Spotlight here I come!

In the fall I'm inspired

So here's two haikus:

Above was the first

Which just leaves me space for this--

Oh, no, no more room

I'll try again

As they say, ''three times the charm,

Four-leaves the clover''

Enough with nonsense.

I shall write a masterpiece--

Yeah--another time

Hello writers and thank-you contestants!

'AJJ', 'Dzogbay', and 'aflalo22' all really excited me with their entries into my challenge, but there is only one winner...

and...

The winner is...

'AJJ'!

If you would like, you can read his piece, ''The Depths Of Fear''

Hold

Your

Obsessions

Like a

Balloon

with its string in

Your hands.

Watch

Your balloon, that

Nothing needles it--

While

Your

Hot-air balloon

Deflates.

Note: This poem is inspired by my fight with a couple obsessions and having acknowledged that protecting my obsessions at all costs really lets down the rest of my life :( :)

Also, if you like this poem, you may like my poem, "Once Birthed, Eternal"

Have a good day!

You told me to hold the railing

But it was wet

My hands were cold

I didn't want to

So, you had us hold hands

It was firm

It was hated

I didn't want you

Then, I pushed you into

Where it is wet

Where it is cold

I am deaf to you

The children's book "Still More Stories From Grandma's Attic" by Arleta Richardson features the word, "Slop-tot''.

It means, a child prone to sloppiness.

And, it's an actually spirit-lifting word of self-deprecation when it hurts to call yourself stupid:

POV: you're in the kitchen doing dishes, and you knock over the soap dispenser; soap all over the kitchen towel and stained cabinets. You're so mad! Then, you say to yourself, "I'm being a slop-tot; stop being a slop-tot.'' While you're banging things around, "Slop-tot-Slop-tot-Slop-tot" rounds through your head; you're surprised to find yourself fighting not to smile. Then you smile. Slop-tot is irresistible.

(Slop-tot may nowadays have a different meaning than it did in the time period of the book, though I've not found any evidence of such in my cursory internet search :)

To make

You

Say

That's my pain...

That's my joy...

That I don't understand now, but I hope/fear I will

And that's someone coping with it all

So

I can too

(If you like this poem, you may like my poem "Once Birthed, Eternal")

Dear Reader, I wish I could tell you that you're going to survive this.

For you, Reader, I forgo using my last wish to provide for my hungry family of Fannie and sixteen children, to get a job better than at the mines, and to prolong the life of my aging mother. Not to mention, freeing myself from...this nightmarish lamp....

This screen that you are reading is scored with the curse of the genie Bueligun, condemning all Readers to his lamp. I've disabled that curse, but my own hand writing this is none to steady...Bueligun is coming back, he says, to feast--

And now...now how do you feel about your curiosity, you incorrigible Reader you, whose inevitable sight of this screen has condemned me to die!!

Hope

Is

Saying

All right

I can dash my past plans

On the unfamiliar road ahead of me

As

Life's about

Expansive joy and laughter

On more roads than one

One road only is the most direct path

Though, where are we arriving but death

Unfamiliar roads are time-giving detours

But that shouldn't keep you from

Taking unfamiliar roads at a run

(If you like this poem, you may like my haikus in "Once Birthed, Eternal")

Someone is just discovering what you left behind

And you know you hadn't done what you could with what you had.

It's like, you're ahead of them in a dinghy

While they're in a speedboat

They'll catch up fast

And then, you can't help but wonder if sea monsters are real