Old Granny Glitch would twitch and snitch.
We'd shout, "Oh, no! Just ditch the glitch!"
She'd stall the clocks and jam the doors,
Undoing what we all worked so hard for.
She'd pop an error into our smooth routine.
Scatter crumbs through every polished theme.
A pesky clean-up— clumsy, costly, slow;
Yet showing flaws we'd never ever know.
When one small pause became a clue,
The glitch invited us to look anew.
It opened a crack to let the daylight in;
Revealing new tricks hidden within.
"Don't ditch the glitch," she softly smiled.
"I've only snitched what your certainty beguiled."
"For bold confidence can make one blind."
"When fresh glints ignite a curious mind."
She broke our stride, disturbed the flow.
Yet it showed what constancy could never know.
A hitch, once noticed with great care,
Awakens new questions left waiting there.
Now Granny Glitch still hangs about,
She chucks our neat conclusions out.
For every hitch, shifts the pitch—
So we pause.... before we ditch, the glitch.
young man with an employee badge sits in chair next to me
we are not two feet away from each other
I try to make eye contact, but he never looks up from his phone
There would have been a time when we would have made eye contact
Said “hi”
maybe smiled
those days are gone
Hospitality has been thrown into a ditch and buried
There would have been a time when we would have said “hi”
Gotten to know a bit about each other.
Discussed possible common neighbors, friends and relatives.
This is small town Iowa.
It used to be what small town Iowans did.
It was expected.
Not anymore.
the ditch is always rejecting things
spitting them high up onto the river’s banks
last week he spit up a rusty knife and a hammer
Today he spit up something that was moving
Was it a tiny kitten? A dirty bunny?
A mechanical toy of some sort or another?
It was a mud brownie, and he was furious.
I was rejected by so many, he said, but never a ditch!
We left him alone, because he was angry.
Grumbling and mumbling, irritated about this.
Would he go to the river and clean up?
None of us had any guesses. Never saw a brownie before.
Skip adventurous and elegiac
~ for routine and prosaic
If I see something in the ditch
I have to stop the car
and pull it out
sometimes it’s a toilet, a broken lamp, a desk, part of a chair
I especially have to pull it out
if I do not know what it is
I make a cat’s curiosity seem sporadic
we can find room for this, I tell my husband
he is disgusted
What is it?
Luckily, I am a quick liar
because I often do not know
APROPOS OF DING DONG DITCH AND PALS
Literally, AI pranks
Have caused suicides:-
One while on the computer;
The other by a back shot:-
This may sound funny,
But death is no silly joke;
Neither should pranks be:-
Putting all in perspective,
In half of a month,
Check out “AI Psychosis”
And its friend, “Sycophancy”!?!
As must be with war,
Let us crack down on greed and
Its collateral damage:
At least give this all some thought:-
I shan’t think a landing is sound
That leaves both a ditch and a mound.
A plane should align,
Like steak with good wine,
To kiss, not to crush, with the ground.
Final, strained breath drawn,
Hope's faint ember starts to glow,
One last push to rise.
©bfa050825
All through spring,
the catalysts of eddies,
encircle the rivulets
bubbling over,
like wherewithal's brandishing
this errant song.
Now the lesson is over,
dark ditches all reignite
treasons answer,
twice mightier than the sword,
he carries his words in the rain
following like the lamb
the serpents gain.
Over my house lingered a broom-riding witch.
She laughed so hard, the roof gave a pitch.
Someone told grandma about it; for they loved to snitch.
We all ran outside and threw ourselves into a ditch.
What are we doing here? Asked my aunt who was rich.
I thought you knew, I said to my short cousin Mitch.
I had no idea either, so we stared at the witch.
She gave us the evil eye, scaring us back into the ditch.
I don't know what's going on
today I even suspect
if I ever had any skills
to understand the world I live in
sure they dug a ditch around here
or built walls that I can't see
there's something hidden in everything
or is this just my psychopathy?
i always knew i should be good
but i didn't know i should be better
because I didn't see it as a competition
maybe I underestimated
everything they wrote in the books
for people like me
naive or ignorant like me
now doomed to suffer the consequences
for having lived as eternal apprentices
Clean your house out – ditch the past!
Get rid of all that you’ve amassed.
VHS tapes and cassettes,
Toys and trophies – no regrets!
Old TVs with bulging backs,
Books you’ve read (piled up in stacks);
Souvenirs from every tour,
Blinds and shades (passe décor).
Piggy banks and pocketbooks,
Earrings meant for younger looks,
Even bunkbeds not in use
Must be gone – there’s no excuse!
Go through closets, clear each shelf
Of former versions of yourself.
Time to bid these things goodbye;
Make it easy when you die.
The King’s headaches have grown
since he's ascended the throne
And wearing that Crown
has turned his smile to a frown
Marrying the Queen’s
led to scenes unforeseen
With his new relatives
who make it hell just to live
In that beautiful palace
So, wishing no malice
If I were the King
I’d ditch the darn Queen
Move 'cross the pond from the palace
~ Love, ‘Debbie does Dallas’
Because of a tiny glitch
Inside a wet south side ditch
A minuscule germ, Mitch
Had an incredible itch
His voice had an uphill pitch
With a lilt that was rich
His oldest friend named Fritz
Told me that Mitch was a ditz
Mitch and Fritz fixed up the ditch
It attracted a whacky witch
Whose sense of humor with a stitch
Delighted the deliriously decorated ditch
Ditch Mitch McConnell, I say,
Make room for new blood today!
He promotes a party schism,
Also, plain obstructionism.
A major fault, I can see,
Not a hoot for Kentucky.
We rank very low in stats,
Mitch tries to wear many hats.
What’s good for U.S. of A.,
Mitch quickly stands in the way.
written January 25, 2022
[Englyn poetry, a Welsh rhyming form, that
praises or criticizes sitting public officials.
Each line may consist of only seven syllables.]
Sub Categories
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.