Billionaires live in a rat hole
And hoard funds for their barren soul
Their burrows and blight
Are nests out of sight
Where pest control's just whack-a-mole
The rich bribe the prez with cash nuts
And praise Trumpenstein's rodent guts!
Those privileged imbibe
Tax cuts for their tribe
While we'll eat what's dropped from their butts
My main goal in 2022 was to clean out my enormous bedroom mess.
There is a stack of boxes beside my bed which is now under a pile of stuff.
Pieces of a variety of things stick out their tongues and irritate me.
In September I said, “I will get this cleaned up and out by October.”
In October I had a thousand other things to do for cleaning is not fun.
This pile has extended out into the pathway to my bed. I am slipping now.
I will clean this rat hole up during Thanksgiving break I promised myself.
Cooking did not get done either. Husband and I both had the flu.
At least I have fifteen days off for winter break, I reassured myself.
Agreeing to sort for one hour a day. That lasted all of eighteen minutes.
This is 2023. Today I slid on the pile, because it is monstrous now.
Maybe next year, I tell myself. Not in the cleaning mood once again.
In an old house there once lived a black cat
From half a mile she could smell a fat rat
She was too lazy to run
Liked to spend time in the sun
Lounging on worn out red and white frayed mat.
One day when she did not find her food bowl
She had no doubt it was the rat that stole
Her stomach began to burn
She saw the rat on the run
Chasing it her head got stuck in its hole.
_____________
November 26, 2022
Syllable count : 10 10 7 7 10 (HMS)
Contest : Children's Limericks
Sponsored by : Eve Roper
A fat cat lived in a house on the mound
From a mile she could smell the brat rat around
She was too lazy to run about and hound
Spent time lying on frayed mat on the ground.
One day when in her bowl food wasn’t found
The sly rat stole it she knew and frowned
In empty stomach chased the culprit to pound
But her head got stuck in the rat hole round.
____________________
April 25, 2022
Contest : Nursery Rhyme 3
Sponsored by : Eve Roper
In the old house there once lived a fat cat
From half a mile she could smell a brat rat
She was too lazy to run about and play
Spent time lying on worn out mat gray.
One day she didn’t find food in the bowl
She was sure it was the sly rat that stole
Chased the culprit in empty stomach
In round rat hole her head got stuck.
March 13, 2021
Contest : Nursery Rhyme 2
Sponsor : Eve Roper
I heard your voice first
while you were sitting behind me
on the second row in grade nine class
The moment I saw you first,
I felt a volcano booming, inside me
I heard you criticize my school,
comparing it with your previous one
and to escape from your grunt
I locked my earlobes.
I told your sister I love my Mom, my School ......
Next day, I saw you alone,
alone – at my Grand Mom’s house
I saw you hide like a mouse……….
a frightened mouse, in a dirty rat hole ….
I still remember what happened
I was in grade nine
We stood with daggers in arms,
and you splattered my white-washed
school walls with a mud-fire
We hated each other as crow and cuckoo do
or cobra and mongoose do,
but our mates stared with mouths agape
at the rising … scarlet castle of love…
in our fiercely fighting battle ground
I dreamed one day a nightmare:
My prince fell dead in the battle front……
I could do nothing………
I dreamed of marrying my first love,
but it remains a living, breathing dream.…
Dec. 5, 2020
Catharsis Poetry Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Silent One
In an old house by the hedge on the cold ledge of the hill
A slim dainty lady of seventy had prime time plenty to kill
Sitting on shaky chair heavy watching TV by the fire place
Had no inkling her adoring things were being chewed up
Two animals were true criminals but she didn’t ever care
A black cat and a grey rat, for ages they were there with her
The lazy cat sat on the cozy mat on doorway the whole day
the fat rat did acrobat to play about the stray tail of the cat.
