Life Cycle of the Botfly

It was a thing that made me queasy

puffed up fat larva of something

found near a dead chipmunk

I let it go and watched it undulate

over the sidewalk on a hot day

hoping the sun would kill it

didn’t know it would bury itself in soil

to become a botfly that lay small larvae

picked up by unsuspecting mammals

then worm through the fur to an opening

and now inside it bores its way to the skin

feeds off the host in a disturbing life cycle

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dVerse nature poem today. I am still disturbed by seeing the botfly larva. I have tried to be open minded about its ways but have trouble with the “bores its way to the skin” part.

And This Dog Barked

My dog Rufus was an aging beagle

sat in his kennel as people walked by

and this dog barked to see such a sight

My dog Rufus would sleep in my bed

cuddle in the covers where he laid his head

and this dog barked in the middle of the night

My dog Rufus was leary of strangers

always on guard if he would sense danger

and this dog barked before the bite

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dVerse prompt to create a tale (not tail) in your mind so that it will be remembered because of its lyrics, repetitions, etc. Then write it or record it.

My Kindergarten Class

Kindergarten (garden of children) was the garden where I bloomed.

I went down around Colonial Circle and two blocks east, past the school patrol at the corner and there was West Elementary School. The classroom was light and airy with large windows along two sides. A long child-sized table was lined up by the windows and little chairs where we could sit. There were no desks. (Desks were in the 1st grade.)

Miss Nelson led us in art and theatre. (Seems like I was always a star.) My self portrait hung on the wall and I sang “Where is pinkie…..” in a performance for the parents. Miss Nelson took us to the post office, a creamery, a train ride and the Bell Telephone Company. The phone company had an exhibit of the evolution of the telephone, right up to the phone where you could see the person you were talking to.

I didn’t get to go on the train. The day before, I slipped going up the brick stairs to my front door and cut open my lip. The teacher and my mom thought I would bleed on the train. No train ride, no Hollywood career, and I wouldn’t eat butter for fifteen years because we had shaken a pint of cream until it turned. I was sure it would taste sour.

experience base

creates spirit of learning

growth of the person

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Back to school in my memory with a dVerse prompt on school.

New Garden

Let the soil be rich with nutrients

All the worms making it home

Birds searching for bugs and seed

Over the fresh turned ground

Ready for a new planting

how long I workeD

then abracadabrA

it was time to plaY

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dVerse prompt to try acrostic poetry— I ended up with LABOR DAY

Heart

This muscle

pumps

babump babump

I can feel it

in my fingertips

babump babump

if it stops

flow of blood

no babump babump

other organs

cannot survive

without babump babump

will make me cold

and rigid

come back babump babump

fill my heart again

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dVerse prompt is a quadrille using the word heart.

Taradiddle

This is what happens when promises are made that cannot be delivered. I gave you weapons. I gave you training. I gave you a plan of governance. I never gave you peace and stability in your own country. I put your sons and daughters on a plane as refugees. Your wife went too and now in desperation you cling to the fuselage.

A Place in the Sun

• 

Houses for sale in the Algarve

follow the cobblestone to the yellow one

imagine myself speaking Portuguese

eu escrevo em poesia

nadar no Mediterrâneo

cultivar vegetais

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dVerse prompt concerning an imagined house — I’ll take one in the Algarve of Portugal. Translation:

I write in poetry/ swim in the Mediterranean/grow vegetables

Past Present and Future

I stand

I stood

I am standing

I have stood

I will stand

I will have stood

I was standing

I had stood

I will be standing

I have been standing

I had been standing

I will have been standing

Stand

Let’s stand

Stood

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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille with the word stand. Thus, here is a found poem from research on trying to understand the word stand and not to be misunderstood.

Flower

Bloom in sunshine delirious

from deep the ground mysterious

puts on a show for all of us

don’t make a fuss don’t make a fuss

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Before too long it will wither

turn dry and brown when we shiver

time to give thanks to the giver

oh come hither oh come hither

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dVerse prompt to write a monotetra— eight syllables each rhyming line except for the fourth line which is a four count repeat. Of course I had to write about the garden.

Change

Now it is only a trickle of a stream

where boulder rocks and pebbles accumulate

no hint of water on their smoothness

a dry bed until the hard rains come

gathering a force that pushes land

creates a new course through the city streets

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dVerse prompt on writing a quadrille using the word stream. Also recalling the flooding at Zion National Park and the water flowing through the streets.