Cotillion Poems

Rinkydinks: Volume 2

Q: Who is the current Chief of Staff?
A: The resident President.

Q: What is an old, lame, deaf, half-blind Sherlock Holmes?
A: A defective detective.

Q: Who is the magician who ate all the pasta when no one was looking?
A: The linguini Houdini.

Q: What is a day in the life depiction of the First Family on view in the rotunda of the White House?
A: An Obama diorama.

Q: What is a doctor who operates on a big fish to remove the roe?
A: A sturgeon surgeon.

Q: What disease did the star of "Veep" get from drinking unbottled water when she was in India?
A: Julia Louis-Dreyfus typhus.

Q: What is a debutante dance for snakes, alligators, etc.?
A: A reptilian cotillion.

Q: How do people in third-world countries view America's "open door" policy?
A: As an immigration invitation.

Q: Selfridge's was a fine example of what kind of department store?
A: A Victorian emporium.

Q: Where would you be if you found yourself trapped between this world and another?
A: In dimension suspension.

Realizing Beauty

In the underbelly of the behemoth, 
where darkness devours the light, 
lies the truth - a macabre cotillion 
of vice and virtue, forever swirling, 
a maddening waltz of the dualistic kiss.

DANCES ARE SQUARE

DANCES ARE SQUARE

There are some dances where different people meet
Exchanging partners enhances the social opportunity
When one glances at another, it makes it all complete

Whether old-fashioned such as the cotillion or quadrille
There’s only one in a million who dances with impunity
As these days, perhaps a civilian or maybe military still

Sword and morris dancing are old and seen as outdated
But as dance steps gradually unfold it does require unity
And bold but ageing onlookers wish they hadn’t waited

Come Join the Dance

Sweet
Primrose 
Modestly 
Presents herself 
At a midwinter
Cotillion, opening
Herself to the enchantment 
Of warm Spring's coming arrival.
She calls sisters: Daffodil, Tulip 
And shy Buttercup, to come join the dance.

Fluttering in Moonlight

Their fluttering starts in moonlight
When Luna reaches zenith height
She croons as butterflies take flight
Magical night         Magical night

I was in awe without askance
Mesmerized as if in a trance
A cotillion of circumstance
Butterflies dance   Butterflies dance

On nights when the golden moon sings
They flit in nocturnal musings
What pleasure to me their waltz brings
On velvet wings    On velvet wings

What a delightful sight to see
When they whirl with grand revelry
Dancing with such joyful esprit
In front of me      In front of me

It's a garden party soiree
Beneath the moon and stars they sway
A charming celestial ballet
Then fly away   Then fly away

To the Nines

Dressed to the nines, but with a lethal twist,
her cover blown, enacts her exit plan.
Those lips, a deep vermillion, never missed;
cotillion entrance stops hearts for a span.
A needle in the bracelet at her wrist…

With subterfuge to rival a MacBeth,
a poise belies her young and tender age.
Bare balanced on a blade ‘twixt life and death,
a china doll conceals a tiger caged.
Eyes locked on him, there’s murder on her breath.

She smiles, and with those eyes, the trap is sprung.
Embracing her, the prick is never felt.
Then pressing in, he forces past her tongue;
in mock response, she firmly clasps his belt, 
glides to a chair - one down, the night is young.

—————-

for the THREE STANZA POEM IN QUINTAIN (SICILIAN) Poetry Contest
sponsored by Milt Hankins
written on 10/07/22

Vermillion Raindrops

Dreams are nocturnal flowers, blooming when the sun has strayed far enough that we can see clearly. ~Terri Guillemets

Vermillion raindrops 
By the millions
Falling around me 
Like a cotillion of lovers 
Vying for a favor,
While the insolent villain,
Oft seen in midnight dreams,
Watches from the shadows,
Flashes his deep Castilian smile,
And beguiled I run to him.


For: ''V'' New or Old Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
November 16, 2021

Fully Autumn

Fully Autumn
——————————
 A fine, clear creek
Trickling water 
Flows long on by,
As Earth presents 
Such a festive
Winding valley’s show.
Sun’s rays sigh.
Sprinkling lights shift nigh.
So sooner do feelings rise
To gift
Such a landscape with its due awe;
To sing glee 
As Nature calls 
Her choirs to harmonize,
Accompanied by
The wistful poems of
Mounds of carmine mums,
Tipping their petite
Petals within each 
 Wending breeze;
To scatter away worries
By tracing the last flights
Of silver-spotted butterflies, 
Aiming skyward through 
This autumn’s afternoon.
Transforming trees stand
 Splendid in a flutter-falling 
Of their leaves — a gracing
By colors
On the fingertips of 
The wind — with their lounging sway
— this way then to the other— 
As created to be
Life’s November cotillion — 
For a dance, and
Then a sylvan space to
 Sleep before snow 
Covers over all…
Still, unburied, with a promise
Of resilience.

