Old, old words...... 'quag' and 'mire';
One of these has been forced to retire.
'Mire' on its own is 'to be held fast';
We use it still so its day's not passed.
'Quag', on the other hand, meaning 'bog'
Is a place of mud and slop and sog.
I must say I've never heard it said
And it seems to me the word is dead.
Put them together, you get 'quagmire',
A place of danger dark and dire.
A place where one 'is held fast by mud'....
And that's enough to chill the blood!
The lady above may not survive!
The mud may gobble her up alive!
Politicians get 'mired' in debate;
Unable to move; in a parlous state.
And a 'quagmire' can be of a mental kind,
When we're in a 'bogged down' state of mind.
But 'quag' on its own, I'm afraid, is dead!
Just an old word that used to be said.
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BLUE ON BLACK.
What if the blood rushed to our heads and we pulled down all the flags
And stored them under our beds somewhere in sturdy plastic bags?
What if we gave the flag-poles to people in the street,
So that they could chop them up and burn them for some heat?
What if we dropped the 'Us and Them' and simply made it 'Us'?
And then got rid of passports and borders and all that fuss?
What if our National Anthems were banished overnight
And we all sang from the same song-sheet , cream, coffee, black and white?
What if we had a new banner, just blue on a sea of black,
And forgot about Star-Spangled whatsit and the outmoded Union Jack?
We're all we've got, that's for certain, so shouldn't we all rejoice
That we're on this bright blue planet, singing with one voice?
Of course, John Lennon said it all in 'Imagine' long ago,
And since that time the world's endured increasing war and woe.
Would one flag cure our problems? That I sincerely doubt,
For human-beings are stupid; they'd find something to fight about!
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6 comments:
innovative lines on the OSI prompt !! loved them :)
Both are very beautiful..thanks for enlightening on Quagmire.. and a dream you shared with us..
I like how you enlightened everyone on my prompt suggestion...I found from everyone's rendition that this word seems to delve on the negative..
Your poem is very very nice...and also the Blue on Black...at times I am thinking, what if the sky is orange and not blue, what if the leaves are gray and not green?
I must admit, this is the first time I got to know of this word and am adding it to my dictionary thanks for explaining it even further
the first poem was really clever; I enjoyed your poems!
Imagine. For sure! These are both perfect!
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