Author: Steven Robertson

Inspired by an episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

PEARL of wisdom may I offer you:
BASTE, season, sauté or stew,
SNAILs will still be slimy goo.
QUERY the staff before you choose.

BLOATed wounds chumming the water, a
MAN, GAsping for each last breath
FROTHing on the white-capped waves,
VOICEs a rasping cry for help.

BRAVE explorers can delve too deeply,
TRAWL the stars for riches and wonders;
CRUDE the creatures may seem at first:
FURRY, cute, multiplicative conquerors.

GUISE of hope falls, even momentarily, leaving faces
PALER from the fearful launderer, who demands
UNDUE loyalty from all and threatens to
QUELL uprising with prejudice.

COUCH-bound no longer,
BROTH slops over her
APRON as I take my
TITHE of her cooking.

THIRD of the kings, Frank, was incensed:
NOBLE though his intentions were, he began to
WRING his hands with worry. He had to
SCRAP too many ideas for gifts to take.

HABIT of thinking they’re a far-away thing oft
SOOTHes my careless thoughts; the
ADAGE of blindness aptly describes my
FAULT of forgetting about New Madrid.

NB: The New Madrid fault quaked in the early nineteenth century with such ferocity that the Mississippi River was said to have reversed its current for days. The quakes and aftershocks also formed Reelfoot Lake.

CHOCK the wheels: you remember what happened the last time
hE RODE the monster truck: he went for
MAXIMum speed on that last jump, and the rims have been
LOOPY ever since…