| Wordsworth

Gabe Atkinson

This week we invited readers to submit a short poem including this line from The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks: Dinner is a casual affair.

Linda Jack, Wellington: Dinner is a casual affair./We eat in front of telly./We notice neither who we’re with,/Nor what goes in our belly. Poppy Sinclair, Karori: Dinner is a casual affair,/Fish and chips in the fresh sea air./Sitting in a circle by the beach,/Forming a wall the gulls can’t breach.

Catherine Small of Christchurch: Dinner is a casual affair,/Electronics everywhere./No need to talk, we have devices./ The family unit’s in a crisis. Joan Eddy, Christchurch: Dinner is a casual affair,/ Tiaras won’t be worn./ Tell Duchess Kate and lovely Megs/ Twice-seen dresses are OK./We’ll nosh on bangers, chips and mash,/Quaff cut-price Aussie reds./ (We royals can be frugal.)/And when the guests all take their leave/ To the Guards band’s jolly tunes,/Dearest Liz, undoubted Queen,/Will go and count the spoons.

Melanie Wittwer, Auckland: Dinner is a casual affair./You’re sure he’s not so debonair./He says, “Yeah, nah, I’ll cook a feast./ You’ll be surprised, to say the least.”/ Expect, at best, braised mince on toast,/ Hot possum stew and pigeon roast.

Bay of Plenty’s David Wort wins with: The worst of nature’s moral wrecks,/ The mantis mingles food and sex./She’s always after someone new,/And any passing male will do./ They mate, she eats him – then and there./Dinner is a casual affair.

For the next contest, choose a word beginning with A or R and send us a new definition, according to how it sounds. For example, adenoid: irritation caused by commercial breaks during a sports broadcast.

Entries, for the prize below, close at noon on Thursday, September 6.