Thursday, May 01, 2014

NaPoWriMo Day 30: Balloons and Balloons

Inspired by the amazing Jennifer Liston and her wonderful 'Mrs. Noah' poem, and the Mary Poppins story of the Balloon Woman with her 'Balloons AND balloons, my dearie ducks!'

Three months and dithering
Verklempt, unsure
She gave in finally.
Walked to the store, money in hand
Bought that damned book
The one with the detective (she hated the dames)
The one she identified with so much
She wished they could have dinner.
Talk all night. Dance all night.
If wishes were horses – but she didn’t ride
And she’d fallen off the one time she did.
She went to the park. She felt it was calling her.
Breezes, sun, perfect lazy weather
And there at the entrance was a Balloon Woman.
“Balloons and balloons, my dearie ducks!” she cried.
“There’s a balloon for everyone
If you only take your time!”
What the hell, she thought, it’s only fifty cents.
So she paid, and took her time
And picked a balloon, scarlet as the bright stripe
On her defiantly undercut hair.
To her surprise, initials appeared like magic
On the balloon’s spherical surface –
Beautifully calligraphed, an O and a C.
“…Those aren’t my initials!” she exclaimed.
“They’re mine though,” said a voice beside her.
Startled, she turned, and right there was The Detective
(She recognised him at once, she knew his description so well.)
“Maybe this is yours?” he asked, and handed her
A deep blue balloon that looked like velvet and stars
And sure enough, her initials.
“Thank you,” she stammered, and handed over his balloon.
“They say if you wish hard enough, you can fly,” he murmured.
She looked at him. At the balloon. Then back at him again.
“Let’s go flying,” she said, with a smile like sparkling lemonade.
And the Balloon Woman watched with a satisfied dimple
As they held hands and swooped into the air
Balloons flying joyously like flags –
The Detective, in his dapper suit
And the Dame, in her tank top and old blue jeans
Laughing and talking, light as dandelions
On the good spring breeze.

NaPoWriMo Day 29: Portrait

Prompt: Incorporating Twenty Little Poetry Projects into one poem


Gimlet eyes, focused like a smoking gun
The candy-corn stripe of her sinuous upper lip
Trembled in the dark like a Cheshire cat smile
The air tastes butter-warm in cold mouths
Her scent is that of old bones and talc
Charged with electricity:
Musty, dangerous, a tangible prickle
Over my skin
Hell Helle Hellebore
It’s noon in Paris, the ticking minutes
Reflected in her metronome gaze

She drifts by, scentless, silent
The lilacs bloom in Central Park today
Clustered like grapes on the vine
Overripe, sweet perfume like sticky juice
Dripping over nose and mouth
A finif will get you a bet going nowhere fast:
Hell is her name, therefore, hellion
Yo buska ku bos teng kantu sen
Ke faze fabor
The reticulate shadow of seduction
Is a gauze curtain veiling a mystery
A verdant tree sending roots deep
Insidiously breaking up foundations and ground
A weed in an oasis of plenty
She walks on air, and her wings unfurl
Black as steel, sharp as words
As she steps into the night towards the moon

The Dame is a flower at evensong
She shall unfurl her petals like a skein of silk
Watching as knights and errants war in times soon to be
For the favour of a dropped pearl-smile
The stars are her heartbeat, tu l’as vu? Mais oui!
The gun in well-oiled silence
Settles with a wordless purr
Into the cradle of her warm, warm hand
In her hair a rose blooms like a blood drop
Scarlet as the painted mouths of the dead
Their old bones shrouded in lace
And the scent of old women’s talc.

NaProWiMo Day 28: Archie Goodwin

“Will she report what she told me?”
“No.”
A corner of his mouth twitched. “That’s why I put up with you; you could have answered with fifty words and you did it with one.”
“I’ve often wondered. Now tell me why I put up with you.”
“That’s beyond conjecture…”
—‘Death of a Demon’, Rex Stout
Flip
Hip
Cat nerves
Dog bold
Dance floor electric
Dame magnetic
Street smart
Snark
Heart

NaPoWriMo Day 27: Of His Bones Are Coral Made

Prompt: Use only words from a newspaper article

Good night Malaysian three seven zero
No explanation, no fruitful news
Seven weeks of intense searching
New details but no blueprint
For the search ahead.
Found? Not known:
Nothing happens fast underwater.
Good night Malaysian three seven zero.



NaPoWriMo Day 26: First Class Post to Doom, Did You Say?

For Jer, and let's hope that damned package turns up soon eh?

The International Postal System
Is run by a series of  accidents
Disguised to look like organisation.
The mail, sorted by sugar-high monkeys
Is then fed to dyspeptic dragons
Which, being dyspeptic, regurgitate it
Into a mud pit inhabited
By lumbering drunk Godzillas
Duking it out with highly hyperactive Mothras.
The resulting carnage of postal material
Gets sucked down the Black Hole of Doom
From which nothing ever escapes.
It’s said there is a vortex within the Black Hole
Swirling thick with countless billions
Of lost pieces of mail, each spinning endlessly
Forlornly, for eternity.
So the legend goes anyway.
No one’s emerged yet to tell the truth
And neither has any of that damned mail.


NaPoWriMo Day 25: The Boys of Nero Wolfe's Brownstone on Poker Night

For Escamillo, who loves the Nero Wolfe books as much as I do

The boys of the brownstone, in shirts and ties
Studying cards with jaundiced eyes
Every Thursday night the same
(Though work could interrupt one’s game)
Lon’s the dealer, Fred plays aces
Saul’s the king of poker faces
Orrie hopes his luck will turn
Archie’s hand might crash and burn
3am, Saul wins once more
“Next week,” growl the rest and they’re out the door.


NaPoWriMo Day 24: Closure

I close the book on this chapter
And let you go
The memory of you
Like garlic kisses:
Pungent and sharp while fresh
Stale in the mouth after.


NaPoWriMo Day 24: The Gift of the Magi

For my choristers, preparing for competition

There can be only three, of course
In this race for dominance.
Three winners.
Your eyes say it all:
How sweet, to be one of them.
I tell you this:
The measure of winning is not in points
Not even in skill
But in the journey:
The cost of time and discipline
In gritted teeth and sleepless nights.
You lay at my feet
A sacrifice of grit and guts
The best of your abilities
Your all, held in cupped hands
Offered freely
The gift of the Magi
More precious than any treasure.
My children, my loves, know this:
Stand tall, stand proud.
You have already conquered
And I, recipient of such bounty
Can only stand, amazed
In humble gratitude.


NaPoWriMo Day 22: Disconnect

Flattering words
But I stopped listening long ago
About the same time 
I stopped believing you:
If this is what it is to fly
Then I'll stay firmly grounded.
Better mud huts in scorching heat
Than castles in the air
With no substance.