The Moirae in the Corner Cafe

Tea cups half full (never mugs, my dear)
They keep their weekly rendezvous.
They always take the table by the window –
It’s not as warm, but you get a better view.
A pot of tea can last the three for hours
Though they sometimes treat themselves to cake.
Nobody minds – it’s quiet on a Thursday,
And they’re no trouble at all, for heaven’s sake.
Clotho is working on her knitting
As usual. Nobody seems to notice
How the thread she knots and shapes while people watching
Twists into pictures. Magic? Hypnosis?
Or just the power of wrinkles and greying hair
To make invisible these (as they seem) old ladies.
Lachesis sips briefly on her cooling tea,
Takes a tape measure from a bag bedecked with daisies
And glances sideways at a passer-by
While she marks the place where Clotho’s work should stop.
Atropos waits patiently – she’s in no hurry.
Her shears are ready. She’ll know when to chop.

Notes: The prompt ‘Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend, as in  Claire Scott’s poem “Scheherazade at the Doctor’s Office.”’ Nobody notices the old biddies drinking tea…

2024 Day 29 – Incandescent

She was vital, glowing, incandescent;
He wanted her to be self-effacing,
Erasing each and every  trace
Of her mercurial personality,
Sat in a corner, wrapped in a cardigan,
Focused on altruism, grave as an elegy.
Like a priest with instructions catechetical,
Like an albatross on a mariner’s neck
He hung around, his desires antithetical
To all she’d ever hoped and dreamed.
Though she seemed compliant, her fire hidden,
In her secret heart embers were glowing,
Flames growing though still as yet clandestine,
Fuelled by a mind almost Machiavellian,
An imagination effervescent, bubbling.
Too late he learned he was in trouble,
That you can’t keep a phoenix in a cage,
That you can’t keep lightning in a bottle
 Or extinguish  a woman incandescent with rage.

Notes: the prompt was ‘If you’ve been paying attention to pop-music news over the past couple of weeks, you may know that Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of this occasion, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. We hope you don’t find this too torturous yourself, but we’d like to challenge you to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title.’ I decided to see if I coukd use all of them in the poem.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/taylor-swift-words

2024 Day 28 – Car Park Starlings

The wings of car park starlings, catching the light, hint rainbows.
They stroll without concern, avoid the clumsy feet, the wheels.
Charmed by their insouciance, I forget for a moment to frown.

Notes: The prompt was to write a sijo

2024 Day 27 – How Not To Write an American Sonnet

It’s easy, they said
Start with an abstract idea and go from there –
Justice maybe, or pity, or love.
But there’s nothing abstract about children dying
Which is what I can see from where I am right now.
Two thousand miles is not so very far
If you are looking, are listening,
And the baby in my living room last night had a name,
Sabreen, like her mother.
She died, like her mother.
Five days from womb to incubator to grave.
There’s nothing abstract about an air strike.
It should end with a bang, they said.
They lied.

Notes: The prompt was to write an American sonnet, which is not a form I am familiar with. There was a link to a ‘formula’ prompt here, which I’ve referred to in this poem, which is probably not an American sonnet, though it does at least have fourteen lines.

2024 Day 26 – Tongue Twister

Tongue twister,
Horrible history
Words wrapped, trapped, mangled
In a tangle, missed in a twist,
Stolen, swollen,
Mouth bumpy, bee-kissed.
Tea on trolley, sip from a spoon
Smooth and soupy, gloopy, jelly,
Learning to language and lick a lolly.

Five years on, alive and talking,
Walking on air – I’m here and clear,
So go fill a glass,
Something frothy and fizzing, and a little bit dizzy,
For a toast to my tongue
And the surgeon who saved it,
And the team who helped to untangle
My tangled up talking –
Thank you all, and three cheers.

Notes: The prompt was to write a poem using alliteration, assonance and consonance. Yesterday marked 5 years since my oral cancer diagnosis, and I had the pleasure of being told by my lovely consultant that I didn’t need to see him again! I promised him I would write him a celebratory poem, so here it is.

