Duh -- by Zephirine

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“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree”
Joyce Kilmer


I doubt if I have ever found
A poem faithful as a hound
Nor one, if it should come to that,
Which catches mice quite like a cat
I wouldn’t think you’d ever get
A poem useful as a vet

I think that I shall never read
A poem tenacious as a weed
I’m sure that I would seek in vain
A poem that wrecks your hair like rain
It seems that there is quite a dearth
Of poems global as the Earth

Not many folks around can make
A poem nutritious as a steak
I could not borrow, steal or beg
A poem that scrambles like an egg
Sadly, I often seem to meet
A poem sickly as a sweet

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Another Filling Another Failure -- by File

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we were both bleeding from the gums
when we met
malnourished neglected amateur experts
solitary technicians with bad reputations
unsanitary practices and stuffed filing cabinets
inflamed with infected
bloody case histories
of traumatized ex-patients

anaesthetized and ethereal
we did what we knew
what we thought we had to do
the internal probing of each others tissue
for live nerves in latex gloves
with sharp metal instruments
extracting wisdom detritus
and drilling for goodness
sake in crimson caves

we wore headlamps
on our foreheads
because we cared
we shared our padded vinyl reclining chairs
that fit snug stuck
to our clammy forms
for oral audit both aware
of all the tense fingers that had
clutched clinched there
before us in fear the others like us
that had clamped shut their eyes
and opened wide
and hoped in aching desperation for relief inside

sigh
another filling another failure
dental records never lie
we worked hard on our smiles
with laughing gas by rank canals
and bridges in decay
but our ether embrace
hid the grace
less
ness of our pain
we lost the whiteness that defined us
in the unwinnable
war against stains

deniable accountability
in luminous braces
time and patience past
trust
started missing appointments
hope stopped payments
our rosy dreams lay caked
at the bottom of our glasses

we took to meeting
in the waiting room
between Hello! and Home and Garden
gnashing grinding
second-hand false teeth
felt crammed in didn’t fit
malocclusion wince
rinse
spit



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Spiders -- by Mimitig

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I have a friend who loves cleaning
She wants to clean my house.

My home is not up to snuff
I have dust and cobwebs.

But when there is an infestation of flies
I know there won’t be here
Not in my house.

I have left the webs
Spiders do their work.

I try to justify my spiders
To my friend.
I tell her how they keep my house clean.

I tell the old story.

I was eight years old
I wore my sister’s hand-me-down oranges and lemon frock
A spider ran up, straight up
From hem to neck.

I was not scared.

Luck or fate -
I live in a land without poison from the eight legs.

I love my spiders.
They help me keep a good house.

I love my spiders.
They spin and weave and remind me of
The spinning Jenny.

I love my spiders
I will never hurt them.

I love my spiders
My dad made lavvy paper ladders for them
So they could crawl with their little
Eight legs
Out of the bath tub to safety.

We never had to bomb them
With a present from Penarth.

I love my spiders
As I lie in bed
And see a spider spinning away above my head.
I think, thank you, keep the flies away.

I love spiders.

A fear of spiders is as irrational as a fear of bats.

I love bats too.

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Another Caption Opportunity

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10 or Less: Life Story -- by File

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10 or Less: Untitled -- by DocShoot

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