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Lillian here, delighted to host Tuesday Poetics! I don’t know how the weather’s been where you are, but this past week it was hotter than blazes in Boston, other parts of the US, and in the UK too. Some of the phrases I heard folks saying included:
You could fry an egg on the pavement!
It’s hot as hell outside! and
It’s like an oven in here (said inside our church on Sunday – it doesn’t have air-conditioning).

So what do you do when it gets hot? How about having an ice cream cone? You know that phrase, “I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream”? Well I can truly relate to that. So as I’m thinking about ice cream, I’m realizing I need to come up with a prompt for today’s poetics. And hmmmm . . . how about ice cream?

Did you know that Ben and Jerry’s original ice cream factory is in Waterbury, Vermont? For those of you not familiar with the brand, it’s very popular in the US. And you can actually tour the factory, get some free ice cream and walk through their graveyard for “retired” flavors. They have tombstones with the names of flavors, their contents, and the dates they were “born” and “died”. They have some of the most clever names for their flavors! Here’s a list of sixteen – with the dates they were available lest you think I’m making them up!

Change is Brewing  – current
Half-Baked  – created in 2000 -still going strong
Urban Bourbon  – 2017 -still going strong
Coffee Coffee Buzzbuzzbuzz  – current
Wavy Gravy  – 1993 – 2001
Urban Jumble  – 2000 -2001
Dastardly Mash  – 1979 – 1991
Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie  – 1992 – 1993
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road  – limited edition available July 18 to 25, 2008
Late Night Snack  – 2010 – 2014
Imagine Whirled Peace  – 2007 – 2013
Sugar Plum  – 1989 – 1990
Cool Britannia  – 1995 – 1998
Economic Crunch  – only in 1987 during the stock market crash
This is Nuts  2001  – 2002

The challenge for today is to pick at least one of the ice cream flavors listed above, and use the words of the flavor in your poem. To be clear, the poem should NOT be about ice cream! You should use the words exactly as they’re written in the flavor: no words in between the words of the flavor; no changing the tense of the words, making them plural or possessive, and no changing the order of the words as they appear in the flavor. You may however, eliminate the capitalizations and punctuate as needed. Of course, I love double-dipper ice cream cones; and triple-dippers are even better! So if you’d like to use more than one flavor, be my guest!

By the way, my favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor is Chubby Hubby: vanilla malt ice cream with peanutty fudge-covered pretzels, and fudge and peanuty buttery swirls! But Chubby Hubby is not in the list.

New to dVerse?  Need to be refreshed on the rules?

Here’s what to do:

  • Write a poem on any topic in any poetic form, that includes at least one of the flavors of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in the list above. You must use the words exactly as they appear in the flavor name. No words in between them; no changing the tense of the words or making them plural or possessive. You may however, add punctuation before, between or after the words in the flavor.
  • Post the poem to your blog AND add the exact URL for your poem to Mr. Linky below.
  • REMEMBER to either TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your poem that leads readers back to dVerse (https://dversepoets.com). 
  • If you do not TAG or include a link to dVerse at the end of your post, I will gently remind you to do so. After all, this will increase your readership and comments, and others will find dVerse and hopefully join in the fun. If you do not add the TAG or link after my reminder, I will remove your post from Mr. Linky. I do not want to do that! So please do include the TAG or link!

I’m looking forward to sharing some ice cream with you today!