Petrichor is a complete vernal scent,
an ache so feral it’s filled with lightning.
Waiting for new plans to make a descent
the past seems to leave the future biting.
Plans slowly unfurl and then start to run,
a hit to the soul spiking bone marrow.
With no need to outsource to anyone,
you’re in control of your own tomorrow.
That urge to defenestrate the outgrown,
when you impel it’s a breath of fresh air.
Nervously investing in the unknown
feels a bit like that initial jump scare.
Choking on such cloying efflorescence
vestige broke in exposing my pretense.
as Chairman Fauch Xi smugly took the stand
the giant red panda nervously clapped
his responses were briefer
than was Adam's tiny fig leaf
a 5th of silence can be a snake in the grass.
have watched.
I have waited.
I have tended to my garden.
all in preparation
for my knight's imminent arrival.
I really thought
you'd be the one
to sail the seven seas;
to climb the tallest mountains;
to hike your way to me.
I see you now upon your high horse;
it toes the ground nervously.
you gaze into the horizon -
even way up here,
it reaches me.
I gaze back.
you assess the final threshold,
the No Man's Land between us:
you look at all the skeletons
of those fallen and failed from before you.
these sacred lands you now walk,
my knight,
weren't always so trodden,
so bloody.
but you didn't seem to mind.
not when it was only us standing -
you were tender,
you were kind.
and yet,
after all that,
i push myself to stand -
i will not look away -
i watch as you turn,
i watch as you leave...
now there's nothing left to say.
Nervously I wonder if
I’m better than what’s passed–
Surely thou must think so now,
At least while thou shalt last.
And though my standards be quite high,
(Considering my art not vast),
The tests I’ve conjured–fast and strict–
Save but one–you’ve passed.
With strangers whom thou mingled be,
Doth thou reminisce?
And when thou art holding me,
Yet are they still missed?
Couldst thou be a honey bee,
Which passes with one sting,
Or rather likened shouldst thou be
To resilient wasps on wing?
And even if thou be’st that wasp,
As kindly as thou seem,
Thou sting’st as a naughty knave,
And made those two girls scream.
Passed around you sadly seem
To this girl who’s firm and chaste;
But if thou can prove’st to me
You’re wiser now–steadfast–
I’d look past your transgressions
And look not to the past.
Rumple Stein tapped his cane
on the dusty floorboards,
gathering the children in the
mansion's dark parlor.
"Long ago, this very house
belonged to a hunchback
goblin named Quasimodo, "he
whispered, pointing up.
"He had ears like a bat, feet
like a duck, and a crooked
back shaped like a giant
potato."
The grandfather clock
chimed midnight, its heavy
ticks matching the rhythm of
the children's racing hearts.
Quasimodo didn't want to hurt
anyone, Rumple Stein grinned,
he just hated people making loud
noises.
Suddenly, a loud, scraping
THUD- THUD- THUD echoed right
above their heads from the
dark attic stairs.
When the kids don't clean their
rooms, he stalks through the
halls and hides their favorite
toys!
The children gasped, looking
nervously at the dark corners
of the room as the curtains
rustled.
"He is watching right now,
waiting to see who leaves
their shoes on the floor
tonight."
Rumple Stein chuckled softly,
closed his book, and said,
"Now go clean up before
Quasimodo finds you."
EVIDENT AFFECTIONS
espousing
essentials
anticipating
closeness
nervously
disturbed
unambiguously
declared
impetuous
actions
distinct
communications
capable
of
innocent
mutual
interpretation
The maidens howled, “What if Jesus was hung?”
then nervously laughed and blushed as they blasphemed.
“Then,” said one, “Christ can lick me with His tongue,
and burst my cherry till it's nicely creamed!”
Such exchange took place when I was a boy,
as two maids spoke of the Lord's holy cock,
thus contemplating on that sacred “joy,”
whether it was ever hard as a rock.
But He can resurrect women's desires,
for who knows them better than their own God:
He knows them from head to toe, and inspires
in them a passion only bards can laud.
And I, a swan, sing that Christ's divine pizzle
can make maid's maidenheads delight and sizzle!
