PAT-A-CAKE

Elfin folk play pat-a-cake,
a tradition passed down
from small hands to small hands.
Passing time with elfin rhyme
sing-a-song of sixpence
and used as a self-defense,
they play. They never stray
from their merriment,
these scary men of minuscule means.
Caught in a blur, an inky stain
where the stinky little buggers
fester. They are sequestered
in their hovel homes,
pat-a-caking til the cows come.

(C) Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Quickly – Visual

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SHE, QUICKLY, SAID CHAIR

I had become chair.
Not a chair,
not the chair,
just chair.
Anybody can chair
if they’re in the mood,
Even if you dare,
how now brown chair?
I have longed to come to chair
for it is there
where a bit of sit
will fit my time
as I rhyme there about
chair. For it has been
second chair on the right
and straight on into the foyer.
Boy, oh boy how can anyone bear
to not need to chair,
I swear it’s a far, far better chair
than I’ve ever dared to care.
So in the corner I will sit
forthwith and forsooth
and give a hoot for
(as long as I’m chairished)

(C) Walter J. Wojtanik

Quickly – Schedule Revision: Chair

JOBS WEAR NO COLLARS

Eager to Create Blue-Collar Jobs, a Small Business Struggles

I love to work.
But, it is always work.
Hard, demeaning,
satisfying, trying,
seemingly endless.
Cutting like a hot knife
through spoiled cheese;
stinking to high heaven.
I’m thinking about how my father
would come home from his clerk
position at the steel plant roll shop.
Yet, I can’t recall if his collar was
white, or blue or chartreuse,
(there’s no use thinking too deeply)
All I knew is we were never without,
food, or clothing or shelter
from his sometimes helter-skelter inebriation.
This was our life station. Children
of a once-steel town. Not down on our luck,
just lucky to be. We could see up from there
and that became our fervent goal,
to leave my heart and soul to the hometown
and expecting to escape with the rest of me intact!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Quickly 9/5/17 – Write Hard

Poems of Garden Gnomes – Getting to Work

YEAR ON THE FLOOR

Please don’t call me a drunkard,
it’ll only make me sore.
I much prefer “inebriate”
while I’m down here on the floor.

I’m usually an upright guy,
right down to the core,
but, my balance slides when I imbibe,
while I’m down here on the floor.

I haven’t gotten up in months,
the dust bunnies are a bore,
I hoped to sober up real soon
while I’m down here on the floor.

I have no use for labels,
I’ll show you to the door
if I could reach the table
from down here on the floor.

Well, today’s the anniversary,
I might go down in lore
and be that guy who yes, did lie
a whole year on the floor!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Quickly – Open the Book: Year of the Flood

THE KREWE OF PYTHON

A small band of Brits what writ
a cavalcade of skits and silly things,
sometimes men dressed as ladies in frilly things
doing silly walks down Bourbon Street.
Giant cartoon feet stepping to flatten
bystanders as they meander aimlessly,
shamelessly exposing their naughty parts,
dressed as lumberjacks and tossing Spam
at the troupe of Vikings wailing, no sailing
today for the Camembert is a bit runny.
Saying funny things to all named Bruce.
(We’re all named Bruce!) Marching
down the thoroughfare with galloping coconuts
at the ready and a steady chant of “Ni, Ni, Ni”!
Dead ex-parrots pining for the fiord!
Bringing disorder to the French Quarter
(nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition)
as the locals taunt them a second time.
Searching for the Grail without fail,
silly twits, a band of Brits! Run Away!
They don’t really like Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
…And now for something completely different!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Quickly – Funny Thing Happened

BOOK SALE

Stacks and stacks
of books without racks,
hard covered and paperbacks.

Their conditions are fine
all titled on their spines,
(But none of them are mine.)

Grand adventures to set sail,
grand words without fail,
it looks like they’re all for sale.

There’s romance novels and reference tomes,
historical tales of where the buffalo roam,
some hysterical farce, try taking one home.

Get a book, by hook or by crook,
Get a great deal, come take a look!
It’s a steal, come buy a book!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Quickly – Quickly, Simply

HOMESTEAD DREAMS

An unfamiliar place with no trace
of anything you can recall.
So many thoughts and ideas
given birth as your mind unearths
sorrow with little hope for a tomorrow.
Webs cobbled in fine silk
milking memories from misty midnight menageries.
Windows to the world, a soulless place
replacing what once was held dear,
here where love blossomed
and sons and daughters grew in tune.
Airy, left in decay – a shell of better days
confiscated youth ripped from our hearts
by upstart degenerates and renegades
where as children we once played.
Zombied now and denigrated
waiting for a wrecking ball or overhaul.
In dreams you find your mind returning,
yearning for what once was your domain.
You can certainly go home again,
but why would you want to?

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Quickly – But It Seemed So Real

“I AM A GOOD-LOOKING GIRL, WITH MY UGLY HAT”

I am a good-looking girl, with my ugly hat.
I’m very svelte, what’cha think about that?
I’m a lovely young girl with millions of curls,
which I like to hide with my hideous hat!

Why would a girl who is svelte with such curls,
attempt to hide such a good-looking girl,
beneath such a hat that’s as ugly as that
to shield me away from the rest of the world?

When this good-looking girl so lovely and sweet,
would obnoxious fellows randomly meet,
I’d rather be hidden by this hideous hat
than to go sans chapeau with lumpy fat feet!

The temptation of beauty sets young men astray,
for this good-looking girl shouldn’t feel that way.
I know that my beauty is only skin deep,
and an ugly hat will drive even nice guys away!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

Bea Quickly – Too Much of a Good Thing

SONNET #1 – THE RETURN TO CHAOS

So I return to work on the first day,
and wonder what within this chaos lurks?
I’m here back to the grind with mindless jerks.
and chaos reigns, there is much hell to pay!
They’ve left a stack of papers here to push,
in this mess of chaos that awaits me.
Coriolis swirl you do sedate me,
I’ve cleared my desk with one chaotic flush!

The peace I find is found within my mind,
the new year’s come, and so I start anew.
And here’s another year yet to explore
so last year’s chaos gladly I’ll eschew.
I hope that no more chaos I will find.
but I’ll prepare as if there will be more!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

QKJ #31 – Re-Vision of Day Three’s Word (Non-Ghazal) into a Sonnet

THE VERY BEST ON EARTH

Her music stirs my senses,
a lightning bolt to shake me
from my malaise and break me
away from this crazy despair.

I find her there, and I have this need to listen,
though I am not required to pay her heed.
She has written lyric and book and I pine to read
all that she’s worth; the best value on earth!

© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2017

QKJ #30 – Use these words: bolt, shake, pine, required, music, break, earth, book, senses