Wordsworth

This week, readers had to compose four lines of Ogden Nash-style whimsy about an animal. Whangaparaoa’s Elizabeth Hales writes: Now, take the cat in any hue./She never says “how do you do”/But only “look at me and weep”/”My love for you is just skin deep.” From Bay of Plenty’s David Wort: The porcupine’s quills all point behind,/A forest of spears round the never-you-mind/Love calls for courage and exquisite care/And that’s why the porcupine is rare.

A frosty human-bird relationship related by Rick Mann of St Kilda, Victoria: A man shouldered a cockatoo,/ Although not one he thought he knew,/ They never spoke, the silence grew,/Until the day each bid adieu. Rex McGregor of Auckland: I don’t find Hitchcock’s Birds that scary./But owls have always made me wary./ The way they give their necks a twist/Reminds me of The Exorcist.

Punnery by Kaye Bennetts of Whangaparaoa: A bear walked into my bathroom,/A frightening thing to find./I left that place, the bear gave chase,/Me, with a bear behind. Climate conjecture from Karori’s Poppy Sinclair: Our summer has been wet and windy,/The scientists looking at why and how,/Note a contribution from the lower meadow,/By our friend the domestic cow.

Anton Erasmuson of Upper Hutt wins this week’s prize: The tui’s joy is tree-top treats,/It sings to all in trills and tweets,/ Then flying o’er, full with sweets,/ It drops some on my just-dry sheets.

For the next contest, send us a brief poem in any form describing what you think life will be like for people living 100 years from now. Entries, for the prize below, close at noon on Thursday, April 6.