Poetry Roundup – Early 2020

Prompt: Rubiginous (#vss365)

Have you seen
my electrons?
I could swear
I left them here…
or there…
or in this vague
proximity

I used to be
exquisite
when I had them
floating near
but now I’m
oxidised for
all to see


Prompt: Velleity (#vss365)

Did I tell you
of a boy—
let’s call him Henry—
who couldn’t quite
decouple from
his sheets?
“I’ll get up soon,”
he said,
a time
or
twenty
and that duvet
was
attached to him
for weeks


Prompt: Submontane (#vss365)

You humans conquer
higher peaks and claim
the climb is tough

While we who burrow
dig beneath—
but never deep enough

You strain and swear
and summit

While we
strain and swear…
until

if we hadn’t
started digging here
there wouldn’t be
a hill


Prompt: Periapt (#vss365)

Wear this in
my memory dear—
it’s fashioned from
the bone
that caught in
Uncle Reuben’s
throat
when Satan called
him home

My darling
don’t be sorry
for
he was the spawn
of Hell—
but wear it
and remember
we’re both
destined there
as well.


Prompt: Ingurgitate (#vss365)

She scoffed a saucerful
of worms
some spiders, and a frog —
that pixie preys on anything
that lingers near her log —

So children, for the love of Pan
stop playing by the bog.


Prompt: Benthos (#vss365)

It’s far too cold
but
plunge me into
your diffuse depths

let me sink
still shivering
until I brush
that veiled bottom
eyes
clenched closed
lungs lurch
skin alone
senses

I’ll stay
a second

and then

kick

kick

kick

my way back
to the
surface


Prompt: Ambrosia (#vss365)

“Well, what do you think?”

“It’s okay.”

“Okay? It’s the literal food of the Gods!”

“Call me a stickler, but I’d prefer the food of the chefs.”


Prompt: Sapid (#vss365)

I’ve carried the taste
since that bakery closed down
sweet nothings linger

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