007 Challenge

1-2 Travel missives

Messier remembered

Edmonton is in a downturn
oil is no longer king
and the Oilers are watching
the playoffs on TV along with
the six other Canadian teams.
So much for our national sport
or is it lacrosse not hockey?
Next year, a new arena and
they’re demolishing Rexall Place
which we knew as the Coliseum
back in the glory days of
Gresky, Messier, Coffey,
Kurri, Anderson, Fuhr,
Moog, Lowe, and McSorley.
But that time is long past,
now we wait for McDavid,
the promised one,
to bring new glory.

But it’s worth remembering
Messier was on all three
of Gresky’s Cup winning teams
then won another with the Oilers
and a fifth with the Rangers
while for Gresky, three
was all she wrote.
 
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1-3 Travel missives

The locked door

Exercise routines breakdown
when traveling, so I usually
take the stairs, to partially
compensate.
In the present hotel
there is a locked door
off the landing between
floors two and three
and I wonder what life lives
behind the door on floor 2.5.
 
1-4 Travel missives (posted next day due to technical difficulties)

If in an airport wandering

If in an airport wandering
early arrival, delayed departure
and your BBall team has
a playoff game, try the
pizza sports bar, order the
peach and roasted beet salad
unexpectedly good
and a pint from the tap
(nothing local unfortunately)
and by the half, your team
has already won.
 
1-5 Traveling missives

Earth day at the junction of the Bow and Elbow

water still runs clear
water’s source each year recedes
global change required
 
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1-6 Traveling missives

Preemptive Worrying

My specialty
always be prepared
worst case scenarios
rigorously examined
contingencies prepared
when possible
but there are so many
for which there is
no solution
leading to dread
leading to panic
leading to relief
when
nothing
happens​
 
1-7 Traveling missives

Nose Hill

Nose Hill

Growing up, it was our frontier
a short hike, shorter bike
to the big rock outcrop
just before the summit,
where we’d eat lunch, mouths
sticky with peanut butter and jam
and the orange soda we shared
as we looked down on the
city growing below us
before we’d return to
the task of the day,
trapping gophers or
picking Saskatoon berries
but mostly just wandering
into the infinite foothills beyond.

Returning years later
it’s now a naturalized park
with the short grass returning.
Purple prairie crocuses poke
through greening winter stubble,
new trees line the coulees and
the Saskatoon bushes are flowering.
Mule deer graze the slopes as
most of the dogs are on leash
except in designated zones.
Dead Man’s Gulch is no longer filled
with bullet riddled vintage cars
and the major paths are paved
although some dirt trails remain
except for the sensitive areas
fenced off for regeneration.
Yet when I use the map app
on my smartphone, it is clear
the once infinite foothills are
encircled by suburbia.
 
Congratulations, Piscator, for another challenge completed!

I really feel your travel series - so perfectly apt!
 
Thanks Mer, I knew I would be traveling over the next while and thought a 007 would be more than enough.

I see you are well on your way to another 30-30 and more besides. Go girl.
 
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1-1

Build

Solid foundations are vital
to a square. Each corner
testament to Pythagoras
in one plus two equals three

Yesterday I checked for level.
My range slopes to bottom
out on the northwest burner
All eggs follow the path

of least resistance. I am left
wondering how many turns
the screw-in legs will take
until I get the right triangle

and not a demented isosceles
seeming to fall in on itself
even though all its angles
add up properly to one eighty.

I want solid foundations
straight lines and pretty
equilaterals. Mostly, I want
you to be my cornerstone.
 
1-1

So yesterday I had a meltdown,
I haven't visited that dark place
for quite some time now.
My demons still hang out there
and don't seem to have diminished any.
Perhaps they need the occasional airing
to make them more manageable,
if I could bear to face then head on,
but their ugliness still has the power
to turn me into a quivering mess.

It started off with a radio interview,
I thought I could hack it, and listen
....... I couldn't, it turned out.
Everything flooded back,
just like it was yesterday.

All her trauma, humiliation were mine.
My scars burst wide open, and bled tears.
The locked box shattered under pressure,
revealing demons gibbering
and cavorting in glee.
What was one presenter's prize interview
was my Apocalypse
........... and I cried.
 
1-2

Here There Be Regrets

You knew going into it
there would be a messy
ending. Married men bring
a freedom to a single girl
just past that shadowy line
of old enough to call adult.

They don't want twenty-year
old brides. You'll never mother
their "legitimate" children.
They don't need to love you.
You don't want them to.

So when the music changed
from hard, pounding rock
to ballads and love songs,
the affair was over-ripened,
ready to swing free of cherry
stained lips and fall on its ass.

