The Part of a Barrel Nobody Talks About

Today, I skimmed the creamy top

Of my bag of teaching tricks

For something that starts as struggle

and usually ends as a favorite.

Today it went over like a lead balloon

On an episode of Mythbusters–

That is to say, it was a spectacle

and some people enjoyed it.

My Wrong Turn at Big Brother's Place

For the first time in three days, my host had cause to worry,

Though two days ago he jumped the gun,

and then he wasn't around to ignore this one.

For the first time in a week, I slipped my tether,

To stop being on a schedule, and just be wherever.

For the first time in this month, I went exploring,

Which, though not always planned, is never boring.

For the first time in three months, I got lost–
One of the few parts of a year that taste like freedom.

To an Ingenue, Who Neglected her Homework

I don't give assignments, but opportunities,

and this time, I even gave you two.

Because there was work you decided not to do,

You wish that I would do more work,

To follow the first opportunities with a third,

But that is not how it works in real life.

You might get more than one chance to be right,

But the first incomplete effort will be the last.

It's your own fault that you haven't passed.

Every Other Time Around, Pt. 3

To go back through my old writing is a sort of horror show,

To be appalled both at my style and at what I didn't know.

I went through noun and verb phases, an adverbial, an adjectival,

Each excoriated, roundly mocked, upon the next's arrival,

But nothing makes my skin crawl with embarrassment complete

As much as looking back at all the crap I used to read.

Meaning in the Immaterial

Teens see a car as freedom, parents worry, cats a threat.

Some might see cats as food, where I see only pretty pets.

It is only with our memories that houses become homes

(and they then turn into movies if you add the word Alone).

A gun is just a paperweight, 'til aimed (or not) and shot.

A thing does not have meaning, until given such by thoughts.

Meaning in the Material

The sight of home, to weary travelers,

Seems no less than heaven-sent,

But a house looks like a wooden rock

If you've only lived in tents.

What's a tree, if you are from Greenland

Where no such things are found?

A sitting stone will grow no moss

On drier desert grounds.

What do flight or beak or “nest egg” mean

To one who's seen no birds?

Without a thing to base it on,

There's nothing in a word.

World The Football

A wing cocked his foot back, intending to strike

A ball in the corner with all his leg's might

A little over ninety minutes into the match,

But there was only a corner flag for his foot to catch,

and at that point did a tie game turn into a sleeper –

Four four minutes a center back squatted down to play groundskeeper,

Wasting minutes of once-wasted time before the game could end.

It was almost as bizarre as my weekend.