Once the cat lay flat by the gate taking day’s late slumber
The rat a sly brat bit her plump tail as if it was cucumber
The irate cat knew that the time for new combat had come
She just had to go fast and get at the rogue rat at any rate
As tit for tat tactic the whiny cat jumped swiftly at the enemy
But the rat was smart to dart into murky hole the cat could see
Chase failed, the cat ranted, place she hunted to grab the rat
shoved her head whole in the hole, got stuck, eyes didn’t bat.
March 18, 2019
In the old house there once lived a fat cat
From half a mile she could smell a wet rat
She was too lazy to run
Spent her time under the sun
Lying on worn out black and white old mat.
One day when she did not find her food bowl
She was sure it was the sly rat that stole
Her stomach started to burn
She saw the rat on the run
Chased it blind, her head got stuck in the hole.
August 11, 2018
Syllable count : 10-10-7-7-10
(Checked on howmanysyllables.com)
OGUNLABI OLAJIDE YUSUF-NativePen 004
PRISON WALL
TIME OF THOUGHT:3:00PM
DATE OF THOUGHT:24:12:2008
Tall wall surround me
Several attempt seems impossible
It’s just too tall to climb
Ever pointed gun at the walls
By the men in uniform
Oh all eyes on me
Oh when will I see the walls behind
I have spent my days dreaming
None of these in the least
Oh sweet home I crave for
When will I have it back?
The God given choice of life
Nothing is more parampount to it
My thought is always of home.
Uniform all through days
My voice comes from no where
But behind a shut iron door with its wall like the tower of babel
My sunlight for each day strugles through a rat hole window
Yet i now cherished the beauties of the night
While I now see it faintly
Oh freedom my thirst
If possible
I would turne the hand of the seasons
For I know the days is fast approaching
The day I will step into the buzzling world
The real world
No matter my offence
I will one day go a free man.
I know a king is about to reign
I shall obtain His favour
And I shall be freed.
The dark dinginess of the room
And its odoriferousness;
Obviously, it wasn’t broomed
In an age, the place was a mess.
The odor was suffocating
And it needed ventilation.
Unfit for a human being
and beyond my expectation.
“One lives in this filthy rat hole?
God! It’s an insult to a rat.
The center for disease control
wouldn’t enter this place.” She sat
alone, half naked from the waist
up on an overstuffed green chair
that’s when I got to see her face
and was totally unprepared.
“Umm! Madam, you ordered Chinese?
I rang the bell at least three times
and…” never mind that…sit down please!’
“Sit?” I asked. “I can’t. Its noontime
And I have four more deliveries
To make; perhaps some other time”,
I lied. Damn! I hate telling lies
But exiting called for a line
Regardless how outlandish.
I needed to buy extra time
to escape this kettle of fish.
“Madam that will be six dollars”
‘Six dollars, don’t you want a tip?’
“Yes!” trying to avoid her stare.
“I’ll come back after my last trip.”
She handed me the six. ‘See you!’
Then I hurried out the door, “Phew!”
I sit and sweat,
My pain does swell,
I'm living in
this unholy hell...
Time drags,
Like my lamed foot,
that twists and turns with glee,
The pain so much unendurable
Has got the best of me
The silence
of the empty wallet
The silence
of the grave
It's been me that I have lost,
No longer am I brave..
Living in this rat-hole,
is like living in a cave.
Give me all that you want for yourself,
I seemed to say it to all and all times,
they seemed to say about the same to me,
where do we go from here,
Is it really a zero sum game,
Land is there enough for all,
If I have ahouse villa mile long,
and you have a rat hole,
probably not,
water is it again there for all,
some bathe in champagne,
and others in mosquito larvae infested drains,
there seems to be shortage,
some breathe green touched air freeing flow,
others take in a mix from adozen chimneys and factories,
same holds for all that we created,
against the price tags,
we all seem to hanker for more,
what is that link,
which glues us to matter,
so that nothing comes latter,
I am confused,
its allright somethings I want,
and you do not,
but most fundamentally we are competititors,
is there no way out,
for robust communal coexistence,
find a way,
and let me know,
because then I wanna let everyone know.
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