbasket tempos
New Deal
Black Tuesday
October 1929
Vanishing wealth; stocks decline
Great Dust Bowl
Windstorms and drought, top soil gone
Breadbasket empty; nature’s con
FDR
He’s the man, New Deal imposed
Opportunities renewed; hopes rose
New Deal Reigns
Work offered by the CCC
Saves the lost American dream
Recession Echo
The winter plunge 2009
Who will save our dreams this time?
Reality Knocks
Frustration with Congress, current events
November elections a time to vent
New Deal Needed
Americans looking for leadership
Power from sheep about to be stripped
*For Constance, a Rambling Poet’s “Create your own form, maybe?” contest
By Carolyn Devonshire
I work frequently in this form that I choose to call “Headline Couplets.” It includes a
headline followed by rhyming couplets that address the concept, person or event in
the first line of three-line verses. Probably inspired by my years as a journalist.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.