On this day, I was prompted to play with rhymes. Play with still means “to handle, change, or deal with (something) in a careless way,” as it did on day twelve.

I was to begin by creating a list of ten mono-, or bi-syllable words. They were to include five that correspond to each of our five basic senses, three concrete nouns, and two verbs.

Then, I was instructed to come up with rhymes for each of the ten words and to use them all as “seeds” for a poem that uses as much sound play as possible.

My list with rhymes and near rhymes:

Five Senses:

(Smell) breath: death, meth, Seth, health, length, wealth, depth.

(Taste) picante: duende, Dante, comandante, on day, one day, Pandey, in May, entre, Duarte, X gay.

(Hear) music: too sick, you sick, Moosic, therapeutic, cubic, tunic, Rubik, you prick, too thick.

(See) sky: I, aye, buy/by/bye, chai, dye, eye, fly, fry, guy, high, nigh, pie, ply, pry, spy, thigh, tie, why, wry, thy, sty, sigh, sly, shy.

(Touch) stroke: bloke, broke, choke, cloak, coke, croak, folk, joke, oak, poke, smoke, soak, woke, yoke, yolk.

Three Nouns:

Airplane: abstain, again, arcane, attain, bloodstain, champagne, cocaine, domain, fast lane, insane, inane, humane, maintain, mundane, Sinn Fein, Ukraine, urbane.

Boutique: antique, bespeak, critique, midweek, mystique, oblique, technique, unique.

Bench: clench, drench, French, quench, stench, trench, wench, wrench.

Two Verbs:

Talk: balk, block, chalk, chock, gawk, crock, doc, frock, hawk, jock, knock, lock, mock, Mach, pock, rock, shock, squawk, stalk, sock, walk, ad hoc.

Taste: aced, based, baste, braced, cased, chased, faced, graced, haste, laced, paced, paste, placed, raced, traced, waist, waste.

***

Ten Sound Epistle Poems

Dear Seth,

Good lord, man, your breath
could cause serial death,
in depth, are you on meth?

Health Department

***

Dearest Doctor Dante Duarte,

Picante came with my entre
one day in May at a party
for Comandante Pandey.
Do I need an x-ray?

Both Ends Burning

***

Dear Maestro Rubik Moosic,

Your music is so therapeutic,
like art, often cubic and too sick.
Take off that fake tunic,
you too-thick prick.

Deaf to You

***

Dear Bird in the Sky,

I am just a guy—hate to pry,
but why do you fly? And
so damned high. Do ya
wanna die? Sigh!
And why
did you put this pie, nigh
in my tie-dyed eye?

Piper Cherokee

***

Dear Doctor Joe Joke,

You poor bloke, I nearly had a stroke sitting under this old oak trying to stay woke, despite being broke and wanting to have a smoke. Sorry our folk delivered a defective cloak which caused you to croak. May your wife find a new bloke, one less a joke, who’ll buy her a coke for a bit of a poke.

Dark Alley

***

Dear Airplane,

Please refrain from doing it again.
If you don’t abstain from using cocaine
in the urbane domain of Ukraine,
there will be no champagne,
no more in the fast lane,
just a big bloodstain
and that, Airplane, is insane.

King Cartel

***

TO: Darling Monique.

I visited your boutique last midweek and decided you need a critique. Without one antique to bespeak, nothing there is unique. I suggest a new technique, something less oblique with more mystique.

Bertha Betterthanyou

***

Dear My Bench,

Pardon my French, but sitting on you brought up a stench from the nearby trench. It could be that in a clench and due to the recent drench, there has drowned some drunken wench.

Old Man Butts

***

Dear Clancy Ad Hoc,

I hear you want to talk. Perhaps we could walk around the block? Your neighbors may gawk, and some will mock or throw a rock. That’s a crock at which we both balk, but we shouldn’t squawk. We can run like a jock and at them we’ll mock, but it is not a shock.

Flock the Hawk

***

Darling Waste Taste,

You’ve been graced
as on my test you’ve aced
based on how you placed
in the marathon you raced,
and the challenges you faced.
Our hearts you’ve graced,
and your shoes you’ve laced,
as I braced with how you paced.

Finish Line Lace

---

Look both ways at words and wisdom.
Time rhymes with little force of course.
Mind the gaps that humor provides until it hurts your sides.