New virus attacked
Roll of thunder announced it;
connected minds roared
The disease flared through
Decay spread through synapses;
infection rumbled
Head counted microbes
The future resounded through
the boom of the bugs
Germs in each corner
Spelt name of a new species
that grumbled through space
Reading of the poem:
Azam Ali - PHANTOMS
Written in the context of Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge using the words “bug”, “rumble” or their synonyms. More on the rules and other poets’ contribution here. https://ronovanwrites.com/2021/10/11/ronovan-writes-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-379-bug-rumble/
The winds carried me
delicate wings fluttering
in ascent of skies
Dark clouds gathered tight
In graceful touch of the night
while the moons surged sleek
The days’ rise upturned
sunlit landscapes glittered white
The tides washed the beach
Sparkling sugar straits
reflections of sandy slopes
swell under the sun
Bright eyes stretch inwards
gathering the suns rays’ kiss
irises spotless
The sea progresses
my body in solemn vow
meets dizzy waves’ pull
Reading of the poem
The down on her lips
bristled at the sight of them
they coloured street lights
Her peach lips curled up
her face mask of amazement
her blushing cheeks taut
Her muscles strained locked
moving into position
her body knelt down
Every fiber lit
she tore through blooming flowers
fresh grass met her feet
She watched them fearful
her cheeks aflush from the run
her hair in cascades
They reached out to her
features glowing in the dark
heads covered in fuzz
Reading of the poem:
Ed Sheeran - Bad Habits
Written in the context of Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge using the words “peach”, “fuzz” or their synonyms. More on the rules and other poets’ contribution here
Ire burnt in hearts
while the Scots paved a free road
Return to glory
The lights flashed on her
Like a mural painted white
she emerged from night
The wizards combined
potions for resurrection
counting dead eyes’ beat
Midnight’s toll rang still
heavy doors creaked sullenly
lanterns hissed their glare
Glint in pupils lost
bedtime struck at eventide
dark everlasting
November skies bled
a flag flying at half mast
symbol of demise
Reading of the poem:
A figure so slight
a toe out of dainty shoes
Fleeting outlines blurred
A dash of sulphur
sinuous lines on her brow
a frontier defined
Exploring unknown
tuning into the channel
seizing vast landscapes
Limits extended
choice to heed fluttering ribs
Pinnacle of life
Throbbing subsiding
contours of the world fading
move into nothing
On the edge of death
the Queen handed back the heart
setting boundary
Reading of the poem:
Nancy ajram Hassa bik New نانسي عجرم حاسة بيك with english lyrics
Only the question
mattered more than the answer
Twined cause and effect
Common inquiry
A probe into grey matter
Symptom of the quest
Pillars of queries
Symbols of the need to know
A trace of lives lived
Myriads of half-truths
Sign of the times etched in blood
Reality blurred
Picking up the clues
Omen of a time gone by
Skies high in bosom
She survived inquests
Her mind a token of light
A flag flying high
Reading of the poem:
Strings of a Bard (acoustic) - Estas Tonne (2021)
Written in the context of Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge using the words question and sign or their synonyms. More on the rules and other poets’ contribution here https://ronovanwrites.com/2021/08/23/ronovan-writes-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-372-question-and-sign/
It had been difficult to get Manas to surrender to the police in Cameroon. Not only because he would not have volunteered himself but also because she did not feel like turning him in. The time before she had taken him to the police was filled with days of laughing and visiting the forests and nights of lovemaking. One night though, she had realized that her team was closing in on them and she had confessed everything to Manas. More important was the fact that she confessed to him that his case would be better off with the local policeman than with the anti-terrorist team who had been asked to either bring him alive to justice or just shoot him if their mission was starting to be difficult. The morning after she had the realization about her team, they hid in a truck which was then driven towards the police station in Douala, Cameroon. The truck had dropped them off at the police station where she had asked to be dispatched to the US Embassy as a US Citizen with diplomatic status. Manas was immediately taken by the police and put in chains. Before being put in separate rooms he had walked towards her, his eyes shining and a smile on his face and told her that they would soon be together again.
She did not hear from him again for several weeks and she had been demoted and posted in Dubai where her anti-terrorist expertise was not used. She dwelt very little on the terrible things that had happened in the first two weeks before she was relocated. Her boss was seething at her initially for not having brought Manas to the drop off point as agreed when she met him or at least put the explosive and plant the trigger so they could bomb the shack where the marriage was taking place. After some thought, she was not fully let go off but was assigned to the trade commissioner’s team and meant to bridge between the UAE nationals’ companies and the US corporate interests in the UAE. While she was in the UAE, she had been contacted several times by someone who wrote to her at the UAE number that she had got from one of her procurement associates that she worked with, out of the sphere of her official job. The writing seemed extremely similar to the words that Manas would use. She started getting used to the daily communication and wrote as if it were Manas himself indeed writing to her. At one point her correspondent suggested meeting at a café in a mall and she went there but did not meet anyone. Just before she had left the café, however, someone with the stature of Manas but with hair had attempted to get inside the café before looking pointedly towards the right and aborting his attempt. She had then seen stroll through three emiratis in their national outfit. It was obvious, however, to her trained eyes that these were secret service agents. It looked like they just did not want the encounter to happen but disturbed neither her nor the man who had fled the mall.
