A daily poetry practice to generate and sustain the Life/Lines among us, for published and novice poets alike
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Prompt
Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.
liquefy
peach
ruse
buck
radiant
Send us your poem via our Submissions page or post on Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #lifelines.
Today’s words were contributed by guest curator Aditi Machado, a poet, translator and essayist. Her second book of poems Emporium (Nightboat, 2020) received the James Laughlin Award. Her other works include the poetry collection Some Beheadings (Nightboat, 2017), an essay pamphlet titled The End (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2020), and a translation from the French of Farid Tali’s Prosopopoeia (Action, 2016). Her writing appears in journals like The Chicago Review, Lana Turner, The Rumpus, Volt and Western Humanities Review, among others. She works as an assistant professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati.
Poems submitted for April 19
Recipe at the Singles Bar
All it took was two bucks
Of peach schnapps and a chaser
Of watermelon wine to liquify her:
A fruity ruse to get her smiling--
She never looked so radiant.
Jo Schaper
***
Sunlight liquefies
as a radiant rain of gold
sprinkles on his fur
and a crown made of bones.
Ears translucent with a tint of peach,
which alert at a slight crack of a twig.
His eyes, black as coal,
can discern ruses
and see through souls.
A buck in the wild.
Yixuan Chen
***
The buck hoped
what he thought was danger
was a ruse.
That he was safely hidden
by the peach tree
and the radiant sun
caused the enemies eyes
to liquify
making the shot useless
Sara Burke
***
She could eat a peach like an insult.
She was an expert at passing the buck.
Her glare could liquify in a heartbeat. She called love a ruse devised
to keep bitches in line. She held her breath over bridges
and was cruel to the kind. She was radiant, and terrible,
and she was never mine.
Gwyneth Henke
***
Radiant,
The sunlight touches
singular blinds with peach tones.
Graying blue clouds buck
clear predictions, without ruse,
of an evening absent rain.
However, thoughts do liquefy
and pour past a tiny moment
unable to be held.
Lisette Dennis
***
Overindulgence
Radiant sun-kissed peach,
you liquefy my resistance.
Your fuzz, simply a ruse
that leads me into sweet temptation.
I buck my own temperance
and indulge in your divine nectar.
Linda O’Connell 4/19/21
***
Mojito Sunrise
Liquefy that peach, juice dripping from the knife,
Pour in the radiant rum. No ruse is needed to sip
Mojitos publicly, proudly now that I’m all immune.
I haven’t spent a buck in a bar in a year.
Rebecca C. Wood
***
SOME PIG—kept from the knife
By the spider’s ruse,
Weaving her words to liquefy Zuckerman’s heart,
And buck the butcher
With her HUMBLE craft,
Saving the TERRIFIC pig,
But not without the rat,
Fresh from eating a rotten peach,
Snatching a scrap of detergent box and
Making Wilbur RADIANT.
Robert Henke
***
Watch how this young buck woos the women with his ruse
Beginning with a radiant ripe peach to amuse.
His lies liquefy her Don'ts into Dos
And
In the end, blend with her to misuse And booze to abuse.
— J. Thomas
***
Radiant ruse
It’s a radiant ruse, this babble about the sanctity of life.
It’s like when we rushed into the peach orchard and up a tree
to escape the Hampshire buck, that old blockheaded ram
that guarded the yard. He fell to eating, slurping really,
the fruit that was rotten and had begun to liquefy
and though we all knew he’d be sick, we encouraged him
to fill his gut. He slowed down eventually and ignored us as we fought
wasps and then the sun rising to scorch. He kicked flies
and blew into the dust, but never let us leave.
— M. E. Hope
***
A radiant peach for only a buck…
One bite will liquefy to sweet tasting juice
The fuzzy membrane was only a ruse.
Cat
***
When the fruit went missing
I gathered several clues.
The footprints of a doe, the antlers of a buck
Turned out to lead to nothing,
They’d been placed there as a ruse.
I followed last a radiant light,
Found people gathered in the night.
They’d worked a way to liquefy
My peach into their booze.
— John Randall
***
Wary doe, defiant buck, gaze into quiet orchard
Radiant sun warms perfectly ripe peach
One bite and the tender flesh begins to liquefy
Buck eats his fill while doe knows it's a ruse
KWin
***
Any freshness in the peaches
liquefied for the juice she sold
was a ruse
yet her beauty was radiant…
but worth a buck a glass?
***
Do I dare to eat
a peach?
