After The Upgrade

On every show she watches
a house gets built or rebuilt,
designed or redesigned, or
bought or sold or demolished.

Usually the owners only show up
to drool and ooh-and-ahh and
“Oh-My-God!” over the changes
but sometimes they stick around
to help with the demolition,
pick out the tiles, the plants,
the paints, the cabinets, and
the patio’s paving and furniture,
but (either way) in the end
—after the big reveal—
she turns off the television
and loves her home sweet home.

——[||]——
dVerse Poets Pub
OLN – 01.15.26
~Open Link Night~

Written for this week’s challenge from Esther Chilton: A 38-word story incorporating those highlighted below:

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Dem Wuz Da Days

It’s all over.
Despite my (PhD) diploma, and even though I’m sipping my (last) glass of champagne in my luxurious tower home, my account’s overdrawn and I can’t even afford to write a story in exactly 38 words.

——[||]——
E.C.’s Story Challenge
01.15.26
~38 Words~

One butterfly cinquain, addressing two prompts:

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Sailor’s Reward

I’d sailed
to foreign lands
and found myself alone
and treasured all my loneliness
until
the day I stood on empty sands
and found you waiting there
to welcome me
ashore

——[||]——
Ronovanwrites
Cinquain #35 / 01.14.26
~ FOREIGN ~
——[||]——
The Daily Spur
~ SAIL ~

Here’s another (updated) Oldie, dredged up for this week’s Tuesday Poetics at the Pub. I was pretty sure this one was previously published, but my search for it at Eggs Over Tokyo kept coming up blank, so I guess I’m just misremembering.
At any rate…

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Oubliette: Myth of Captivity

There is no bottom.
The longer I am here
the more deeply I understand:
‘bottom’ is a myth.

Your meager chains and locks
are nothing to me now;
I surrender to them easily,
remember starlight,
sink into my escape.

——[||]——
dVerse Poets Pub
Tuesday Poetics – 1/13/26
~Prison Blues~

This week’s Tanka Tuesday Challenge wants us to write a syllabic verse including at least one Oxymoron. I used a Haiku, a Tanka, and a Shadorma to include several.

——[||]——

Inaudible Harmonics

mid-winter quiet
the loudest silence ever
feels never-ending

the lack of birdsong
harmoniously off-key,
filling empty air
leaves the listener longing,
singing along silently

in silent
snow-filled emptiness:
birds, muted,
refuse song.
Visibly vanished, songbirds
sing nothing, loudly.

——[||]——
Tanka Tuesday Poetry
Challenge #47 – 01/13/26
~ OXYMORON ~

>> It’s Quadrille Monday again at the dVerse Poets Pub; time to create a 44-word poem.
>> This week, we’re asked to create a poem using “SMILE” or some variant thereof.
>> Thanks to De Jackson for hosting and getting us started.

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AndraSay

He likes to mispronounce her name.

He’ll say something like, “Kiss me,
San-DARA, High Queen of The
Beauty Babes, Emperess of the
Sunniest of Sandy Beaches.”

She’s known him for almost ever
and she almost always smiles
when he twists his tongue around her.

——[||]——
dVerse Poets Pub
Quadrille Monday #239
~ SMILE ~

Fair Warning

The farm on the far side of town
grows a reefer that won’t let you down.
The buzz won’t go away
so you’ll stay high all day
and lose track of the limerick’s rhymes.

——[||]——
E.C.’s Limerick Challenge
~ 01.12.2026 – FARM ~

Ginger Weather Girl

She invites me to
jump through the screen
lick her sweet pixels

——[||]——
Sammi Cox Weekender
Prompt #450 – 01.10.26
~SWEET / 12 Words~

Always Will Be
-for KFL

The first worst thing I ever did
was to force some lady
to drive me to the hospital

She was pregnant and
it was a mid-winter weekend
so she probably had
better things to do

I didn’t care.
(I had things to do, too)

She was very forgiving, though;
stayed in touch
until…….ummm…

I guess
we’re still in touch

Adagiology 101

One
and a and a and a
two
and a and a and a
three
and a and a and a
four…

Like that. Slow.
Slow.
Reinvent adagio.

One
and a and a and a
two
and a and a …

Boom. Good.
I see you’ve got it.
Adagio. Ultra adagio.
Good.
Slow.
Good.

But don’t let it dirge.
No; no dirge.
It’s not a funeral.

It’s just slow;
Adagio slow.
Passionate.
Or mysterious.
Or, ummm…

One
and a and a and a