Tag Archives: vocabulary

KEN GOSSE: Try to Remember in Coldest December

Amusing, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

To remember new words every week
is a small task for any word geek,
but as I get older
my bloodstream gets colder,
my brain starts to leak
and words start to sound Greek.
With no paddle to shoulder,
my thinking will molder
as I drift downstream in this creek.

Ken Gosse usually writes whimsical, rhymed verse. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, later in Pure Slush, Home Planet News, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Spillwords, and many others. Raised in Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife live in Mesa, AZ, with rescue dogs and cats.

DARA NARAGHI: Agree to Disagree

Amusing, , , ,

With the weighty tome agape in my clutches, I strode across the antechamber, cantillating synonyms with imperturbable tenacity.

“What are you doing?” she inquired quizzically.

“Memorizing the thesaurus to become a better writer,” I expounded.

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” she propounded equivocally.

“Concede to nonconcur,” I retorted.

Dara Naraghi has written comics and graphic novels of all types, from self-published zines to New York Times best sellers.

Keys For Success

Amusing, , ,

“Don’t forget your keys, dear.”

“Yes, mom.”

“Can you recite them for me, just to be sure?”

“Yes, mother… Patience. Perseverance. Perspective. Practicality. Proactivity.”

“Precisely! Oh, my brilliant, handsome young man. You’re going to make a great dictionary engineer.”

“Sure, unless they assign me somewhere other than the P division.”

Bettering Oneself

Odd, , , ,

We bumped one another in the mall.

“Well excuse me,” she pouted.

But I didn’t. Her tone, her look, and her behaviour were a sad excuse for civility, so I excused myself from the situation.

Satisfied, I proceeded to the next entry in my Word-Practice Dictionary: excycloduction would be harder.