Heavy London night air lingers,
Dangling danger through cold fingers,
Hungry for fresh echoes
Of alarmed and angry cries.
Scenes of swift but savage violence
Summon sad, exhausted sirens;
Unforgiving office blocks
Avert their neon eyes.
Cunning rats like bureaucrats
Patrol the walls of council flats
Then scurry down the Tube lines
To their Mayfair mansion homes.
Wide-eyed, under-nourished foxes
Tear at old fried chicken boxes;
Sniff for signs of sentience
In mangled mobile phones.
Dank alleys pulse with mystery,
The muffled voice of history,
Debauchery and death combine
To tremble down the ages.
Deep beneath the rusty grating,
Pits of plague lay dormant, waiting;
Flesh and bone may crumble
But the rot remains contagious.
In a list
A contest entry
- Purple Prose, Pedestrian Rhyme by ea.
900 points, ended September 29, 2007, 9 entries
Silver trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - AP Book Contest: Get Published! (Last Chance!) by tinuelena.
1200 points, ended December 12, 2007, 53 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
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I'm thrilled to see this in here. Congrats!
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Firstly, congratulations.
I hate rhyme with a fiery passion and you made me like it. In fact, you made me like it enough to push me into the "loving it" area, just outside of my comfort zone, and decide to publish it in a book that's chiefly freeverse.
So well done. I wish I could give you a gold trophy just for that. Maybe I can design some sort of sparkly medal for you.
At any rate, this really was a great poem, with lots of great detail and interesting images. The rhyme flowed well, and it was unique-- no plain old ABAB here!!
I appreciate your ingenuity and respect your ability. Can't wait to include this in the book.
Elizabeth -
Wow, well done! This rhyming is very skillful, and the phrases are well turned. It is an ugly portrait, but I feel some affection anyway. Congratulations for silver, this is fine work.
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very well done rhyme indeed. Thank you for letting me read your poem and I look forward to hearing from you in my future contests.
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You had some very good lines in this one. “Dark alleys pulse with mystery,
The muffled cries of history;
Debauchery and death combine
To echo down the ages.” reminded me of horror movies set in London’s Middle Ages. “Cunning rats like bureaucrats
Patrol the walls of council flats” I especially like “Wide-eyed, under-nourished foxes
Tear at old fried chicken boxes;” Excellent. Good work.
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"Cunning rats like bureaucrats"
Loved that line.
Fortunatly I have the pleasure of living in the country side.
No busy cities [=
x
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