A Very Fine W(h)ine

It tastes like cherries and sadness
With just a hint of despair
The plum notes contain certain madness
that releases when it breathes the air

The body is quite melancholy
It lingers with a pronounced dread
To drink it would be total folly
Let it age well like any good red

When you try it, I'm sure you'll agree
It has a distinctive bouquet
that tickles the nose with ennui
from terroir with a subtle dismay

Grown on a most morose vine
These grapes make a very fine w(h)ine.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Challenge, All In the Family in which we were to ask for a poetic first line from a family member and then write the rest of the poem. This first line came from my daughter, Baby Mouse (17).

The Seventh Crow

Seven Crows by Merlyn-Gabriel

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told.

 I am

the frenzied heartbeat

the whispered gossip you can almost hear

the gibbering beggar on your corner

I am

the madman in your basement

the lady with vulgarly smeared lipstick

the lunatic in your attic

I am

the eleventh toe

the devil in the details

the feather in your pillow that pokes your dreams

I am

the frayed wire

the kink in the system

the unaverted catastrophe

I am

the sinkhole of irrationality into which you slide

bit by bit

180 degrees from okay.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Get Listed with FB

Eskimo

Did you know
that there are over 100 words
for "outsider?"
Each word 
conveys a subtlely different meaning
from every other word

Take "nigger," for instance
This word and "cracker"
both refer to skin color
However, each is a different shade
of hate

Then we have "kike" and "hebe"
I've had both terms
applied to myself,
my religion
I've flinched
in a slightly different way
when each was said

Since this is a poem,
let's rhyme -
"Dyke" rhymes with "kike"
You could even call someone
a "kike dyke"
This would refer
to a particular type of lesbian,
should you be a particular type of bigot

As long as we're discussing
sexual orientations,
how about "fag," "queer," or "tranny?"
So many labels for "different" and "unacceptable"

Let's not forget
"wop," "chink," "wetback," "camel jockey," "frog"
So many ways to say
"You are not one of us."

Isn't language wonderfully fascinating?
And did you know
that the Eskimos have
over 100 words for....?

submitted with apologies if I offended anyone's sense of decorum to Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Out of Standard with Izy, Eskimo

Ribbons of Red

Ribbons of red to celebrate

the holidays, good times ahead

We wish, count down the days, and wait

Ribbons of red

I'm thinking of you, instead

How your numbers are of late

Hope you're well on the new meds

Whether chance or whether fate

connected us with life's fine thread

To you, my prayers I dedicate

Ribbons of red.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Challenge, A Birthday in December, Christina Rossetti