The August Poem of the Month is lived unremarkably by Geoffrey Aitkin. Commended poems are foxnews dumbdown by rob walker and Faux Fur by David Harris.
lived unremarkably by Geoffrey Aitken
imagined precisely
authored biologically
managed medically
carried expectantly
raised exactly
schooled religiously
worshipped naively
dreamed unimaginatively
trained mechanically
loved inattentively
married prematurely
housed uniformly
reproduced expeditiously
urbanized routinely
worked tirelessly
aspired inappropriately
retired remorsefully
travelled reluctantly
aged tragically
died hypothetically
recycled metaphysically
in so many ways
foxnews dumbdown by rob walker
freedom
freedumb
freedamn
freedim
freedom
(Appears in gods for a new world, Rob Walker, Ginninderra Pocket Poets, 2018)
Faux Fur by David Harris
That Faux Fur stole looks good on you
so soft, so warm, so cuddly.
The winter wind just cuts right through
but you’re enclosed and snugly.
Your friends all think it looks just great,
except for dearest Angie.
Her face afire and filled with hate,
she’s very, very angry!
You said “Faux Fur”, it didn’t help.
She said “for goodness sake –
you’re wearing FUR”, her voice a yelp
“how many faux ‘d that take?”
And so she’s forced me to re-think
my thoughts on man-made molecules.
With plastic fur replacing mink
and threads replacing follicles.
Deep in some dark, satanic mill
each baby faux is seen
cut from its mother’s body, still
warm from the great machine.
Thrown into a plastic bin,
their fur entirely man-made,
a quivering pile of new faux in
a truck on road to rag-trade.
But now you see that furry faux
comes not from trappers’ toil,
it makes you feel quite good to know
it starts its life as oil.