Gumshoe

ABC WEDNESDAY

http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com/

GUMSHOE
(An Acrostic)

Guessing..... as a foreigner..... that gumshoe means 'detective'.

Unless, of course, Google's got it wrong (but can it be defective?);

Masculine Humphrey Bogart was certainly one of these;

Sultry and mysterious, but always sure to please.

However, did he wear soft shoes? That hasn't been made plain.

Obviously I must look when I see his films again.

Every country has it's slang; this was unknown to me.

But, if we were all alike, how boring it would be!

*
---------------------------------------------------

HUMMING A HAIKU

Light fractured in splinters

Rainbow released

Flutter and hum in the light.

*

A Complex Situation

MAGPIE TALES

http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2011/02/mag-55.html

chose the illustration

A COMPLEX SITUATION

(A story that calls for prose.)

I hadn't any choice. She'd broken a promise, and that was that.

Of course, I should have been used to it; after all, I was forty-two, and, in all those forty-two years, I have never found anyone to be reliable. Someone would pretend to be my friend, but their hatred soon revealed itself. Everyone was out to get me.

It started when I went to school. Other children always chose the pencil I wanted,  just to hurt me. As they took it from the pencil-tin they would look me in the eye with utter hatred and triumph. Over the years I grew to expect 'that look'. Everyone I met was out to get me. Every day I woke up in a sweat wondering whether today would be the day I was stabbed in a dark alley, pushed under a train or just......looked at.

I never got a job. How could I, when all possible employers looked at me and decided to 'cut me down to size'? How I loved that phrase! It summed it up so well. The whole world was trying to 'cut me down to size.'

In the end I was just another vagrant on the street. Even then, 'they' were out to get me. Those poor, gaunt creatures would try to grab my one blanket, my stolen crust, all the while looking at me with hatred.

But She was different. She was a large, blousy woman in a tasteless dress who brought us sandwiches and tea at night. 'Motherly', they called her. She would actually talk to me! 'I don't judge anyone' She once said. I began to feel I could trust her. 'I have a spare room' She said; 'Come home with me and I'll look after you'. It would be so good to escape persecution, I thought.

'I promise you I'll never harm you' She said. And I believed her.

But my relief only lasted a few hours. I wandered into her kitchen that first night. She was cutting -up a lemon. 'I do like a squeeze of lemon with my fish' She said. 'Don't you?'

Oh, it sounded such a harmless little phrase. But the knife was in her hand and I could tell from the glint in her eye that She wanted to plunge it into my flesh. How that woman hated me! And how She had fooled me! She shouldn't be allowed to get-away with it. I grabbed the knife.

I hadn't any choice. She'd broken a promise, and that was that.

---------------------------------------------------------

DAZZLE-DARK

Here, in the dazzle-dark of day,

Between the shadow and the shimmer,

My arm encircles the moment.

*

------------------------------------------------------------------

PS

Life has been rather hectic lately. We enjoyed Mike's final few days with us and here are the flowers he bought me, along with a gift token, as a parting gift. Lovely, aren't they. As I write Mike is high above the clouds on a 36 hour journey to his own front door...... and chilly weather. He'll be pleased to hear that, in Newcastle, the temperature has been about 35 degrees today, culminating in a storm

Yesterday we put-on another melodrama. This time there were only four of us available, so two of us had to play five parts! Olwyn played the two men and I played the three women. We had a large audience and they were very vocal and enthusiastic.

Here are two members of the audience hamming-it-up as Villain and unwilling Virgin!

And here is my lovely friend, Caroline, who came along to play the tape. She's not a member of the group (yet), but she stood-in for members of the Probus Club, who were all at a meeting.

                                      

  And, today, the Choir has performed for Malcolm's Club. I slept for two hours when I got home!

*

Success!

RUBY TUESDAY

http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/2011/02/ruby-tuesday_28.html

PROTESTATIONS!

Red is a rousing colour that Protestors often use!

When it comes to placards it's it's always in the news.

Here are two young ladies setting off to join a rally

Intended to stop a project, the damming of their valley!

Maybe a dam is needed and maybe it is not;

A water-supply is needed when the weather's dry and hot,

But pristine countryside is doomed; there are many broken hearts,

And many different opinions register in the charts.

These young ladies have a viewpoint and a valid one, I'm sure.

They have the right to speak their minds. Long may it endure!

*
Later
I can report they had success! They, and every other supporter,
Prevented the building of the dam, the flooding of farms with water!
I still don't know the rights and wrongs, the politics of it all,
But it's good to know, in democracy, the voice that's  heard though small.
*
-----------------------------------------------------------

RASPUTIN

 

Would I have fallen underneath his spell

As many did in Russia long ago?

His was a tale that folk would tell and tell.

His was a name that everyone would know.

Of his first forty years there's little known;

Except that from rough peasant stock he came.

He married, so he did not live alone;

And yet to monkish powers he made a claim.

He seemed to have the power to heal the sick,

And people flocked to listen to him speak.

But was this just a very clever trick

He used to fool the gullible and weak?

He heard the Tsar's son lingered near to death

Hemophilia was this poor boy's affliction.

Rasputin somehow stayed his final breath!

The drama was as great as any fiction.

Because of this strange act the people thought

He must be holy, free from any taint,

And all the high and mighty in the court

Began to view Rasputin as a saint!

He had a way with ladies, so it's said;

Although he never learned to read and write.

And many found their way into his bed,

Meaning his soul was not exactly white!

His influence began to grow too great;

In politics he often took a hand.

He acted as adviser to the state

His 'wisdom', more and more, was in demand.

Three noblemen decided he must go!

They planned his death discretely as they could.