It might be a ruse,
might liquefy my bones, let my
rolled-up trousers sag,
leave only my soul—
radiant, cerebral,
lonely--
wishing I had spent that buck
on a pear.
— Jeannette Cooperman
***
There are no fresh peaches here in April.
Tiny green fruit hides in the radiant morning.
Clouds are abundant, but the idea of rain is a ruse.
I give the plants some water, because the buck stops with me.
Clouds liquify in memory, but drought prevails.
Margaret Fourt Goka
***
observed:
a young buck’s
ruse
liquefy
before the radiant peach
by Lloyd Klinedinst
***
Why liquefy a radiant peach?
Buck that ruse!
-Jamie Moog
***
Says the Buck to the Duck
I can't keep up this ruse-
says the buck to the duck.
Such a radiant peach,
swimming in that pond.
Time to liquify my luck
and take off to run amuck!
Laurie J
***
radiant morning
the deer broke into the peach orchard
no ruse could keep them out
they wandered the neglected rows
one young buck and several does
pulling the fruit from the trees
gumming their lips to liquefy the pulp
the old man died last year
but the peaches still ripen
the deer arrive
J Kiefer
***
Pinky up demideity
Radiance to worship
The perfect peach to pluck
All the little compliments
An orchestrated ruse
Animals crave more than low hanging fruit
And confidence begins to liquefy
Erin
***
EXTERMINATION GAME
Sunlight sparkled radiant off the deadly melting ice
It should liquefy completely,
A lethal enticement to the mice.
T’was a peach of planning to fool ‘em with this ruse
And it doesn’t even cost a buck
For me win-win for them lose-lose.
TED
***
Hundreds of years ago
A hunter squeezed the peach
In her palm
To liquefy the juice
But this ruse was of no use
The buck stands tall and proud
On the top of the wooded ridge
Rays of sunlight from behind
Light his antlers with a radiant magnificence
The knowledge was once so commonplace that
Our brothers an sisters walk not only on two legs
But also on four, and fly, and swim
K.J. Boehler
***
the ruse
grab a buck
head to the fruit stand
select a radiant beauty
at home in blender
liquefy and drink
yum peach smoothie
Terrie Jacks
***
These words in a poem:
a ruse, to liquefy, and radiant peach.
A buck will be needed.
Please pay the poet.
TJ
***
costing just a buck,
packed with antioxidants…
hurray for radiant peaches,
a ruse liquefying
free radicals!
John J. Han
***
The radiant buck ran
to the peach trees.
They think of a ruse to
deceive him
But a buck is a buck
He ate the peach and
And liquefied himself.
Jey Sushil
***
The Day After the Funeral
The mourning day will end.
The sun will set, as it always does
the radiant fire-peach, liquefy.
The ruse, paused until morning.
The buck, passed until next time.
And we begin again, a little smaller.
Steve Givens
***
The peach of her face
never liquefies into a ruse,
but always stays true, sweet
for a young buck like me,
so in love with her, her soft cheeks
quick with wit, smooth to touch,
lips as juicy as sunlight. I bite them mute, excited.
— Dan Cuddy
***
After a hard day
I wander beneath the peach trees
Who have no need for ruses
No need to pass the buck
All the tension begins to
Liquify dissolve
As their radiance fills me
With a sweet juicy warmth
Carol Haake
***
Bought a peach for a buck.
Such radiance--yellow, orange--could only be a ruse.
A transcendent orb for a buck? Nah.
It will liquefy, vaporize, poof.
Too cheap and yet so dear.
— Rita Winters
***
Radiant and resplendent
Reds, oranges, yellows
My morning breakfast
Whirred through the blender
A bit of cream, liquify a peach
Not as a ruse, but to buck my trend
Of meat and eggs for breakfast
— Chad Savage
***
love letter
that ruse with radiant heat
failed to liquefy the fat on the floor
i love you for the effort but please buck
change your name
yours, peach
james goodman
***
Natural Magic
I watched transfixed as
two young bucks
stood gracefully in our front yard:
frozen like statues in the peach dawn,
their dark orbs radiant mirrored pools
that seemed to liquefy
right before your eyes,
a ruse used to enchant
hapless humans as they pass by.
Susan Lively
***
I stepped out on Washington Ave.
and the light was so radiant that
I knew right away it was a ruse.
Sure, everyone loved me--
but how could I make a buck off that?
I stared so hard at a rotten peach
in the beautiful gutter
that it began to liquefy.
And then I was brought back
to wretched reality.
— Matthew Freeman
***
Headline image: Raphael Biscaldi via Unsplash