Wordsworth

This week’s challenge was to compose a limerick that includes one of the following words: cavorting, ramshackle, scabbard, clandestine, or debaucherous.

Ian Penrose, Coromandel: There once was a young man cavorting/In a manner that wasn’t quite sporting/His sexual habits/Remind one of rabbits/ Then a shot rang out in the morning.

Jo Bowler, Auckland: A fisherman, sporty and spry/Decided a new cast to try/ But his gear was ramshackle/He ensnared in his tackle/and suspended himself from his fly.

Kaye Bennetts, Whangaparāoa: An erstwhile debaucherous prince/whose interview failed to convince/Was abruptly retired/ (In other words, fired)/for making his family wince.

Rex McGregor, Auckland: This ramshackle old habitation/Is a wretched disgrace to the nation/But a Grey Lynn address/Is enough to impress/Location, location, location.

Michael Ferns, Invercargill: I went into bat feeling sporting/I’ll get all those fieldsmen cavorting/But I ran out of luck/ Went out for a duck/and left the fast bowler chortling.

John Mills, Gebbies Valley: The bullfighter’s scabbard and sword/Defends him from not being gored/ The sword became stuck/’Twas jolly bad luck/As he, not the bull, ended cored.

But Invercargill’s Lesley Treweek wins with: A daring young man from Belize/ was cavorting upon high trapeze/His intentions were right/Execution, not quite/ and sadly there’ll be no reprise.

For the next contest, pick a wellknown riddle, but give it a new answer. For example, “What goes up but never comes down?” Stress (real answer: age). Entries, for the prize below, close at noon on Thursday, January 16, 2020.

Submissions: wordsworth@listener.co.nz or Wordsworth, NZ Listener, Private Bag 92512, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141. Please include your address. Entries may be edited for sense or space reasons.