A stamp retreating to a corner
Travels round the world
Without boundary
No political
Colourless
Timeless
With wavy emotion of the lovers
With startling surprise of the children
With overwhelmed joy of the parents
And now with the humbleness of me
Who is one of his owner
god's bit to poetize
airborne raindrops deflect sun rays, rainbow emerges
swift surprise!
heavens in trance
human spirit dispossesses
joy dance!!
moonstruck
time infringes
luck!!!
god's bit to poetize
human spirit dispossesses
luck!!!
New Born
By Frank Daub
Putting up the wash – Again
one wooden clothes pin gripped
tightly
in her lips. On toe-tips; blonde hair wind-whipped
dangling in her eyes.
The sun an apricot surprise
on the back of her legs.
All busy hanging clothes
and
Watching in the yard to see the baby lulling in the doze
Of May.
My perennial loving Guard.
aging startles in small ways~
a soft turning of the heart,
a sudden shimmer of truth
I didn’t know
I was ready for.
You may read the companion personal narrative piece at: poetrysoup.com/short_stories/surprise_13936
Torrential rain crashed upon us.
We laughed though our picnic was ruined.
Surprises make the best memories.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026, Honorable Mention 2026
Chet is in for an enormous surprise
Serves him right for fishing at sunrise
Underneath his boat called the Lucky Loo
There is an enormous alligator named Lovely Coo
Lovely Coo has been waiting for a corpulent snack
A stag would have been fine with an enormous rack
But here is this man, with a tummy so thick
He is going to flip his boat and gobble him up quick
When I was a child, every holiday was a surprise
teachers had us designing jack-o-lanterns and cutting out ghosts
this is how I had an inkling Halloween was afoot
It seemed like we were tracing our fingers to make turkeys the next week
Christmas was thrown at us by the music teacher.
We did not have an art teacher back in the day
our teacher was our art teacher
There was no winter program
there was a Christmas program
No one had ever heard the term politically correct
As an adult I can finally predict when the holidays are arriving
They come fast and furiously every year, like tornadoes and windstorms
AVIAN RAINDROPS
Birds flew overhead,
Leaving wet droplets falling;
But they were not rain:-
my date was a surprise, a cat fish special for sure
He looked like GQ Magazine, but smelled like manure
He was carrying grain as if it was a present for me
I feigned sickness, and stayed home to drink apple tea
IRIS
Little Jane ran to Mike
Joyfully jumping and hugging
Mike elated after long trip
Jane points to calm Iris
Linda, sweet Iris so listless,
Our sweet birdie not talking,
Over a week, Linda said teary eyes.
No singing, no wise crack, no mimic.
Mike held parrot with heavy heart.
Doctors after doctors node their head,
Final answer bulbar A L S
Came as stone on head.
Linda screamed why god why ?
Ohhhh... did you really just do that?
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
My cat Mimi, cunning and so wise,
Will wait quiet, then bounce by surprise
Make a rat its prey
Hold it in its sway
With it to play in triumphant guise.
You'll never guess what I just did
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
I found a shoebox stored away
under my young son’s bed one day.
It hadn’t been there two evenings ago.
What could it be? I needed to know,
for in its lid - small holes he had made.
Its contents I felt prompted to invade.
At two lidless eyes I felt myself gape.
A tiny lizard scrambled to escape.
Oh, shoe box, what you hold makes happy feet,
though shoes are kept inside for just a while.
So, what happens then?
Are you thrown away?
Seems most times you are kept for further use,
being the right size, saving special things
to be found some day-
holding memories?
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