oval shaped
floating on a string
tied around a smiling child's wrist
powered by gas
floating across the world
until the sandbags drop
Hiku Contest
Sponsored by William Kekaula
11/19/2021
Categories:
oddities, image,
Form: Haiku
Often, oddities do prevail;
Certainties dim, making life pale.
As good as beauty, flits like a breeze,
While oddities come with unassuming ease.
What finery the world has craved,
In ages past, as time has waved.
And to speak of oddities, we find:
The slime, the ooze, the unsightly kind.
The ugly, the charred, the jagged and torn,
The mangled, the putrid, and all things worn.
The repugnant, unwanted, the frail we see—
All undesirables: disease, hunger, and glee.
There's always a flaw, it seems to be true,
Yet beauty's in flaws, as we all pursue.
Yet we love to witness where oddities fail,
Conspiring to shatter our cherished old tales.
Whether luck or a miracle shows up to play,
It all depends on the thoughts of the day.
We've never cared less, yet they still abound,
Like mosquitoes that buzz, they’re always around.
No matter the wisdom, nor plans we devise,
Oddities linger, like shadows that rise.
What starts out sweet often ends up in strife,
And what begins bitter may blossom in life.
Oh, the wisdom perhaps in embracing our fate,
In the dalliance with oddities, we learn to mitigate.
Categories:
oddities, humanity, imagery, introspection, people,
Form: Rhyme
Allow me the privilege of stopping to stare—
At a pretty young girl with bright purple hair.
Or, that buxom maiden who has quite a pair
The one wearing no bra, standing over there.
A brash young fellow with cap turned around
Britches pulled down--almost to the ground.
A grossly fat dude tattooed head down to toe
With a breath-takingly beautiful lady in tow.
I stopped to help this homeless man in need
He suddenly offered me a toke on his weed.
“Music” from the car in the next lane is blaring
I am holding my ears, but I cannot stop staring.
The exhaust of a motorcycle deafening loud
I suppose it makes the hog’s owner feel proud.
A man wearing a pigtail reaching to his butt
In our local grocery a woman carrying a mutt.
An aged woman riding on a three-wheel tricycle
Juggling from hand to hand a half-eaten popsicle.
Things are normal, quite ordinary, as you can see
Nothing wrong with anybody – I guess it’s me!
FOURTH PLACE WINNER
written July 23, 2021
for "An Interesting Couplet" poetry contest
sponsored by Funom Makama
Categories:
oddities, humorous, perspective,
Form: Couplet
On occasion, I have,
Obsessed over weird things.
Odd and unique doodads.
Old or new will do too.
Orange, purple, red, blue,
Objects are welcome; an
Oasis for strange stuff.
Contest:Pleiades O’s
Sponsor:Kim Merryman
04/3/2021
Categories:
oddities, beauty, old,
Form: Verse
Sea Lions are funny creatures
I think they are mammals
They have flippers for feet
Not humps like lots of camels
Wouldn't it be funny
A funny sort of weird
If a walrus had a football
And a bunny had a beard
It gets even crazier
The more I start to think
If a monkey smelt like a skunk
And a skunk looked like a skink
The Zebra gave his stripes away
Sold them to a horse
If you looked for that Zebra today
You'd find him racing around a course
I think all the animals
In forests or zoos
Should stay exactly as they are
Not be silly and try to choose
Another animal's personality
Or indeed their looks
It would cause confusion
To authors who write books
Categories:
oddities, 1st grade,
Form: Rhyme
The forlorn love, torn from a lonely heart
Growing weary, vowing in infatuation to play no part
In home hostility and usurped utility
Scorned and shorn of humility
In matters too sad to contemplate
Fills cavities and oddities on her plate
Teeming with a chequered record
Knows neither peace nor accord
Tears snippets from a love landscape
Demoted and rooted in an escape
From commitment and appointment
With stability in a relationship ointment
That weaves eaves of care
With leaves daring to pare
Indifference from a couple
Metamorphosed into a tequila tipple.
Categories:
oddities, poems,
Form: Free verse
In the midst of evergreens,
The deciduous counts the days to spring;
Perhaps it has forgotten,
Desolation has its own attraction.
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Date: 10 / 11 / 2016
Categories:
oddities, appreciation, philosophy, spring, winter,
Form: Verse
Lazy wind rests in the branches
Of an artificial tree
Swings there like
The dead limbs
Of make belief
The lines I write
Knock at your door
Cower just in case
Appear, as if they
Walked there
Barefooted and topless
My luck has gone to sleep
Along with the fish
I am trying to angle
Categories:
oddities, analogy, art, nonsense,
Form: Free verse
Fried chicken fingers, buffalo wings,
Chicken Little stared up at the sky.
One-eyed, one-horned, eating purple people,
Aren’t we glad that cows don’t fly?
Mother may I, hide ’n’ go seek;
A green light! Go, dog, go!
The owl and the kittycat went to sea
With the pretty maids all in a row.
French-fried frog legs minus the frog;
Miss Piggy likes frog legs, too.
Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam
With cows jumping over the moon.
Little green men from outer space,
Wee leprechaun’s pot of gold prize.
Why did the chicken cross over the bridge?
Who waits on the other side?
Little Jack Horner sat in his corner,
Eating a buffalo wing snack.
The Knave of Hearts stole all of the tarts
(They’re stashed in the house built by Jack).
Hey diddle diddle, ask me a riddle,
Then give me the answer, do!
If chickens have fingers then buffalo fly
But monkeys belong in the zoo.
Categories:
oddities, children, funny, imagination, me,
Form: Rhyme