Poetry Challenge – my entry
Posted on : 27-04-2009 | By : Joe Craig
In : Poetry!
6
I was trying to avoid rising to the bait of any poetry challenge. But you can’t stay curmudgeonly forever. So here I am, with my effort.
the question I had to answer was ‘Where’s that smell coming from?’, and I had to use the word ‘LUNAR’.
I hope you (and the monsters) feel that I have succeeded…
A stinky cloud of toxic gas descended on the earth
Asphyxiating millions and terrifying scores.
Scientists and doctors searched for all that they were worth
But none of them was able to identify the cause.
At first they thought the answer lay beneath the briny sea:
Perhaps a plague of salmon or a stinky type of tuna?
They never even realised what’s plain to you and me:
Any source of toxic gas is always – always – lunar.
One scientist was fool enough to sail right through the cloud
Armed with just a microscope, aboard a little schooner.
He never made it back to land, but in his death was proud.
He drowned with one phrase in his throat: “This toxic gas is lunar!”
Back at home they wondered why his boat had started sinking.
They blamed the King! They blamed the French! They blamed a famous crooner!
Was Sinatra’s rotting flesh the source of all this stinking?
No. If only they had known. The cause of death was lunar!
By now the gas had sent them mad. They’d lost all grasp of spelling.
One of their reports lays all the blame on a ‘Hyuna’,
But misspelled laughing dogs can’t make the gas the world was smelling!
Of course not. Only one thing can. The cause of gas of lunar!
So whether you be old or young, unpleasant or seductive,
Or lover, mother, father, friend, or wide-eyed honeymooner
If ever you should sense a cloud of gas that seems destructive,
You must remember this: THE SMELL THAT’S KILLING YOU IS LUNAR!
I thank you.
I’ve just noticed that I was meant to do this is no more than 8 lines.
Well, I’ve used no more than 8 stanzas.
Oops.
Sorry.
[...] more from the original source: Poetry Challenge – my entry | Trapped By Monsters Tags: abraham, back-at-home, blamed-the-french, blamed-the-king, boat, foretold, his-boat, [...]
Impressive scanning and rhyming – it all passes the reading aloud test. Was going to tick you off for overstepping the eight lines rule (and technically you can’t win) but it’s really too good to confine in any way…
And what a great opening for a new novel! Can anyone raise the bar further on rhymes for lunar? I bottled it completely…
sooner…Deportivo La Coruna…Gooner…sorry, Ali…gone a bit footie-related…
OK – now put them in a poem, Simon!
watch this space – see what I did there? Keeping the lunar thing going…never mind…