After that potential brief encounter, the job she was doing was no longer sufficient to take her mind of Manas and was not even remotely connected to what she wanted to do so she had resigned. She was now an adviser on security in the private sector and most of her work was around choosing the right security teams for different types of jobs as well as building secure hideouts or camps for different types of individuals or corporates. Initially recruited by a security company in Dubai, she had slowly branched out of the Gulf and then started her own security company in the UK, advising high net worth individuals and corporates on security. She was based in London and had very few friends but was all the much better for it. Friends were a liability that brought you down in hostage situations and she did not want to have that kind of a weight put on her shoulders. It was then that Manas had reached out to her directly first sending a message to her phone and then contacting her over whatsapp. She had watched with longing as his face filled the screen, smiling like he had done when she had first met him. “Hello my angel”, he said and the tears had welled in her eyes. She knew that it was not him but his terrorist gang who had got to her the first two weeks after he had been turned over to the policeman but his face rekindled those dark memories. At the same time, she could not look at his face without feeling such elation.
3 Daqat - Abu Ft. Yousra
She was walking for almost an hour now, always with the Thames by her side. Her thoughts went back to Manas and how she had met him first in a small hut-like construction in Cameroon. She had landed quite abruptly in the field near his house and had hid the parachute under the sand and foliage beneath the trees. She had removed her jumping gear and shoved it under the sand before straightening her clothes. She could not see the remaining members of her team and remembered that she had seen no member of her team jump after her. She knew what her mission was anyway: look for and then report Manas once she had identified him. She had headed towards the house and found the household in great agitation and fuss, celebrating a marriage.
Without further warning, she had been whisked into the cohort and had become part of the celebration. With her local clothes on, nobody suspected her of any ulterior motive than just the wedding celebration. She had looked around for Manas and identified him sitting next to the bride. She looked at the wristwatch with the small camera, but the camera place seemed damaged. She had turned it nevertheless towards Manas and the bride, hoping that the camera would transmit the images of Manas to her team in the airplane that seemed to have vanished in the skies.
They probably will come back after viewing the images sent by her camera she had thought. She had sunk into a small couch next to several other women and joined the celebrations, keen to keep her identity safe. Manas had walked over towards her, his smile engaging and charming like she was told it would be. Her boss had predicted accurately that she would be Manas’ type and that this would lead him to bring his guard down. Manas had bowed towards her, with his hand extended, inviting her to dance alongside him like the Muslims in Cameroon did. She had stood up and had slowly been taken by the banter and the dance and almost forgotten what she had come here to do.
She looked back at the Thames and threw a stone in it, watching the ripples grow as the water was displaced by the impact. One of the images that haunted her mind was Manas standing in front of the policemen in Cameroon where she had taken him, and he had not fled. He was free now, walking sometimes in the streets of London when he needed to but all she could think of was the Manas in chains in Cameroon smiling at her, with his followers at his side. She realized that the only reason Manas was free now was because some policemen in Cameroon admired his jihadism and one of them had released him making use of the lax state of security in Cameroonian prisons.
Her story with Manas had been a very controversial one when her boss realized that she was actually falling in love with the man she was supposed to bring to justice. She had been demoted and was no longer on the anti-terrorist team so she resigned and joined the private sector. She thought back to how the story had evolved. It seemed so long ago now while it had only been 6 months since she had first met him. She remembered how he had reached out to her when he had first got out of prison. She had wondered how he had found her in London as she was not on the phonebook and not a registered voter. She threw another stone in the Thames and realized that it was raining, making more ripples than with just her stone. Her love story with Manas had begun in a very strange way so it was probably just as well that it could lead to strange things. She let her mind drift…
She was on a ship to be sold
Pirates around her swarmed anew
Cuts in her skin were quite a few
So ran her blood like liquid gold
Streaming to write stories untold
The pen inked bloody red wrote long
Her heart kept its pulse ever strong
On went her heartbeats with a throb
Her throat retained many a sob
They rang at her temples a song
Reading of the poem:
Pranamystic - Shaman’s dream
Based on challenge by Ronovan Writes using the word “Gold” in line A of the decima.
In brief, for a Décima, there are 10 lines of poetry that rhyme and there must be 8 syllables per line.
There is a Set Rhyming Pattern we must stick to: ABBAACCDDC or ABBA/ACCDDC.
For more information or to view other contributions, please follow the link here
https://ronovanwrites.com/2021/05/05/ronovan-writes-decima-poetry-challenge-prompt-no-56-gold-in-the-a-rhyme-line/
You can also view a full explanation regarding the Décima here
https://ronovanwrites.com/2020/04/16/how-to-write-an-espinela-or-decima-poem/
Glory of new-found mystery
The rhythm of the feet now changed
Embracing magic once estranged
Bodies melted in ecstasy;
Like long lost pagan symphony
The moon the clouds in night did chase
Fervent dancers in trembling daze
They locked their arms in restless link
Skies defined them in magic ink
Of lucid embrace transient phase
Reading of the poem:
Lonely – Cosmic Balance
Based on challenge by Ronovan Writes using the word “Chase” in line C of the decima.
In brief, for a Décima, there are 10 lines of poetry that rhyme and there must be 8 syllables per line.
There is a Set Rhyming Pattern we must stick to: ABBAACCDDC or ABBA/ACCDDC.
For more information or to view other contributions, please follow the link hereRonovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge Prompt No. 53: (CHASE) in the C rhyme line. | ronovanwrites
