Hi!
There was no Googling today, no harumphing over obscure words, or that brain tingle that tells me I am not going to find it very easy to complete my task in 15 mins though i’m still up for the challenge.
I just sat and looked at the words, then kind of checked out. I was feeling a bit…well, restless. I couldn’t think what triangular thing to start with so I just sat back and let my subconscious write the poem.
Maybe that is why it rhymes? Maybe that is why I am also not entirely convinced that the whole ensemble makes sense?? I’m pretty sure it suffers for its rhyme in many places, but a bit of jovial drivel never hurt anyone…
Triangle Tin Tight Gambler Elastic Tenth Amongst Fool Honeydew
She has this triangle tattoo,
And I don’t have a clue
What the hell is was for –
In fact, she has plenty more…
But once she commented (drunk)
They were shark fins, unsunk,
That tormented her daily
(Though she carried on, gaily).
We have never been tight,
She is inclined to fight,
When the drinks set in.
She’s a gambler – won’t win –
But pleads coins from my pocket
And won’t heed plees to STOP IT.
Singing ‘Elastic Heart’
She’ll make other drunks start;
And they’ll weep and they’ll moan…
Text nonsense on their phone.
“For the TENTH time tonight,
Please just GIVE UP yer sh***e
And go home in this taxi…!”
I’m fed UP with this waxy
Existence, where candles
Are burned from all angles.
And she’s always amongst
The debris furthest flung;
But the boomerang fool
Somehow thinks that it’s cool
To keep rocking up here…
So I can buy her beer.
(And her Honeydew Melons)
Frailty, thy name is…Helen.
I notice that my subconscious put an ‘s’ on the end of ‘fin’. Naughty!

Please excuse the scrappy stapled bit of paper, I scribbled some notes for something sensitive on there, and forgot I hadn’t scanned it for the blog yet…
What gender do you think the speaker is? Do you reckon there is intimacy between this ‘Helen’ and the speaker? Or did there used to be, and now it is like a game they play; where neither of them gain much they respect from the partnership? Is the speaker really exasperated with ‘Helen’, or is the speaker loving it, as they are not stopping it? Does she have a hold over the speaker that we are not being told about?
Have you ever known a couple like this? Are we thinking these are University students, or are they people who also hold down jobs and function in society in other ways?
So many questions! One would think that when characters wandered into a writer’s head, the writer would know a bit about them, eh?! Well no, actually, I have two little ‘real life’ characters that run me ragged, and countless other people dotted through my life; so I sometimes get a bit confused by the imaginary ones that swan onto the page for just 15 minutes and demand my attention 😉
Come have a ponder with me in the comments…
April 24th, 2017 at 10:01 am
Even though you said you let your subconscious write the poem, I felt it read like a memory from university age days. 🙂 It made me chuckle a lot. I like the style and the rhymes were pretty cleverly placed to me. 🙂
April 24th, 2017 at 12:59 pm
Awww you are a kind lass, thank you 😀 there were some…characters…at uni, it must be said! 😉