Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Deliberation



Today's muse: Protagonize

The rules: Select a word to be the title of your 11-line poem. The last word of each line must be a word of no less than four letters created using letters from the title of your poem. (Note: For the record, I want to point out that this was not easy, but was a lot of fun. I failed at my first attempt by using three-letter words. Following directions has never been my forte).


* * *


Deliberation

“He partied at a festival, was filled with great elation,
and staggered out knowing he was too filled with libation;
his drunkenness forgotten—completely in denial.”
screamed the burly big-shot lawyer hired for the trial.

“If this man had only thought, used only half his brain,
that woman’d be alive now, and we would not detain.
Instead I’m here before you; my temper in a rile.
In fact, I must pause now, to swallow down my bile.”

The prosecution rests, no longer does berate.
The drunkard sits and waits while the jury does debate.

The verdict’s in, the man has sinned, the public does elate.



2 comments:

Dan Felstead said...

I left a comment but not sure it it took so I will repeat it...if it shows up twice...just delete!

I was saying how hard this would be to follow this structure! You did a great job however and i I wonder what the jury's reaction would be if the prosecutor actually phrased his/her closing statement using these guidelines?

Dan

Anonymous said...

I'm not a lover of form either and this is something that would definitely turn my hair even more gray if I tried it. But you did a great job here and what an intriguing topic you chose for the piece and to make it rhyme no less! Kudos to you!