Squirrelly

by Julie Holmquist

Creative Writing (English 1100)

He flicks his tail and clatters up a tree.
His nails scratch up the warped gray bark.
He turns around and stares at me
Fur-fluffed bodies fill the park.

His nails scratch up the warped gray bark.
Puffs of gray and white all over.
Fur-fluffed bodies fill the park.
They dig among the grass and clover.

Puffs of gray and white all over.
Scurry, scuttle, scare each other.
They dig among the grass and clover.
Fat like rats and such a bother.

Scurry, scuttle, scare each other.
Little bodies clutch and grapple.
Fat like rats and such a bother.
A baby squirrel gnaws an apple.

Little bodies clutch and grapple.
Leap and tumble, dig and jerk.
A baby squirrel gnaws an apple.
His tail’s a twirling quirk.

Leap and tumble, dig and jerk.
Claws unload the flower pot.
His tail’s a twirling quirk.
Oh, when will he get caught?

Claws unload the flower pot.
Cats sneak silently so near.
Oh, when will he get caught?
He jumps through trees with little fear.

Cats sneak silently so near.
He flicks his tail and clatters up a tree.
He jumps through trees with little fear.
He turns around and stares at me.

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Writer’s Cramp
(A novice poet’s Lament)

by David Sadinsky
Creative Writing (English 1100)

Rhythm and rhyme, head filled with slime;
Stuck on a match for ‘orange’.
Seed rhymes with need, rhymes with speed, rhymes with greed
Is there such a thing as a ‘borange’?

Brain’s on the boil, and still here I toil
Lost in the words that I’m spewing.
Write rhymes with fight, rhymes with fright, rhymes with sight.
What in hell’s name am I doing?

Making no sense, feeling quite dense;
My eyes feel like they’re exploding.
Scare rhymes with care, rhymes with dare, rhymes with fair.
My neural pathways are eroding.

Look for the end, then go ‘round the bend;
I’m not really sure how to stop this.
Assonance and consonance and resonance and arrogance.
Sanity’s something that I’ll miss.

A pen through my hand might end this quite grand
But I fear the results of that action.
Pain rhymes with gain, rhymes with main, rhymes with sane
Yet still there’s a certain attraction.