Express In Eight

Express in Eight - April 2022

Express in Eight- April 2022

4-1-2022
Articraft

We have a fairy jar in the show case.
It’s a matter of wonder how it’s made.

A bottle with a narrow mouth, long neck
a medium-sized body, into which went
the winged baby-angels, a cool foursome,
articraft by my mother-law of skill and then some.

An attraction undeniable to this day to all,
look like sentinels, guardian angels on call.

Prompt: Fairy Jar

4-2-2022

Felony

This lady’s three acres
in the countryside seized
by the trouble-makers
and before she realized

were put up for lucrative
sale for a sum of ill-gotten profit,
with documents of deceptive
details, turned her from riches to rags overnight.

Prompt: acre


4-3-2022
Disastrous

When Nick noticed black blotches
of oil on the clear blue Atlantic
and a batch of dead kittiwakes,
while maneuvering his trawler,
was sad and furious at the reckless
spill, reported to the authorities
that traced the yacht, extracted fine
while the birds and fish lay lifeless.

Prompt: Oil and water don’t mix.

Note- No amount of fine could bring back the endangered species


4-4-2022
Novelty

Each time I meet her
my zest for life goes up
by two notches and some.

“It’s madness to dwell
too long on things past
and let the precious present

slip like sand in hand,”says my
sister dear, be like nature full of novelty.

Prompt: Zest


4-5-2022
The common man

Now that the elections close in,
leaders offer carrot after carrot
to the public that believes not
in their schemes, slogans or spin.

The unassuming common man,
his power often under-estimated,
is now aware, Samson-like, to checkmate,
to overturn the fate of those in high places.

Prompt: International Carrot Day


4-6-2022
Sunlight

Nothing is gloomy or ominous
when the days are calm and precious.
Summer sun rises bright and golden,
southern wind is soft and soothing.

Sunlight spreads over hill and land,
shatters signs of chill and darkness.
Every tree and flower in the field
swing with joy and sing of hope.

Prompt: Ominous


4-7-2022
The spark

The fire is almost gone
spirals of smoke left behind.

What happened to the dream,
the life that we shared?

Yet I see the flash of your smile
shattering the veil of smoke
that no longer matters.
The spark is all I need.

Prompt: Smoke and fire

4-8-2022
Rare and round

Desert skies
dazzle my eyes
The land of Rajasthan
sizzles like bacon on a frying pan.

Prickly cacti growing at random
filling the field till horizon.
A van stops, a botanist
lifts one in loving zest.

Prompt: Prickly

4-9-2022
Through lives

Memories of love
shimmer and stretch
through countless lives.

How else could I recognize
you from dozens in the photo
without ever meeting,

yet feeling
“I knew him from before.”

Prompt: Shimmer

Note: There were about 50 people in it. We never met. I was asked to place him. When I did, they wondered. A bond deeper than one life?

4-10-2022
A sense of thrill

If you are late coming home,
I start missing your laughing eyes,
your deep voice, light and loving
that lets me feel the world is mine.

When we hear quick steps
coming up the garden path,
the jasmine and I sense a thrill
that little else could ever bring to our hearts.

Prompt: Write a missing poem


4-11-2022
Of risk and rainbow

I knew the risk of tying the knot
with no dating,no prior contact.
Yet the few times we spoke
assured me of more green
and grassy than
brown and bare.
Glad it was no trap,
but a life colourful as a rainbow.

Prompts: Risk, Knot, Grassy

4-12-2022
The sea, the key

An old man steals the car key
Another fights a marlin at sea.

Both got into a deadly race
Both were able to save grace.

Simpson and Santiago, poles apart
The key is lost at sea, stands small.

Fighting nature or fighting for love
losing battles, small or serious there of.

Prompt: “The old man and the key” (Season 13, Episode 13)


4-13-2022
Created hell

The survey drone hits a bird
Machine crashes into a tree
Panic takes over the devotees
peace shatters into a shambles

Chanting "save me Lord"
they ran helter skelter
Stampede followed, several injured
Government blamed the disorderly masses.(?)

Prompt: Write a panic poem.

4-14-2022
Subtleties


Yep, tough to maneuver
with a pen that quivers.
Words that halt the flow
words that make me slow.

But then let me be rather
slow, be clear with center
or centre, often or often times
horse or horse-back riding.

Prompt: Maneuver


4-15-2022
Cinnamon flavored

When my mother made
carrot candy, we said "nixy."

When the summer was high
and afternoons were steamy
and sultry, we loved, yet knew not
that those tall cool glasses
of orange tinted, cinnamon flavored
sweet drink was carrot juice.

Prompt: Carrots

4-16-2022
Fact or fiction?

A fact sounding like fiction!
A little egg forcing a master
to confess, " Blood is jolly, red.
But egg yolk is yellow, revolting."

Who'd ever think that the master
story teller and maker of gory
murders, psychos and stairs 36
had a phobia like many mortals.

Prompt: Alfred Hitchcock was frightened of eggs.


4-17-2022
Like a race horse

he never stops to gallop.
More, to places where things get worse.


Be it a cross country marathon
or leading a team to the heart of Africa
to spread blood safety programes
summer after summer
through computing for good.


4-18-2022
Mind off

No more cowboys
collies control cows
puppets on a string.

Trained dogs
herding them up

leading them on till
cows come home
till being scatterbrained.

Image prompt: Cows and Border Collie


4-21-2022
Empowered

The electrical outage
lasted for a week or more
No, there was no groping
in the dark lost like the blind.

The roof top solar power
empowered us with lights
fans and computer. A true blessing
during a fierce cyclone.

Prompt: Electricity


4-25-2022
Can't beat it

I am going to wait till next Monday
things might improve tomorrow
I might have uneasy dreams I can't say
pain and strain could bring sorrow.

I tell myself to put up a bold front
try to philosophize the persistent ache
stay calm and don't pull any stunt
ring the dentist if peace is at stake.

Prompt: I waited until.../My most uneasy dreams/May be tomorrow


4-26-2022
Even keel

I suppose I mellowed, zigzagging
between harsh and smooth,
ending on an even keel, a happy mean.

Surely, a sign of growing older
as vision adjusts to distant horizons
as I start feeling good about folks,

I may not meet, greet or talk in person
but basically human, Sam, Jane or Susan.


Prompt: Mellow/ Zigzag


4-27-2022
Beauty in the eye

A watchful eye
keeps us safe
Silver beams of
of beauty and light
drench the world,
defeat darkness.
power, faith and love
hanging on eternity.

Prompt: Image of “Moon eye”


4-28-2022
Time

Time is a master
a true tyrant.

Time is money
cold and cruel

Time is love
enduring and endless

Time is God
neither late nor early.

Prompt:"Aside from Velcro, time is the most mysterious substance in the universe." – Dave Barry


4-29-2022
Pungent

Lemons, limes, sweet oranges
sitting in cozy clusters

on the evergreen trees
tingle my tongue-
the beneficent citrus,

like the witty, well meaning, pungent
satire of a poet or a playwright,
sharpening mind and heart.
Prompt: Tingle

4-30-2022
The Wave

No amount of avoiding
and hiding could wash
me of the impatience,
the harshness of an
embittered past I'd
like to reverse.

The wave that's gone
can't be replaced, I realize.

Prompt:Swept under the rug