Into the Night

Into the night bat troops fly

Most of the time against a dark sky

Into the night two cougars prowl

Most of the time they scream and growl

Into the night an owl hoots

Most of the time knowing its attributes

Into the night the sirens call

Most of the time to someone’s downfall

Into the night a dinosaur roams

Most of the time looking for homes

Into the night the children sleep

Most of the time not hearing a peep

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NaPoWriMo prompt to double down in the fashion of this nursery rhyme—“There was a man of double deed”.

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Bothered by Covid

Young man who administered the shot told me it would be over soon. He was talking about the pandemic. He liked my hat. I told him it was my keep covid off my hair hat. He said good and shot me in the arm.

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dVerse quadrille on the word bother. This is a prose poem quadrille.

After Vaccine

Don’t be just a prick in the arm. Be a savior of the world.

After vaccine I took fluids to bring the fever down.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be like myself again.

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NaPoWriMo prompt to write a sijo. Just got my second dose and not feeling so well.

Poop n Scoop

Today I counted twelve poop piles— some on the parking strip, some partially hidden in grass, more in the park. I really wanted to find one more to make it a dirty dozen but I gave up knowing it was already on the bottom of someone’s shoe. So I hope to do some shit shaming here and go for a walk where people pick up their dogs’ poo.

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NaPpWriMo prompt to go on a rant.

Joywriting

Words move over the page

back and forth

no reason or destination

hoping to see a site

pick up friends

trying not to be seen

don’t honk the horn

when you’re done

just ditch it

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Joywriting is a chapter in Susan G. Woodbridge’s Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life With Words, a NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 18.

Joyriding is a term used for car theft that involves just driving around until it runs out of gas.

Mars 2020

Watch Earth rise from the moon

Half a century later

Explore Mars

With Curiosity and Perseverance

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NaPoWriMo prompt to put the moon in a poem. What about Mars?

Tumbling Hydra

No justice No peace

No bacon No grease

No money No police

No food No obese

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NaPoWriMo prompt for the tumbling rhyme. Current events manifesting a

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Peanut Butter Cookies

Mother made cookies. Peanut butter cookies. She would roll some dough in her hand, make a ball, and place each ball on the cookie sheet. With a fork she would crisscross each one flat. When out of the oven we ate them warm or dipped in cold milk. Every time I bake peanut butter cookies I do the same. I add more peanut butter but I roll the dough in my hand, press the fork and think of mother who loved baking peanut butter cookies for my sisters and me.

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NaPoWriMo prompt to write about a habit I got from my mom. I love making peanut butter cookies (and chocolate chip).

Family Name

I followed my family name

to Yorkshire cemetery

where those old family headstones

held the dates of birth and death

those old Anglo Saxon names

etched upright in native stone

surrounded old Roman church

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bell tolled to gather us in

stone baptismal at the door

I drank from silver chalice

the vicar offered me

in the rite of communion

aware of ancestral lips

that had taken worship there

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I search Proctor family name

Old English word proketour

occupational surname

for those who worked as steward

from the Latin procurare

to manage spiritu cors

keeper of the key— that’s me

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NaPoWriMo prompt to delve into your name

My Dog and I

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It is bath time for the dog

he looks at me

like he knows the word bath

really it’s a shower

but I call it bath

he lets me take him in my arms

and placed in the tub

I spray him with water

rub him vigorously with suds

between the toes (especially between his toes)

and all over

I still remember a time when someone

showered me

dried my skin

and put ringlets in my hair