The Tsar, of course, was not allowed to know;

He thought Rasputin wonderfully good.

His death has puzzled everyone for years!

With poisoned cake and wine he first was fed!

Imagine all their terror and their fears!

The victim didn't writhe or fall down dead!

So then they shot him, but he still survived!

So they pushed him in the river, under ice!

Was ever there a murder more contrived?

But at least Rasputin now had paid the price.

What he was, for certain, we're not sure.

A healer who was just misunderstood,

A holy man who had the power to cure,

Or a villain, quite the opposite of good?

But I wish that I had met him face to face;

Would he have had an influence over me?

I like to think I'd have put him in his place!
Then I'd have earned a place in history!
*

Eucalytpus Haze

BLUE MONDAY

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

EUCALYPTUS HAZE

The gum tree has painted Australia

In shades of glorious blue.

Wherever the eucalyptus grows

The colour of the sky breaks through.

This is the Hunter Valley,

Which is very near where I live.

It's an area of natural beauty,

But with something more to give.

Under these spreading vineyards,

In sight of the gum-tree blue,

Coal-mines spread their fingers

Sometimes spoiling the view.

Newcastle, my home city

Exports much more coal

Than any other port on earth,

But, of course, it takes its toll,

Not only on our countryside

But on the Earth at large;

We're adding to Global Warming....

That's the oft-heard charge.

I long for the day when Energy

Is something we can renew,

And the Hunter Valley is only known

For its vines and its gum-tree blue.

*

----------------------------------------------------

                   Margaret Gosden 

AWASH.

The red sun sinks as the white moon rises.

I stand ankle-deep in the silvered water

That washes over the paling-pierced sand.

*

Shoo Shoe!

MICROFICTION
http://www.stonyriver.ie/2011/02/
A short, short story


SHOO SHOE!

Pretty little Fairy Fay

Found a human shoe one day.

It smelt so bad, she thought it wiser

To doctor it with deodoriser.

*
--------------------------------------------------------------




DRASTIC MEASURES

Monty had an awful cold, and he thought it might be flu,
So he visited his Doctor to see what he could do.
The Doctor gave him several pills and suggested time in bed.
'You should be right as rain quite soon' the cheerful Doctor said.
Monty did as he was told, obeying to the letter,
But, sad to say, as time went by, he felt not one whit better.
Once more he sought the Doctor's help to battle his infection;
The doctor thought a bit and then he gave him an injection.
'Go home and rest and it will work in no time you will see.'
So Monty did as he was told, exactly, to a T.
Again the dreadful cold persisted; the worst he'd ever caught!
Back to the surgery he went, quite feverish and distraught.
He pleaded with the Doctor 'For Pete's sake find a cure!
This snuffling and this hacking cough I really can't endure!'
'There's only one thing for it' said the Doctor 'Take a shower.
Then stand in front of an open window naked for an hour.'
'Are you crazy?' blurted Monty. 'It's winter-time and freezing!
I think you're making fun of me; you surely must be teasing!'
Then the Doctor said 'I'm serious! And this will work for sure!
Because then you'll catch pneumonia! And that's something I can cure!
*

Lost!

MONDAY'S CHILD
http://childrensverse.blogspot.com/2011/02/mondays-child-35.html
Poetry for Children

LOST!

They're lost in the jungle and getting in a flap!

Isn't it lucky that Daddy's got a map!

*

Little Billy Bunny says 'I hear a thunder clap!

Isn't it lucky that Daddy's got a map!'

*

Leonardo Lizard says 'I think this is a trap!

Isn't it lucky that Daddy's got a map!'

*

Katarina Kitty says 'A monster's teeth might snap!

Isn't it lucky that Daddy's got a map!'

*

But Daddy's got a problem...........................

 'What a terrible mishap!

I mustn't let the children know

 I can't read a map!'
*

----------------------------------------------------------

WHY?

Mummy, why is water wet?

Why isn't water dry?

Mummy, why do fishes swim?

Why don't fishes fly?

Mummy, why are clouds up there?

And not down in the sea?

Mummy! When I'm old as you

Will you be as old as me?

*

Me and My Friend

MELLOW YELLOW MONDAY

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

 

ME AND MY FRIEND

Me and my friend, yellow hats to the fore,

Play in the water down by the shore.

The Lake is calm, not rough like the sea,

And Mummy says it's perfect for my friend and me.

Mummy and Daddy are very nearby

And the sun is hot and high in the sky.

Our yellow hats give us protection.

Sun and water and play!
 Perfection!

*

--------------------------------------------------------------

Geneva 

Canberra 

WATER-SPOUTS

In Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin, a water-spout arises

In an arc of sunlit water! One of life's great surprises!

But the original of this could be seen in Switzerland,

Where snow-capped mountains reached the sky, snow-capped on every hand.

In the centre of Lake Geneva was the famous Jet de 'L'eau,

As any citizen of that place is very sure to know.

The Diplomats worked long and hard to have permission granted

To copy the famous Water Jet, where Canberra was planted.

So now there are two fountains, but they're very far apart,

But both of them have proved themselves eye-catching works of art.

*
-------------------------------------------
PS

Yesterday we spent up at Nelson Bay, where our friend, Joan, lives. Unfortunately the weather was rather dull, although it was very warm with a lovely cooling breeze coming off the water. We had a delicious lunch with Joan, and then Malcolm sat reading English newspapers, Mike went for a solo walk along the shore and Joan and I had a good game of Scrabble, as we usually do when we meet. Earlier in the day we strolled around the boat harbour and took a couple of photos. We couldn't get shots of the dolphins; they were too quick for us. But they were very close in-shore.

I like this unusual shot of Mike.

But Joan and I were caught off-guard among the yachts.
*