The Drunk Shy Small Jack-o'–lantern and the Fat Rat
The Drunk Shy Small Jack-o'–lantern woke up
in the toilet bowl
that really needed a clean up.
It smelt like a troll.
She heard a HIIIIIIIISS, and nervously looked up
at a Fat Rat slyly grinning.
She asked, ‘W-w-w-what’s u-u-up?’
The Fat Rat laughed wickedly.
Then he pressed FLUSH.
With great slush
the orange, soft, and
slashed Jack-o'–lantern went down, round and round out of sight.
In a hollow echo she said, 'Oh the fright!'
She uncomfortably spent Halloween night
stuck in the thick horizontal soil pipe Mr Dwight.
There she was stuck with a talkative spider mite!
Drifting over field and fence,
Cautious, as gently falling snow,
Settling quietly on the frozen lawn,
Eyes blue, like Southern Atlantic ice,
We watched you watching us,
Giving you needed time,
And, in time, you approached,
Slowly, nervously drawing near,
Slender, almost frail, hungry,
Perhaps, just in need of a friend,
Silent, emotionless, resilient,
Battle scarred and war torn
We reached out our hands,
You laid down your shield,
We provided shelter,
We gave you hope, faith
At my yearly review, she hands me a recap of my performance.
After a year of working weekends
overtime on short notice-
going the x-tra yard
taking on x-tra projects
dodging H.R (for the most part).
I would be getting .73 cents an hour raise.
My face must've turned gargoyle
because the newbie supervisor
lowered her eyes and apologized.
Nervously adding that she had no hand in determining raises.
Her pimply head nodding toward the ceiling....
Implying the flaccid raise was concocted by the ones upstairs...
Where underworked blonde birds and plump business casual lived.
23 years of work .73 cents an hour raise...
The vending machine on the first floor has candy bars for a buck twenty-five.
I think I'll go celebrate
yeeha.
Bus stop at rush hour.
A sparrow nervously paces to and fro.
Strangers doing much the same.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
All England, blinking nervously, is out!
A little mild spell, much to our surprise,
has brightened frowsy February skies.
We sniff the air with nostrils schooled in doubt.
Baffled by balm, the fruit trees have misfired.
Like foolish virgins, hurrying on their scarves,
They've pushed out blooms half-petaled and half-starved.
The coming frosts will slice them like cheese-wire.
And I have loved you far too eagerly.
My half-cocked hopes have withered on the bough.
I should have doled my sweets more meagerly -
then, had I granted space, and time, and light,
your hobbled feelings might have taken flight,
in any time or place - but England. Now.
“Perhaps,” he asked her nervously,
“There’s a movie you would like to see.”
She smiled at him and answered, “Yes,
There is this week, how did you guess?”
“Perhaps I’m psychic,” he replied.
“Shall I pick you up or meet inside?”
“Ah,” she said, “I have a confession.
Perhaps I gave the wrong impression.
I want to see the film, it’s true,
But there’s no way I would go with you!”
DARK EYES, FAIR GOLDEN HAIR,
I saw her shyly standing there.
Ignored by all around,
Bewildered by the disco’s sound.
LIKE ME, NOT OUR PLEASURE.
Quieter ways to spend our leisure.
Nervously caught her eye
And then got talking by and by.
CHAT DELIGHT, EACH FELT GOOD,
Exactly as I’d known we would.
Talked non-stop until late
And pencilled in another date.
JUST KNEW; LONG MARRIED NOW,
Always meant to be somehow.
Gold hair I saw that night,
Just as beautiful now it’s white.
Our first date will be a night
That will forever be in my mind
A date arranged by our friends
With hopes love we would find
Not knowing what to expect
Or how the other one would be
Nervously we started our date
The joy it brought shocked me
This blind date we had gone on
Quickly turned into much more
I was always thinking about you
You were the one I had fallen for
Slowly our lives blended together
Until they had been turned into one
With the proposal now in the past
The wedding needed to be done
Now standing up here at the altar
Nervous again as I wait for you
To come stand up here with me
So we can both say that we do
Now we begin this new journey
Down a path we’ve never seen
We hope it will lead us to forever
If we make the journey in between
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