Crossword

The
CRYPTic crossword’s clues, enigmatic in form, too intricate for a
DUNCE like me who thinks he has to reinvent the
WHEEL at every turn, proved uncomplicated for my
NOBLE friend, who showed me where my cement brain went
wrong.            

Anodyne

My Pinot Noir is the very central PIVOT
of my evening slurp in my penthouse CONDO,
when I cease to chomp poetry and MUNCH
on the less tooth-wrenching pizza of PROSE.

The landlord inspects

CROSS is how I’d describe myself, looking at the apartment:
STAINs down the walls that haven’t come from any natural process;
TATTY wallpaper – last time I checked it was intact – and the
MOULT of some unfortunate bird left to die in a stinking cage.      

Massacre

Around the time Jesus was born, those mothers who had given BIRTH
to boys of a similar age, saw their precious darlings SLAIN
by Herod, the supposed Great, a man jealous of power, but not hot
on ETHICs;
when it comes to power, corruption seeps in, and makes all vile men ALIKE.

The other Ralph

The bloke who comes to add the GROUT
is, truth to tell, a little STOUT.
He bends like an elf with RIGOR
Mortis, and tells me that his name is RALPH.

Ear-drumming

I BLUSH that we, as humans, easily accept the
WHINE, the relentless head-drilling drone that
SCOURs our ears of Nature’s sounds as here we
wait on the frigid East Wind-facing hELIDEck.