Taking a walk,
On a lonely path,
It’s past the twilight clock,
The ambience is a panacea for sombre health.
I hear footsteps,
Turned around to see who followed,
No one, in the same way, took their steps,
Thought the sound was hallowed.
The footsteps went ahead,
They trailed faster
They were later not heard,
A cloaked impending disaster.
My racing heart alleviated,
I turned homeward,
The phantom being appeared,
A sabre-toothed beast soldiered.
October 14, 2022.
Rhymezone.com,
12 - 16 Lines of a Scary Halloween Rhyme Poetry Contest,
Tania Kitchin.
Outside of town, a cluster of circus folk
were clanging stakes into summer's ground.
It was a lively event:
with a sequined lion tamer
heavily muscled trapeze artists
the smell of cheap carnival food
and watered-down drinks.
A stuffed Sabre-toothed cat was paraded in a cage.
While a chimp blew kisses to bubble-popping music.
Clowns and sparkling ladies
manically smiling between everything...
I was sitting at home that night.
Thinking about the gentle gray giant.
Who'd given rides to children all night.
Without a break or complaint.
Slowly walking her tiny circle of misery,
Sadly, chewing away on something unseen.
After the performers took a victory lap...
I watched the elephant handler, fingering his cash.
Within the grand shadow of "Viola," his meal ticket...
Metal hook flashing from the loop in his pants.
I'd contributed a link to that thick chain
around Viola's gray pillar leg...
That was the last circus I would ever attend.
Stickleback
The stickleback had survived chilly
Spring and well into warm, moist
Summer.
His three spines keeping him safe
From even the glutton sabre toothed
Pike.
A chance in a million caught Him
In my childish net. He didn’t know
Statistics.
Thrashing and flopping to the gleeful
Chortles and chuckles of us little
Boys
He was slithered into my jam jar and
Marched triumphantly home in murky
Purgatory.
Slow death on the kitchen windowsill
Overtook him, cooking in the hot summer
Sun.
sabre toothed tiger
slithering just like a snake
with fur and four legs
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