Thin-skinned and easily bruised
you explain that it's time
to put this to an end.
He grumbled, and in a passive
aggressive strike back, called
you whore, a fool, and a tramp.

You stood and told him all he spoke
revealled his flaws and fears. He
couldn't risk you saying things
to his wife so he cut all ties.
You knew going in, it would get messy.
 
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1-2

Get a good hand hold,
steady now don't falter,
the rocks are slippery under foot,
but there's a path to be found
if you hold your cool.
Falling back into the depths
doesn't bear thinking about
and there is light beyond
if you just trust again
and believe your own strength.
You've done it before,
alone that time, so deep breath
seek for foot holds
............. and climb.
 
1-3

Down, down, down where the dark things crawl
and the light is battered and bruised
by the slime of shame, and the stench is foul,
lives the abuser and their abused.
 
1-3

One More Day

It's a lifetime past when you took care of me
and now I'm honoured to be the person
that goes with you to appointments and reminds
you to eat your meals, take your pills and yes
that jacket clashes with that skirt.

Mom, don't fade away before your candle
has used up all the wax. I want your wick
to burn brightly to the very end and flare
with light and heat not sputtering and smoky,
drowned with too much left to do.

I know you're growing tired, each day one more
in pain and chilled fatigue but there are great-grands
old enough to make babies for you to meet so wait
here on Earth a while, there's still mothering to do
and my siblings and I still need you, too.
 
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1-4

The Ground That Burns
bekerîkâ ní

The Chipewyan call it The Ground That Burns
way up in the muskeg, the place that's special
to the fire gods in a way the south cannot know.

When lightning strikes and ignites a blaze
in snow, the cold a testament that without this
we would be freezing in the dark night of winter.

Pray for the spring that it may bring new groups
full of altruistic donors and show me how green
feels when not on fire and wash the smut away.
 
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@Chanpagne I'm always impressed when poetry reflects current events. Excuse the pun but 1-4 is smokin' :devil::devil:
 
@Chanpagne I'm always impressed when poetry reflects current events. Excuse the pun but 1-4 is smokin' :devil::devil:
Thank you. So many of these fires could simply be the blazes of last fall re-igniting in the heat of spring. From what I understand, the hotter ones sink into the turf and smolder until the season brings new spark. Smoke smut skies have replaced the Alberta blue of the last century. Too bad, I don't want my atmosphere to be puce. Bleh.
 
1-5

Grimoire Entry One

Care must be taken to keep
the white of magik pure
unsullied with the grime
of measurement unsure

Twist not the eagle's tail
to gain a gift not given
for stolen feathers damage
wings with sins unshriven

The light herein to show
the way shines bright on face
unlined with fear and woe
expose the countenance of grace

Thus then your true love's lips
will lift in treasured smile
honesty and kindness in your life
is always what will him beguile

So come sweet witch bespell
the boy and kiss his desire awake
and when he turns into your arms
promise you are only his to take.

If you mar this treasure of love
with smiles and touch untrue
know only pain and loneliness
will be glad companions to you.
 
1-6

Grimoire Entry Two

Three Steps to the Gate

1. Examine
your intention. Wicked
is not always synonymous
with evil. These things can be far
apart you wouldn't recognize cruelty
in this. It is done joyously in love.​
2. Plan
the seduction of love.
Fill it with play and teasing
to create consensual naughtiness
and recognize how clean being
messily human can be.​
3. Execute
with beauty and desire
change your lover, through altering
perceptions of want, offering satisfaction
in the taste of fulfillment, and protecting
fragile sensibilities with a blanket of truth.​
 
1-6

The muse when nudged into action,
scurries off searching in the most
inappropriate places for words to cobble together
and drops them at my feet.
Saying "There ..... cell phone, ashtray,
Windows 10 and Farmville,
make of that what you will,
I've done my job
the rest is up to you!"
 
1 of 1 Pond Life Diary

Sun Salutation and Otter at Dawn

Today, at sunrise, an otter,
sleek and saucy, slipped below
the deck as I yoga-posed and he
stole two carp cleanly, leaving
little to show of the crime,
just wet evidence on the patio stones.​
 
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1-7

Grimoire Entry Three

powerful magic hovers near
the storm delights the water borne
inspiring dances that twirl
and glide through night, the weary
find new energy to lift the corners
of kissable lips and then to peel
the layers of daytime guise away
revealing elementals of nature's
truth to burst in splashes on beds
where flowers spring to petalled
fullness and the glamour falls
away to show the hidden beauty
of love's slow waltz begins
as the storm clouds release the flood.
 
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