Prompt: Rubiginous (#vss365)
Have you seen
my electrons?
I could swear
I left them here…
or there…
or in this vague
proximity
I used to be
exquisite
when I had them
floating near
but now I’m
oxidised for
all to see
Prompt: Velleity (#vss365)
Did I tell you
of a boy—
let’s call him Henry—
who couldn’t quite
decouple from
his sheets?
“I’ll get up soon,”
he said,
a time
or
twenty
and that duvet
was
attached to him
for weeks
Prompt: Submontane (#vss365)
You humans conquer
higher peaks and claim
the climb is tough
While we who burrow
dig beneath—
but never deep enough
You strain and swear
and summit
While we
strain and swear…
until
if we hadn’t
started digging here
there wouldn’t be
a hill
Prompt: Periapt (#vss365)
Wear this in
my memory dear—
it’s fashioned from
the bone
that caught in
Uncle Reuben’s
throat
when Satan called
him home
My darling
don’t be sorry
for
he was the spawn
of Hell—
but wear it
and remember
we’re both
destined there
as well.
Prompt: Ingurgitate (#vss365)
She scoffed a saucerful
of worms
some spiders, and a frog —
that pixie preys on anything
that lingers near her log —
So children, for the love of Pan
stop playing by the bog.
Prompt: Benthos (#vss365)
It’s far too cold
but
plunge me into
your diffuse depths
let me sink
still shivering
until I brush
that veiled bottom
eyes
clenched closed
lungs lurch
skin alone
senses
I’ll stay
a second
and then
kick
kick
kick
my way back
to the
surface
Prompt: Ambrosia (#vss365)
“Well, what do you think?”
“It’s okay.”
“Okay? It’s the literal food of the Gods!”
“Call me a stickler, but I’d prefer the food of the chefs.”
Prompt: Sapid (#vss365)
I’ve carried the taste
since that bakery closed down
sweet nothings linger
