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Thursday, July 15, 2021

July 15, 2021

| |
| | cough, gecko, expand, aviary, "reeking" havoc.
Image 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.

11 comments:

OwenKL said...

A gecko, while visiting at a zoo
Thought to explore an exhibit or two.
The monkey's havoc he found a bore,
So next he headed to the aviary door.

Inside, the birds began to squeal,
For lizard was a favorite meal!
The ravens cawed, the songbirds cheeped,
Falcons reeked, roadrunners beeped!

Twas celebrity, much in demand,
Yet before his ego could expand.
He addressed them, with a modest cough,
"I can't stay for dinner, I must be off!"

Ol' Man Keith said...

"Completing (an) Attic!"

It was actually a simple matter
to expand the gecko's home
to make it a little fatter,
allowing room for a feathery dome.

Yes, I topped off the terrarium
with a glassed-in aviary--
adding to our solarium,
a home for my cockatiel, "Harry."

Our gecko pants below,
wheezing in his lower trough,
pacing to, pacing fro,
our aptly labeled lizard, "Cough."
~ OMK

Wilbur Charles said...

Well you two have certainly covered the reptile and bird world very poetically. W's to both.

I'll just have to blend J's in with the Chet and Lois saga. She did mention lounge lizards earlier.
.

WC

Misty said...

"Critter Sitter"

They asked Greg if he wanted a gecko?
He frowned and said, "What? Heck, no."
It's enough that we have an aviary,
along with those cows in our dairy.
All those animals make me cough
and I think we have enough.
Things are already out of hand
and we cannot our breeds expand.
All this havoc had him reeling
but Greg still had a kind feeling.
And so he built a tiny dome
and gave the gecko a brand new home.

Misty said...

Ol' Man Keith, you may not believe this, but I wrote my verse, just as it is above, before I turned on the computer and read your poem, and saw that you too rhymed dome and home in relation to a gecko. But since this was what I had written, I decided to keep it as I had written it.
I loved your poem--especially the rhyme of terrarium and solarium. But I was totally charmed by your giving your critters names: cockatiel Harry, and lizard Cough!

And Owen, what a magical device to have your gecko become the protagonist who visits the zoo, inadvertently riles some of the animals and departs with a kind farewell, "I must be off." (Was he afraid he might be the dinner that he had best avoid?).

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks, Owen for some happy chuckles this morning. I couldn't help visualizing the Geico gecko as I read your verse. I think that animation has preempted the gecko imagery for a generation. Still, I thought your guy had a mind--and (ahem, cough cough) spirit--of his own!

Misty. I quite believe you! "Dome" is a natural rhyme for "home," and "home" is hard to miss when dealing with critters and an "aviary." Anyway, I thought your poem a delight.
Glad you enjoyed my lil' guys' names. I remind you that you were the inspirer of naming my pets. Whenever there is an outlier word, I try to include a pet.
Still, things can get out of hand--as Greg understands. Poor guy; he is dealing on a scale beyond what we city folk can handle. Imagine making room in our flats and homes for his COWS!
Given his circumstance, it was mighty generous of him to build that "tiny dome."

Big day at our home. My wife's mom, who lives with us, is celebrating her 90th b'day today. We are taking her to dinner tonight. It is the only time in my memory when we have made sure the restaurant knows what occasion this is. It is too big an event to hide it--as we usually do!
~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...

Eager to see your "lounge lizard" update, WC.
The first thing I thought of, when seeing "Gecko," was how well the lizard theme might trigger stories familiar to Chet & Lois & other AA members.
From their PAST experiences, of course, certainly not of recent memory...

I think it has something to do with the obvious connection between lounge and the adjective louche. Not to mention lousy.

Similarly, upon visiting Reno or Las Vegas, I notice how their neon signs play up all the "lounge" acts, one after another.
These days, I get a kick outta imagining those audiences filled with Geico-styled Geckos, a never-ending crowd of "Las Lounge Lizards."
~ OMK

Wilbur Charles said...

OMK, as you'll see I took a lot of poetic license with the J's

[Lois continues]
Laurel advised me to get honest right from the get-go
At the same time "'Don't be in a big rush , take it slow'
Eventually you'll expand your
horizons but you'll need bravery"
"As long", I said, there's no religion. I don't carry a breviary"

[Laurel goes on]
"When you share your story at first it may be tough
Try to keep it short at first. If you go on too long, I'll cough".
All in all compared to my past life this will be a walk in the park
Between the alcohol and the drugs all I did with my life was wreak havoc

WC

Sandyanon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Misty said...

Wilbur, glad to see Laurel giving Lois good advice. Hope she takes it.

Ol' Man Keith, how lovely to hear that your 90 year old mother-in-law is living at your home, and that you and your wife are taking her to a wonderful birthday dinner at a restaurant tonight. She will surely be thrilled, and I hope you all have a wonderful time.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Well, done, WC, well done, sir!
From "expand" to "wreak[ing] havoc," the bases are covered.

Only the vowels twixt Laurel's lines 1 and 2 (and maybe 4 and 5) might be faulted.
But who cares, when you tried--and even somersaulted.
~ OMK