Plain Jane Mrs. Poindexter Perry
Questioned quipster with a quarrelsome query
riling him up, down, on top and around
sappy sarcasm certainly not very sound
tearjerking interrogation turning treacherous
uncontrite interview unequivocally uncourteous
Categories:
riling, word play,
Form: ABC
dilly dallying danny deliberately defies
daughter dinahs deliberations
denise does donuts during danny’s debate
roaring, rearing, ready rusty ruminations
rarely recognizable, really riling up dinah’s
dander.
Categories:
riling, word play,
Form: Alliteration
You have to come see for yourself! The hoe said to the rake.
The rake yawned, uninterested.
The hoe was always riling people up for no reason.
Seriously! The hoe said. You must come see what the garden grew.
The rake knew what the garden grew.
He had seen the carrots, radishes, and green beans.
He had seen the marigolds, lilies, and petunias.
“Baby cabbage?” He guessed. The hoe laughed.
When they arrived at the garden the rake was stunned.
He had never seen a garden grow a girl before.
And she was lovely.
“Come see what the garden grew!” he yelled to the clippers.
Categories:
riling, garden,
Form: Personification
As time passes by, people pass through
In all walks of life and ways of behaving
Most are congenial, but I’ve noticed a few
Who, apparently, have an inane craving
For causing a ruckus whenever they can
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why
They enjoy riling, and getting out of hand
But, I am thankful they’re in short supply.
Their type explain why we always have war
[Oh, on a much smaller scale, to be sure]
These people who have a burr up their a***
And want to spread around their manure.
They seem invested in getting their way
Always expressing a different point of view
Being confrontive and oppositional, I’d say,
It appears they have nothing better to do.
I appreciate many diverse ways of thinking
Knowing my opinion isn’t always the best,
But when I discover my attitude is stinking
I try to back off, giving the situation a rest.
Written August 16, 2022
[***the British pronounciation
rhymes, well almost!]
Categories:
riling, conflict, people, perspective,
Form: Quatrain
We play share your stories on Zoom and GoogleMeet.
They have terrific stories, and their siblings are bouncing in the background.
We see paper airplanes fly through the air; their videos are exciting!
It is so much fun to be able to see our grandchildren in this way.
Sure Mom and Dad forget they are on there. They are busy, not seeing.
Telling their children to settle down, while I am riling them up, getting them goofy.
It is not the same, but it is something. We play chess sometimes.
We both have a board. We have to pay close attention; it is fun.
Sometimes we play “I spy with my little eye”. This is a challenge for sure.
Luckily they have a movable camera, so they can move it around.
Pretending they are helping us find “it” when they are actually not showing it to us.
Zoom, Skype, GoogleMeet, FaceTime. Thank you technology for saving us!
Categories:
riling, computer,
Form: Prose Poetry
My back is aching but I can lift this. There is only one more giant box.
My muscles are tense, my neck is screaming.
My body groans, wanting to give up.
Why don’t we disappear and let someone else do this?
Voice of stupidity whispers.
It is time for a sane person’s nap,
but I am determined to punish my muscles.
Angry at them for getting saggy, baggy, noncompliant,
but most of all for not being young.
In a horrible mood now, I run around shrieking at others,
riling up the troops.
Baring my teeth, showing them the remnants of my emotional lobotomy.
Angry at everyone else for what I have done to myself.
Angry at everyone else for my negative self-talk.
Everything hurts now. Every single muscle, joint, and hair follicle.
I have bruised and bashed myself, but most of all, I am …..
Angry at the world for allowing me to get old.
Categories:
riling, anger, sorrow,
Form: Free verse
Media is killing us, dividing us not so softly.
If we turned off the TVs and the social media,
Could we go back to picnics in the park?
Block parties? Remembering how much we love our neighbors.
We want to be united, but some of us have forgotten how
How to compromise, how to stop insisting on our own way,
How to be selfless, and giving, and focus on each other’s assets.
We need to remember to be kind and loving and appreciative of diversity.
Media needs to stop riling us up, using our emotions.
Sure, some want to be incited, but not all of us do.
Some of us just want to have a family meal without strife.
To hug our brothers and cousins, and remember the good times.
We want to go back to the America we grew up believing in.
We want to say The Pledge of Allegiance, and mean it.
We want to regain each other’s trust and love. We want to be united.
Let’s turn off those TVs and the social media sites, and learn to live again.
