45. Illusion [100 poems challenge]

45.          Illusion

I start this simple verse just so
It seems the thing that I should do,
But I must state a caveat:
You’ll find this poem quite offbeat.
I’ll write of pure-bred Jersey cows
Bedecked in multi-coloured bows,
Fox-trotting while a bonny lass
Plays tunes upon a double bass
And someone taps a castanet
Atop a massive trebuchet.
A giant gentle dancing bear
Will dance with you if you’ve no fear,
It knows the boogie and the jive
So give it all that you can give,
While watching, perched upon a bowl,
The smallest, cutest, fluffy owl;
It really is a sight so strange,
The owl has dyed its feathers orange.
And should you find this quite uncouth
Then turn your steps towards the south,
And walk across the morning dew
Where ancient biddies quilt and sew
And bakers, muscly, start to knead
The dough for wholemeal crusty bread
Which smells so good, it must be said,
It’s worth twice what you’ve always paid,
And when it’s baked and served up warm
It causes raptures like a charm.
This verse you may or may not love
Though I’ve done what I aimed to prove
But now, at last, we’re really through
Because I’ve finally had enough.

13 June 2013

Comments: I wanted to create a poem that somehow contained or actually was an illusion, but the idea wouldn’t come. With one day to go before publication I finally had an idea. I think the idea has already been used in some form or other (see, for example, this page, which I located after having the idea for this poem — having encountered some version of the enough/though/through/bough/cough ridiculousness at various times in my past) but I tried to ignore any of my vague recollections while constructing the above. Apparently they’re called “eye rhymes”.

Themes to come: 46. Family; 47. Creation; 48. Childhood; 49. Stripes; 50. Breaking the Rules

Explanation about the 100 poems challenge here.