——————————-       —-
(c)sally young Eslinger 
10/28/2
Thanks be to God

Love Letter From the Soul Xlviii

You,

Veiled in the mysteries of light
black cutting off the white
unmasked in the cotillion 

of life

no debutanted call
you said left, I was right
patience holding close
an eerie songless night

but the melody played for hours
in the breeze, the gentle tease
and the tide
washing upon the night
in wrinkled sheets
you the nun, I the knight
if only for tonight

I will be with you
in grave and in height
stripping of the shroud
soaring up the stares
abreast
undressed 

spotted eyes owl in wonder 
halos glow at midnight
transfixed, we merge
and emerge 

breathing/gasping/grasping 
chocked but contented
fully fulfilled
as air fills your lungs

gorgeous as that may be

The Grand Jam Cotillion

Ah, at a magnificent place 'twas
this ball held!
With gorgeous jam debutantes,
arriving one by one.
Sorry you were not there!
To behold the debutantes and
their escorts gliding down the 
winding stairs
Such beautiful faces,and all 
superbly trained in fine cotillion 
graces.

First came Rose Petal and Seville
Orange, a stunning pair!

Then Honeysuckle and Sir Hawthorne, 
so stunning they drove the crowd wild.

Next, the gorgeous Pearadise
and Sir Quince, so gorgeous we
all did wince!

Cherry and the famed Knight
Elderberry made all heads turn.

Sparkling Dandelion and Prince
Habanero, so lovely, struck our
hearts like arrows.

The Viennese Waltzes began,
a night so memorable.
We all applauded such gorgeous
couples.
Mesmerized by such grace beyond
finite.
Each couple,bowed and left us "
eventually.
With dreams of next years cotillion,
We all pledged to be!


September 12, 2019

*These are names of actual names 
 of homemade jams and jellies.

Six-Word Couplet Series Encore

Autumn
Chilled breezes blow.
Warm firesides glow.

Pumpkins
Orange and round
Litter the ground.

Skies
Hold November rains.
Soak gentle plains.

Maple Trees
Dress in vermillion.
It’s autumn’s cotillion.

Children 
Wear shiny costumes.
Huge harvest moons.

Turkeys
Many to die.
Hear them cry.

11/11/18

Six-Word Couplet Series Encore
Sponsored by: Mark Toney

Quaint Inanity

Quaint Inanity. 

Sometimes ago I'd thought of the idiosyncratic Shenanigans our politicians  employed  in declaring their manifesto. They're  quite rapscallions. 

Exhibiting hoity-toities during their declarations of flapdoodle, they 
Tune their cozenage to the rhythm 
Of rascality. 

And you see kaleidoscopic legs picking
The nimbus of the elfin music. 

And they're swayed into cotillion till their Fela* commute to dirge. 
      18:07:23:18:52

The Prism

Bent glass danced light from windows over looking vacant playgrounds,
as Mr. Ingersall taught refraction and dispersion.

Rainbows tap-danced walls to chalkboard, brushing equations,
while impish hues soft-shoed solutions chased previously with tears.

From a lackluster world of rummy princes and fermented fairy tales,
the girl's heart tripped fantastic in the cotillion of blithe pigmentation.

The loud sound of deserted classrooms witnessed bewitching glass
sashayed away from the place of clips, red pencils, and unbroken chalk...

and light danced once for her in pentient denouement.

The Last Spike

The Last Spike

Helios orb peers cautiously
 with guarded optimism
 through cracker-slatted clouds
as Thor's divine implement
 shatters the morning stillness with the clap of a sonic boom

Mere mortals assigned Herculean tasks
 trill a gospel cadence,
 their labors heralded as glistening ribbons stretch yon and hither,
 a tribute to their genius 
and their genesis

Now, as the celestial cotillion materializes 
in the ebony overhang
 the spinning Mother bids 'Adieu'
 as the last rough-hewn iron phallus
 penetrates the porus creosote-drenched flesh

with a tempered satisfaction
 known only to Gods.........

 And those men who will be.
 
                                                       ("Hell On Wheels" final episode)

Midnight Romance

Debutantes with secret lives of crimson
could drink and smoke much more than anyone,
dressed in ivory postbellum fashion
sable coats, charcoal tuxes by the ton.

In and out of shadows obsidian
debs and escorts waltzed like porcelain toys,
social ceremony called cotillion
guarantee of attention from the boys.

Ash of Roses with absinthe leaves bouquet
trembling soft in their clutching white gloved hand.
A graceful bow one Midnight moon in May
and honored parents thought the time was grand.

Cerulean flashes blinded young eyes
in days when truth was buried with disguise.

10/17/17

Ash of Roses   Absinthe  Cerulean  Charcoal  Crimson  Ivory   Obsidian Porcelain   Sable  Smoke


Midnight Romance Contest

• Short Cotillion Poems
• Famous Cotillion Poems
• Best Cotillion Poems
• Read Cotillion Poems
• Long Cotillion Poems
• Cotillion Quotes