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|_bleak, alias, wrench, around, draw a blank.Image(s) from the Internet.
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.
The film set located just south of Santa Fe,
ReplyDeleteA Western town with a different alias each movie,
Was a bleak and somber place that fatal day.
Something had gone wrong, and it wasn't groovy.
There'd been a labor dispute, crew on strike.
Had someone tried to monkey-wrench the shoot?
Enough still working, filming didn't spike.
The star remained to play his part, a mean galoot.
A battery of crew were to check each prop bit,
To make sure guns didn't pack a live round.
But when the star had to draw his gun and cock it,
It went off, but not a blank, and a victim found.
Your poem is scarily close to real life, Owen.
ReplyDeleteI did like this pun. Made sense both ways, and brought a smile, though not a guffaw.
FLN: Thank you, Sandy, for your compliment & suggestion for my future writing.
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated, though I really should be directing more of my time to the “book” I’ve been laboring on (& off) since retirement.
Will it ever see the light of publication? Alas, it has become much more pleasurable to jot poems and otherwise communicate with you & our Jumble pals.
Switching to today’s Jumble, I will post just two haikus from a series of six (to spare you from eye fatigue). One is the intro and the other is the heart of the conflict—incidentally containg the J-words.
To evade his doom,
a Viking must find the sun.
It’s an old Nordic…
”Law to Thank”
A bleak night: Bjorn wrenched
Norns (alias Fates) around,
seeking the dawn light.
~ OMK
Sandy, not just close. The Alex Baldwin shooting really is here in Santa Fe, so the local paper runs detailed reports on all it, sometimes it seems daily!
ReplyDeleteOwen, do I have it right? Various personnel used the guns from the set for their own amusement on target ranges?
ReplyDeleteThus…
If a magazine was used its possible someone removed the live magazine and put in a magazine of blanks. But…
Perhaps he didn't clear the chamber of the live cartridge.
That would possibly apply if a 45 was the weapon
WC
Your poem captures the mood of the Rust fiasco well, Owen.
ReplyDeleteWhen all the relevant facts emerge, a disgruntled crew member’s sabotage is most likely to be found responsible for the death of a bright young artist.
~ OMK
"Sad Secretary"
ReplyDeleteWhen she tried, she would draw a blank,
not on purpose, and for sure not a prank.
But she found her department bleak,
so her responses were generally weak.
She wished she had an alias
that would permit her to cuss.
But she had no real issues to wrench,
and was obliged her complaints to quench.
Yes, to be perfectly frank,
those around her were above her rank,
and that's why she drew a blank.
Good to see you back after your Zoom session, Misty. Thanks for adding to today's array.
ReplyDeleteYour very solid poem seems like an extended riddle. All the things "she" finds, wishes, ranks, and feels obliged by, are pointing inwardly to her mysterious "department."
Hmmm. Academia? Insurance Co.? SCE?
I know you have told us that you only follow where the rhymes lead, but it is hard to avoid guessing where she's working.
Since she really yearns to "cuss,"
my vote is for the DMV.
~ OMK
Yes, well, Owen, I knew what event you were writing about. Such a sad and confusing event. I have avoided reading more about it, though, because it seems pointless. But seeing the headlines for every shooting story in the news makes me think of it again. And there are so many!
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading, like Sandy, after the first and second wave of accounts, figuring that it will take a while before the police and prosecutors decide what facts are worth pursuing.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that struck me more than anything else was the number of persons who had access to guns and ammo on set and behind the scenes.
I used a pistol and blank ammo in just one show I directed. We used a 3/4 charge because that was enough to send a foot-long flame from the barrel, a spectacular effect. (And a reminder that even blank ammo is exceedingly dangerous!)
Only one backstage prop master was allowed anywhere near the gun, which was locked away between shows. In his presence the actor who was to fire it onstage had to check it out before taking it on stage.
A major part of the use of the gun was that in the last act, the actor was to slowly deep-throat the barrel before a blackout masked the moment of "killing" himself. Needless to say, this was powerful for the audience, because they had already seen--and heard!--the pistol fired TWICE in the earlier scene.
Of course, we had to insure that the pistol had no blanks BEFORE that final scene. Once again the prop master and the actor checked that it was completely empty.
The final check was by the actor himself, both for safety and his own feeling of security. The prop master observed this--because a "buddy system" is necessary to be sure no individual gets sloppy or does anything nutty.
My message is that NOBODY else ever had access to the gun during the entire run of the show.
~ OMK
Thank you for your always kind words, Ol' Man Keith. Hmmm, no, I hadn't figured out where "she" was working, but why not the DMV! Excellent suggestion!
ReplyDeleteToday's Jumble words made verses really difficult, I thought, and I wondered if you'd be able to work them into your haiku. But, of course, there they brilliantly were, in their various configurations--always a total delight. Thank you for that too!
Owen, your poignant verse made me wonder if today might be the anniversary of the "Rust Shooting." But, of course, it couldn't be--the event was much more recent then that: October 21, 2021, only about six months ago. But your verse certainly brings it back very powerfully, and reminds us of how further the troubling mystery of the precise cause and actions continues to upset us every time we hear about it.
ReplyDelete