Broke

I could never get past the third or fourth of COVEY’s
seven habits. After my mind and psyche were AWASH
with all the highly effective people’S TALK,
I, being highly ineffective, had to take a BREAK.   

Skulls on the Ocean Floor

SKULLs of prior explorers lay on the ice for years, until a big melt.
POLAR magnetism with a difference, draw of being first to the pole.
SPREE of explorers, claims counter-claims, deaths, and now skulls of
THOSE who perished, nestled on the ocean floor.

Note: Amundsen (below) made it back from his Polar expeditions. The poem is not about him.

Picture of Roald Amundsen wearing fur for polar conditions.
Roald Amundsen

Chilly

The
POLAR skull is a well-known phenomenon to
THOSE who spend time in the Antarctic cold. Your
SKULL thinks the skin, voiding its place, has gone on a
SPREE, gone AWOL, gone shopping where warmth is sold.           

Photo: Christopher Michel

[A friend of mine worked outside for a few weeks at Scott Base. They were only allowed to work a few hours a day because of the intense cold.]

The Long View

OUNCE of prevention–leave now, he thought, with immediate spike of
WHINEing–surely, I can linger a bit, where’s the harm. Then he contemplated a de-
FROCKing. That gave resolve and he walked away. Always
POSIT the presence of short term appetites. The long view needs effort.

Turbo. Bah.

TURBO’s fifth appearance in DQP, more than any other word so far.
WHOLE is the enigma of randomness. Of all the words, on all the days in DQP,
LIGHTly turbo trips in over on threshold again. Why not some beauty? Why not depth?
SPRIG, perhaps, redolent of green shoots and spring returning. Why engines?

Calluna Vulgaris

The SPRIG of heather I hold barely weighs an OUNCE, it’s
picked from the purple FROCK spread on the hillside WHOLE.
Morning LIGHT shines from a TURBO-charged sunrise,
POSITs encircling calm to the wind’s weathering WHINE.      

Photo: Bjorn S…

[There seemed to be two sets of words available, so I used them both.]