(There’s a better title and it’s just evading my grasp. Will update if it makes itself known.)
Something Lacking
My hand, when it drops to my side, finds a puzzle:
no skullbone to stroke and no sniff of a muzzle.
No eyelash, no whisker, no cold-sweating nosey,
a cranial dearth. I’m devoid of a nuzzle.
At nights my discomfited feet huddle frozey
despite double duvet. It could be I’m dozy,
or poor circulation’s to blame. I’ve no theory—
yet somehow my chamber is all things but cosy.
Proceeding to work unaccompanied, bleary,
in earphoney trance unaware of exteri
or stimuli. Autist. No sights worth attention.
Except ones that bounce by on leads looking cheery.
My fingerless glove by my side in suspension.
The tram station’s cold-shouldered hilltop ascension.
No friend dogs my footsteps. My hearthrug is empty
except for a cat, which is all the more wrenchin’.
Again I picked a form and meter more or less at random.
This is four interlocked rubaiyat, the plural of rubai (a Persian form, which is also written ruba’i). Rubai rhyme scheme is aaba, and interlocked means the next one starts off with the b rhyme, so it continues bbcb ccdc and so on.
The meter is amphibrachic tetrameter, which means four (“tetra”) repetitions of three syllables that go unstressed-stressed-unstressed – for example, “eternal immortal in awesome adventure”.
And look, ma, I managed to stop myself capitalising every line!
Here’s a look at what people willing to spend more than an hour or so can do with the rubai form:
- Winter woods
- Persian kitten, a parody of a Persian epic that I haven’t read.
Anke suggested the theme without knowing that my mother’s friend is about to lose her dog; my mother went over to comfort the friend today. I don’t know the dog, so this isn’t about him. I think you can tell from the subtle clues who it is about.
edit: I’m currently listed top for rubai+amphibrachic+tetrameter. Is it the weird combinations of form/meter I choose, or what? Feel like I should be writing more wise and educational commentary or something.
