Category: MikeCrowl

In reverse

The meal was of immense VALUE,
but one look at the DEBIT
card made me feel LOUSY.
My wife, in her generous way, called me an inGRATE!

GRATE my bones and gnash my teeth,
DEBIT my flesh and graze my skin.
LOUSY with pain and an occasional flea,
I VALUE my life still, ‘spite a sword wound from kin.

It’s all in the ear

CHUTE the messenger? Don’t.
SIEVE the messenger? Do.
ADAPT the messenger and take him into your family? You’d be
DITTY not to.

[Courtesy of a poet still struggling with the intricacies of English pronunciation.]

SHOOT the messenger? Don’t.
SAVE the messenger? Do.
ADOPT the messenger and take him into your family? You’d be
DOTTY not to.

[Courtesy of the poet explaining]

Secret smoker

ASHEN burns on ancient brown ash-
TRAYS. Nicotine stains on fingers.
BUGLE warning, hide the stash! Something’s
AMISS! It’s that smoky reek than lingers!

[Turns out that TRAYS should have been TRAIT – my mind playing with homonyms while I wasn’t looking.]

[‘Smoky reek that lingers’ – courtesy of Rupert Brooke]

2 for the price of 1

GOING back home to my weak and wonky
HOVEL where the windows are weak-minded, and the door
HINGE, the one at the bottom and not at the top, has a
QUIRK that makes a rough and whinging scuff along the floor.

or

GOING back to my
HOVEL where the door
HINGE has a
QUIRK.

Backstage, Theatre, Dunedin.

1 day’s worth, 2 day’s worth

DINER emptied his plate in a
TRICE. ‘It was nice,’ he said. ‘But the only thing to
SULLY my pleasure is offering an
INGOT and getting no change on it.’

DINER, perusing the racing guide, at LUNCH, in a
TRICE, changes his mind re the HORSE, whose
STYLE is in a state of SULLY after
COYLY losing not just the bettor’s shirt but his INGOT.

Bullion…