Round 6

Held: Jul 20-Aug 10
Participants: Rob Malkin, Charles Schafer,  Charles Fry, Dominic Widdows, Tom Lokovic
Challenge:

1. turning a corner
2. the days are long
3. wile
4. "I think it's high time we pay the ransom"
   
5. I need some complications.

Results:

---

I stared at same note
all day in disbelief, a
long time lost to it.
Too simple it seems, I
only pay the piper, turn
the corner.  I can just
buy the bird.  I'm
thinking: perhaps better plan?  Maybe
jetpacks, or anvil on head.
Giant rubber band?  Rocket skates?
Kidding myself's a major issue.
That stuff never serves its
advertised purpose.  The plan, then:
pay ransom, then roadrunner is
mine.  Today.  High time indeed.

-- Rob Malkin

---

Thirty Something

Thirty something blocks of rain
strike me as they sometime did.
A child likes rain: a childlike eye
may appreciate its qualities.

Watch me wile the days so long
with you away with all your friends.

I need complications, like.
I need the whole thing in my head.
Thrown together, then blown apart.
Critically, with nothing said.

Watch me wile the days with you
away so long with all your friends.

Thirty something blocks of rain
strike me as they sometime did.
Then turn the corner and come inside
to appreciate your qualities.

-- Charles Schafer

---

Trudging down the street.
The ransom in my pocket.
My mind wanders again.
Loses track of what I should be thinking.
So long.
This day.
The asphalt before me.
Her hair.
I should have known better.

A quick glance over my shoulder.
Should I double back?
No, that's what they expect.
I pull up my collar and continue.
Straight.
Trying to look determined.
Another gait.
A show of confidence.

I pause before turning the corner.
Straighten my jacket.
Riffle my hair.
This has already unfolded
so many times in my mind.
But never quite like this.
Without the air of destiny.
The ethereal beating of my heart.
Calm composure.
Sublime resignation.

-- Charles Fry

---

Widening Horizons

It's the midst of the summer and the day are long
And I'm basking in the sunshine, but till work is done
I'm just following a furrow that I'll never own
And I can't remember why I ever took that loan
But until I get it paid off life's a simple show
I've got some place to stay, but nowhere to go
That fence in the distance cannot be the end
I have no scheme, and it's driving me round the bend ...

"Why don't you come ply the seas?"
A voice says as we're farming trees
If you will come, I'll pay you out
By now I have a little clout!
But then you pay me back in years

Why should I trust you over another?
You could be the devil, you could be my brother
Or both, for your low key eyes twinkle.

So I'm turning a corner, to find my way
To take the risk to make a bigger play

--Dominic Widdows

---

Cut-And-Paste

Everything you say to me
is typeset as a ransom note.
Your safety scissors cut-and-paste
from magazines a stream of thought
and never an original idea
emerges from the lot:
a hastily assembled scrap
cacophony of font.

With Cosmo you seduce me.
The New Yorker shows your wit.
People, Time and Rolling Stone
Remind you that you're not alone
In wanting to get off of your chest
The things you read in Soap Opera Digest.

But even so, I must confess,
I cannot help but be impressed
By scattered bits that seem to be
from the International Journal of Genetics and Molecular Biology.

--Tom Lokovic