Another autumn day afield
with naught to show but memories
for the cold hours still and concealed.
not one deer having been revealed
among the mix of hardwood trees;
at least I need not drag a deer.

Legs are stiff from being still
(not to mention two fake knees
unfit to jump even a small rill)
so I slowly ascend this one last hill
in the evening's slight cold breeze
as stars one by one appear.

Arapaima! A mystery's at hand!
Oh, how did you land on Florida's sand?
Why did you come? Did you say your goodbyes?
Was it for love? Or a change in the tides?

With a tail that's red and head copper-green,
You're the strangest mermaid we've ever seen.
Your swim bladder barely lets you submerge,
Then you come up and eat monkeys and birds?

The Licorice Fields at Pontefract by John Betjeman

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (rhyme patterns shop)

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

Nine eleven - is our designation
retribution is our aim
through selective regeneration
our collective lays the blame.

Your culture is - inefficient
you must adapt or die
your protests are - irrelevant
in time you will comply.

Our mission is - self-justified
our perfection will persist
we have the force - on our side
it is futile to resist.

Self-defence - is our cause
our best defence - attack
with revenge the only recourse
we will assimilate Iraq.

Received but not compelled,
I presented myself with the others.
No missals tendered, nor withheld
Some riffled through them to incant
into the dark. Coughing, shuffling brothers
sat themselves below. We watched aslant.

From silence, words started - incoherence
In the balcony, we did not chant.
The weighted hymns stayed low and belled.
Obscure arising, slipstreams of spirants