Punched and Planted

Digging trenches in my yard

Making way for new technology

Holes dug by hand

Steel bullet pushed underground

Compressed air punches it through soft dirt

Two tubes pushed and pulled through

Carrying fiber-optic cables

Speeding up internet communications

Traveling at the speed of light

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, De Jackson asked us to use any form of the word Punch in our Monday Quadrille! Last spring Open Fiber came through our community and laid tubes for running fiber optic cable. The put two of them through holes they punched under the driveways and yards. Competition in the cable world is good for us consumers. They are still working at installing the actual fiber which is as thin as a hair.

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Labor Day

Labor Day

Every day is Labor Day for my little Downy Woodpecker

All day long he comes to my suet feeder eating his fill

Back and forth he goes and sometimes she comes too

Sinking their beaks into fat, they pull out seeds

Emptying cage

Since this is Labor Day in the US, Lisa from d’Verse has given us the word labor as our Quadrille prompt. I can see, from my recliner, my cute little birds coming and going all day long enjoying the birdseed and suet cakes I put out for them. They labor very hard until all the good seed is gone. They flutter around in dismay when it gets empty, waiting for the refill. Reminds me the way government and politics sometimes works.

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Glorious Morning

Morning bursts forth in all its radiant glory,

peering through the sheltered woods,

highlighting trees, dancing on flowers.

Steppingstones draw me to

the damp creek.

Frogs bury themselves in mud keeping cool

Morning breezes will soon shift

But, for now, the glorious morning shimmers.

Backyard Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Today, at d’Verse. Linda asked us to write a 44 word Quadrille using the word morning.

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Things I learned in High School

When I think back on the things I learned

I wonder what fragment remains after sixty years

Math and Literature History and Civics

all are fading fast, but there is one skill

I use every day, creating this blog for you…

Typing skills remain

***

Stamp Art Typewriter: Dwight L. Roth

d’Verse prompt for Quadrille Monday… type… or a form of the word.

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Digital Woolly Worm

I saw a green wooly worm today

sitting very still and pretty

Not your usual orange and black

but little itty-bitty

A digital worm I supposed,

from all those black antennae

I wondered what channel he listened to,

for there are so very many

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Quadrille day at d’Verse… the prompt is Wrap.  

https://dversepoets.com

For more information on the American Dagger Moth click here:  

http://redandthepeanut.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-dagger-moth-caterpillar.html

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/american-dagger-moth

 

Choose Your Hypnotist

A willing subject is the key

Believing all will be

What is spoken to me

Tickling my itching ears

Stirring my righteous anger

Calling me to do what

I would never dream of doing

had this spell not been cast

on me…

so willingly

This is my second poem for the prompt Spell. As I watch some of what is going on with the Senate hearings on the January 6^th riots at the Capital, I had to think about why this happened. The hypnotist chooses willing subjects to do his bidding, but the subjects usually choose who they want for their hypnotist! This is not only true in politics.

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Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Summer Red Sky

Red sky in the morning casts an eerie spell

over calm flat ocean waves

Is it an ominous warning to sailors?

…or simply warning us of an intense UV day

Either way, wise choices

will tell their tale at the end of the day

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’verse Sanaa asked us to write a Quadrille of exactly 44 words using the word Spell as our prompt.  Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

“Red sky in the morning ….sailors take warning.

Red sky at night ….a sailor’s delight.”

Sweet Baby Boy

Sweet Baby Boy close your eyes

Sleep in a world of wonder

Go off to dreamland with a sigh

Don’t worry about the thunder

Sweet Baby Boy just close your eyes

For if it wakes you makes you cry

These covers you’ll be under

Today is Quadrille Monday at d’Verse. Our prompt is any form of the word sleep. I took my inspiration from a lullaby I wrote several years ago for my adopted grandson who had a hard time adjusting.

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Original Lullaby post:  https://rothpoetry.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/sweet-baby-boy/

Check-out Time

Static hisses in the brain as we struggle

to overcome the feeling of helplessness

spinning in a vortex of anxious thoughts.

Isolation seems needed to wipe it away

Cheerleaders tell you to cheer up

sharing thoughtless advice making it worse.

Only solution… self-destruct!

Today at d’Verse, Mish asked us to use the word static as our Quadrille prompt. I grew up in an age of radio static on AM stations too weak to hear. We loved playing with static on balloons as we rubbed them on our sweaters and stuck them on the wall. I can still feel the static shock from the doorknob after walking across nylon carpeting.

My poem today reflects the static we hear in our heads. As many of you know Naomi Judd from the country music duo, The Judds, passed away yesterday due to her struggle with ongoing mental illness. If you have ever struggled with depression, you know there are no easy solutions. Many cannot stand the ongoing static in their heads and decide to check out early. If you are struggling, reach out for help rather than thinking life is hopeless and there is no solution. Life is too precious to lose.

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Hopscotch

Our lives

Like chalk on the sidewalk

Defined by blocks of little lifetimes

Drawn at birth… continuing on

One hop at a time

Until we make it to the end

Or misstep and hop out early…

As the chalk defining our lifetime

Washes away

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today De at d’Verse asked us to Chalk up a poem. We are to write a 44 word Quadrille using the word Chalk in any way we choose.

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