2024 Day 25 – Questionnaire

Before we can accept you to our ranks
We need your answers to this questionnaire
Detailing why and when and where.
Please avoid leaving any blanks.
Which scent reminds you of your mother’s hair?
Which kitchen appliance hates you most?
Where would you haunt if you were a ghost?
Have you ever murdered a teddy bear?
Which cartoon character would you marry?
Which of you would your kids most resemble?
Does the thought of thunder make you tremble?
What heavy thing is the worst to carry?
If you close your eyes, what do you see?
Have you ever used glue to mend a heart?
Is belly-fluff weaving craft or art?
Is it true that it’s always time for tea?
Whose hand do you need in yours right now?
Does a promise broken make stars cry?
Do you cross your fingers when you lie?
Can you make sense of this mixed-up world somehow?

Notes: The prompt was to write a poem based on the Proust Questionnaire. I chose to write my own version. (Feel free to answer some or all of the questions!)

2024 Day 24 (second bite) – Valley

Tall black hills looked on
Guarding the quiet valley
And the new-born lambs.

And the new-born lambs
Still unsteady on their legs
Their bleats demanding.

Their bleats demanding
A mother’s swift attention
Among the daisies.

Among the daisies
We watched the clouds for hours
And the new-born lambs.

And the new-born lambs
Snuggled in sleep. We did too.
Tall black hills looked on.

Notes: Another line from Vernon Watkins’ poem, used in my first attempt at a haiku variation called an anserine.

2024 Day 24 – Omen

A dark bird crossed the sun. I shivered.
You laughed.
The shadow of a solitary magpie
Fell on the wall behind you.
I didn’t know, back then,
For whom the omen was intended.

Notes: A quick one in response to the prompt, which was to write a poem starting from a line from another poem. The line is taken from The Collier by Vernon Watkins (https://davidsuttonpoetry.com/2021/06/11/week-450-the-collier-by-vernon-watkins/)

2024 Day 23 – Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters

These hamsters are rodents who look quite like fellows,
Thanks to exposure to Cosmic Jello.
They got their training to fight in Tibet
And they’re certainly not anyone’s sweet furry pets.
They love their lettuce and fighting the baddies
But they sometimes act like silly laddies.
Clint and Bruce, Chuck and Jackie,
These super-heroes are decidedly wacky.
They’re probably more prone to dramas
Than the Naive Inter-Dimensional Commando Koalas
And they’d fit those superhero shoes
Better than the Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos.
If you think they resemble some mutants you know
They’re turtly different – I swear it’s so.

Notes: The prompt was a superhero poem. (And yes, they are ‘real’ superheroes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescent_Radioactive_Black_Belt_Hamsters)

2024 Day 22 – Earth and Plastic

‘You’re everywhere’ said Earth to Plastic
‘What’s your problem?’ said Plastic to Earth
‘You’re more trouble to deal with than you’re worth
‘You’re everywhere’ said Earth to Plastic

‘What’s your problem?’ said Plastic to Earth
‘When you talked trash,  I knew you meant me.
I can see that you resent me.
What’s your problem?’ said Plastic to Earth.

‘”When you talked trash,  I knew you meant me.”
If the cap fits, wear it. You know what I mean.’
‘It isn’t my fault you can’t keep the place clean.
When you talked trash, I knew you meant me’

‘If the cap fits, wear it. You know what I mean.
You’re useful at times, but you hang on for ever
And you’re killing my creatures – I don’t think that’s clever.
If the cap fits, wear it. You know what I mean.

‘You’re useful at times, but you hang on for ever
You’re everywhere’ said Earth to Plastic
‘Though to lose you entirely would be drastic –
You’re useful at times, but you hang on for ever.

‘You’re everywhere’ said Earth to Plastic
‘What’s your problem?’ said Plastic to Earth
‘You’re more trouble to deal with than you’re worth
‘You’re everywhere’ said Earth to Plastic

Notes: The prompt was to write a poem in which 2 things have a fight. Today is also Earth Day. The form is a catena rondo.