Our Opossum Has a Strong Propensity for Crime
By Frank Daub
Discovered in a backyard nighttime check –
an opossum wandering behind our garden shed.
Pin-pointed face, squinting eyes.
It did not run -- to my surprise.
Only staring, lighted softly by the porchlight.
Little.
Sleek in a white-gray-tan-straight-fur-slicked-down way.
The streets around are not friendly to its kind.
This unfair truth made up my mind.
I should let the shed-bottom harbor it.
This would require: FEEDING.
I decided the feeding plan -- without data-based reference --
would be workable.
I tried every sort of natural vegetable.
Walnuts added when the berries nurtured
hordes of ants --
Not
the opossum.
The dietary effort proved it.
Our opossum has a strong propensity for crime.
Particular it is to nighttime
sneaking forays - for food of course.
(This assured the legality of it for me.)
Our opossum was not particular to dietary do’s and don’ts;
Being just inclined to FEEDING its necessary wants.
The animal had a penchant – not a preference --
an exceeding zest for anything edible.
Incredible.
Our life walks quietly across the surface of time leaving soft marks no memory dares to keep we touch the world but never fully stay like water resting briefly on open hands every breath carries a borrowed meaning every step repeats an ancient question what remains after the voice grows silent when the heart learns the weight of absence we live between beginning and return suspended in moments we cannot hold time watches us without judgment and the surface closes as if we were never there.
I must maintain I much prefer poems
which do amuse yet elucidate
with alliteration plus a fun pun
to enlighten and or educate
double meaning yes indeed
metaphorically speaking
a clever endeavour is all I need
for word-play tweaking
and no quibbling I refrain from reading
stream of consciousness scribbling
with neither rhyme nor reason
a smattering of words dribbling
altho' meaningless all the rage
scattering in wobbly lines
Pollock-like across the page
PREFERENCE
the succulence
on display
arrestingly
different
a
timeless
exactitude
alongside
luscious
beauties
concoctions
of symbolist n
abstractions
simplified lines
emptily idealised
yet
authentically
expressed
& depicted
if
somewhat
in absurdity
of
an exploration
of the sensual
in
the of
conscientious
to make
a startling
masterpiece
illustrating
&
portraying
a naive
fantasy
The yellow moonlight had gone out.
The moon beats quietly.
The stars have fallen on you.
arrived during the day.
The wind mumbled scattering the stars' dew.
Dust
The sky above is gleaming.
Desire is sent out, and love is infused with kindness.
The moon can make the night exciting, once more to you.
How cleverly the night is transformed into play.
Will you and I meet again?
Have you ever really, or is it just you?
The star sent out a message before falling
The beach is calling.
Sponsored by Brain Strand
Contest your Preference.
i prefer getting aged being wild
as prescribes my destiny in life
than young, to die child being mild
Value is personal all cultures through.
Check out the visitors seen in your zoo.
Younger kids love to pet the mama ewe
while teens want to watch baby snake’s debut.
I fancy museums, what about you?
Rate old Muslim mosques found in Timbuktu
with the bear claw necklaces of the Sioux.
Pondering preferences hitherto
contentious prejudice we can subdue.
November 2, 2022
Sponsor Hilo Poet
Contest Name MonoMixoRhyme
9 lines, 10 syllable each, 59 words
checked with HMS and RZ
Hedge
Nature won't be tamed
His hedge grows tall, needs cutting
My view is softened
5-7-5 syllables checked with howmanysyllables.com
25 June 2022
I prefer erraticity of being spirit
than integrality of being body
Thank you, but I feel better in blue.
Just hoping you like the view, too.
If you want to weep
in any of the rooms
of my empty heart,
Don’t worry
But feel free;
I know that the rooms
seem to be dreary,
Once you happen to be
in one of them,
they will be brightened up
and you will feel fairly happy
Buddhist view on aversion and desire,
cognises oscillations between them,
thereby sidestepping consequence dire,
nipping thorns and flowers, before they stem,
equal in dark and star of Bethlehem.
Cessation by negation, age old ways,
far cry from the tantric, who to joy sways,
dancing at all times in celebration,
imbibing within bliss, that always stays,
given to play, in vibrant elation.
One view accepts that what is, simply is,
thus centered in the void, without movement,
choice of non-action, exiting thought quiz,
heart equipoised in quiet contentment,
whilst the other infuses joy intent,
each breath inflow taken as divine grace,
burning yearning to see God face to face,
all acts performed, in aspect surrender,
seeking out the truth, at a burning pace,
whilst beholding Gods manifest wonder.
28-August-2021
Your Favorite August 2021 Poem contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
How would you like to be named 'Scratchy?'
~ Well, I'd prefer it to 'Latch-key'
What kind of rainbow fish would you like to have for dinner?
I do not like fish, I told grandma.
I did not ask if you like them.
Do you have a preference how they are served?
I do not want any of them. They are all horrible.
This one is wonderful, she assured me.
When he knocked on the door at eight
I was impressed with his bowler hat and his rainbow fins.
What is your gorgeous grandma fixing us? He asked.
I had a feeling it was not going to be fish.
Her Preference
by Michael R. Burch
Not for her the pale incandescence of dreams,
the warm glow of imagination,
the hushed whispers of possibility,
or frail, blossoming hope.
No, she prefers the anguish and screams
of bitter condemnation,
the hissing of hostility,
damnation's rope.
Published by Romantics Quarterly and Poetry Life & Times. Keywords: love, lover, lovers, relationship, relationships, anger, angst, bitterness, bittersweet love, negative, negativity, preference, dreams, imagination, possibility, hope, anguish, scream, screams, screaming, condemnation, hostility, damnation
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