Category: MikeCrowl

READY reckoners no longer required; calculators reign.
BELOW the belt, say the reckoners, feeling the pain. More
HASTE less speed, claim the reckoners, shoved out the door. ‘REVUE’s on, let’s go,’ they say, ‘since we’re no longer loved.’    

Being the middle NOBLE in a family of
five, the SCRAP at the centre of the litter, it’s
difficult to WRING a decent living from the
leftovers; not even a THIRD, barely a fifth.  

I
ABHOR to see something that I know is a
BOTCH, poorly-made, carelessly thought, a
GLINT insufficient in the creator’s eye. The
BISON, still extant, stands perfect, as he ought.

I have yet to figure out how to DEBUG
a hissing, snarling, glass-eyed COBRA.
The one I found in a discarded bin-LINER
reared, and said, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will KNEEL before me.

[No snakes in New Zealand, thank God, and may that never change]

STUFF my hands deeper in my pockets – it’s my
DEBUT running the gauntlet of a Kolkata street. The
FORCE of beggars and banshee boys, each demanding a
RUPEE, is too much; I speed through the stifling heat.        

ODDLY, I spent my social life ignoring women. I’d
AVOID all those who ventured near me. A bear in a cave, I’d
GRUNT and not converse, eyes cast down, fear in me. I’m
UNWED, surprise, surprise, but still I long for one to hear me.

SWORN to silence once the
RADIO is on. No conversation, nothing that will
USURP the concert’s dominance. I’m off to bed
SINCE no one wants to talk.

SATIN dress of resplendent sheen on slippery dance floor. A
CRASH – he’s let her slip from his grasp. Shock? Horror? No,
SMIRKs from some, or sneers – no love lost here from rivals;
SCOFFs and jeers from dumb-minded dolls in cotton frocks.

CHOCK full of loopy maxims, my mind erodes.
LOOPY as I am, I still gather groupies.
MAXIMS I offer, the groupies grab them, and my words
ERODE their naïve, untutored, lacking-in-history minds.    

You’re a big BOULE, you’re a SHOWY show-off.
I don’t like the TENOR of your manner, and I’d
never ELOPE with you, not even if you shunned your
SHOWY show-offness. Be gentle, you big BOULE.