Categories:
riling, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form: Verse
the cool of the day
the cockcrow brings chirping, hooting
riling up the heat
6/11/2020
Categories:
riling, morning, summer,
Form: Haiku
Goldfish drama
pitching sassy fit
moved to solitary confinement
as punishment
Inmates in water block laughed
Riling up new arrivals
Fish who will meet a similar fate
By morning
Goldfish drama
Aquarium guard sighs
Feeling sorry for newbies
Glad they cannot drop soap
Bullying goldfish
Running the A block
Chasing away softies
Or making them into slaves
Goldfish misunderstanding
Kept in impossibly tight bowl
Solitary confinement
Not realizing the benefits
Contest: GIF With Your Best Anything
Sponsor: Wiliam Kekaula
Used GIF number 3
Categories:
riling, animal,
Form: Free verse
STOP
Barking.
The dogs are barking again.
It happens every night about the same time.
I think that is the exact hour, the man comes home…
from the bar.
He lost his job, because of drink.
He lost his job, because of drugs.
He lost his job, because of “fill in the excuse.”
He lost sight of what was important.
He cheated and he no longer cared.
In the morning, early… always…
At the crack of dawn!
His wife will come out with a cup of water.
It probably has ice in it.
The man is always mad, but moves to slow.
If it were not him last night and the night before,
riling up the dogs, and causing chaos?
Then, I should be worried.
Yet I am not. I am safe.
I have already done battle…
with this evil.
I should be concerned anyway.
I should take notice of my neighbor.
I should tell his wife I have seen the black eye,
I am aware of the fights…
if she is afraid…
is she afraid?
The dogs stopped barking.
It has been three days.
The man has a new job?
The woman left.
No one was there to pick up the call.
The officer left a message.
Categories:
riling, abortion, abuse, addiction, america,
Form: Narrative
Cackling old hens posing as journalists-
thinking themselves angles of light,
lay poisonous eggs filled with lies
and gestating hate-
riling against common sense,
and the rooster crows at noon.
Idiots, entrusted with government
destroy our country and way of life-
while the majority just watch
as the little foxes spoil the grapes-
and the rooster crows at noon.
Tax payers labor in the fields
and are penalized for success-
while pompous boars in congress,
slopping at the public trough,
grow fatter on vile swill-
and the rooster crows at noon.
Cats play games with mice
then kill for fun-
our youth play violent
videogames-
and the rooster crows at noon.
Categories:
riling, allegory,
Form: Political Verse
There are many things Trump did hide;
Committing crime and collusion denied;
Was headstrong,
Doing things wrong,
While he would open his mouth up wide.
Jim Horn
Stone was fool found fanning the flames;
Riling up things while saying bad names,
Behind cross hairs,
People he scares,
On a computer playing grotesque games.
Jim Horn
Death is determined by rate of morbidity;
That did seem to depend upon stupidity;
Then had waited;
Discombobulated
And no one found or viewed the validity.
Jim Horn
Categories:
riling, allegory, analogy,
Form: I do not know?
I had given her
A fly’s spit,
In my season of plenty,
As if I had not known,
As if,
It had not been revealed to me
Before hand;
Time enough to wash away
Any flash of doubt,
And just how doubt
Had ruled my conscience then
Kept riling my psyche then,
Then redeemed to the
Sanity of real love,
I beheld her each day
As she tore herself apart to care for me,
She was not trying
To prove anything,
If anything,
She had always been the one,
I was not going to be stupid again,
For her I was not.
Categories:
riling, love,
Form: Ballad
A storm is brewing
Like a raging waves
As though it is hitting
The wind is echoing
Like a ferocious ox
A storm is brewing
As if a kid is revolting
Like he is a ravenous
As though he is hitting
But, alas, one is baffling
On a certain instance
A storm is brewing
She is fond of eating
Her favorite heavy meals
As though she is hitting
Her dietitian is riling
Despite her constant advice
A storm is brewing
As though she is hitting
04/21/16
Categories:
riling, storm, strength,
Form: Villanelle
Petals that fall,
The subtle black that swoons.
The brief streams of pale light.
Little things, with hidden wings.
That sing short things about rhyming rings.
These things that like rings, with wings.
It’s your eyes and ears they do sting.
It’s your heart they do prick for sinning.
Certainly it’s not you that is winning.
The horrid thought that comes with pining.
The wretched hatred for dining.
The sully state of the mellowing.
The gully in its riling.
The cord raining tightly, shallowing.
Feet swinging gently, dangling.
Hairpin turns careening.
Race horses galloping.
Crowds screaming.
From all of these, what is the gleaning?
Certainly it is not the singing…
There they scream, little things with wings shining.
“Come back!” they cry.
Can you really hear them though?
Do they still call if you shut them out?
Can’t you hear how they exhaust themselves?
How exhausted they must be,
To try to keep you doing right.
What do they do?
How do they do?
Why do they do?
Categories:
riling, moon, night,
Form: Prose
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