Can anyone accuse you of pretence?
Are you inflicting pain for pain’s own sake?
So little can be said in your defence –
Unless you have some argument to make,
Apart from spitting venom like a snake.
Less culpable than you are snakes, I swear:
They do their damage, blithely unaware.
You knew precisely when, and where, and whence –
Or if you’d rather, planned the steps to take,
Fomenting consciously this pestilence –
You find my words too grand? You’ve got brain-ache?
Okay, let’s say you knew which bough to shake.
Unmitigated mayhem, deep despair
Results in calm. Today, there’s nothing there.
Considered as a love, it was immense.
Regarded as a person, you’re a fake.
Unusually, passionate, intense?
Exactly. So much bitterer the break.
Love blinded me. The thing was my mistake.
The fault was yours, of course. But, to be fair,
You’re not a psychopath. You just don’t care.
A word that surely had to go
Folks pronounced it 'Knee-grow'
Just as with 'shi-tte'
~ It took a big hitt-e
_________________________________
Note: 'sbitte' is Chaucerian-era Middle
English, pronounced 'shi-teh' and mean-
ing 'brown.' Today, we impatient moderns
spell it with only four letters.
chhh-ta-cuff, chhh-ta-cuff
The train chugging back and forth
Looked out of the window.
The beautiful landscape floating by
I wish I was there in the fresh air
Aha, the train stopped at Calais station,
the engine driver has got down.
It is the time for uploading the coal
And will take more time to fire
the engine of the steam locomotive.
I saw the Towers of Canterbury.
My mind was full the Chaucerian images.
Felt peace with waters of English Channel
I heard the whistle and chhh-ta-cuff sound
I ran and running the train I got aboard.
I again I looked out of the window
And saw green meadows and willows,
the English dolls strolling by.
I put out my head out of the window
Oh, my face was dark with the soot
and my eyes aching with the grit.
I heard the sound of the engine along
Recalling the words of R.L. Stevenson
"Faster than fairies, faster than witches."
+++
January 23, 2015
Form: Free Verse
Second Place Win