Greetings to All Poets gathered here on our first day back since summer break. I’m Lisa (at https://tao-talk.com,) hosting today’s Quadrille Monday. Hope you’re finding peace and respite amongst a world that seems to have been set on fire in the worst way. I will do my best to entice your muse to dance along to the prompt. For those new to dVerse Poets Pub or to the quadrille form, it is a 44-word poem written using a word that the host gives you.

For anyone who travels these days, some variation of the next poem cannot be far from one’s mind.

He, Too
By Solmaz Sharif

Upon my return to the US, he
asks my occupation. Teacher.

What do you teach?
Poetry.

I hate poetry, the officer says,
I only like writing
where you can make an argument.

Anything he asks, I must answer.
This he likes, too.

I don’t tell him
he will be in a poem
where the argument will be

anti-American.

I place him here, puffy,
pink, ringed in plexi, pleased

with his own wit
and spittle. Saving the argument
I am let in

I am let in until

The next poem is a holy brocade of natural beauty.

Beachcomber Nocturne
By Lupita Eyde-Tucker

Pink seafoam leaves odd gifts for me to find:
a puffed-up man-o-war, a mermaid’s purse,

empty lady slippers, Sargasso weed,
as if these things could fill my human needs.

I push my toes beneath the cold, damp sand,
observe the ocean’s purple evening.

A loggerhead rides up and heaves her bulk
to dig a hole, deposit future in the dark.

Until she’s done and slips back out to sea
I sit and match her labored breath to mine.

This sea: a Chevy engine revving high
reminding me how everything’s design.

Another poem of breathtaking verve:

Clearly
By James Crews

To see clearly,
not needing a drink
or pill or puff
of any pipe
to know I’m alive.
To come home,
peel off sandals
and step onto
the cool tile floor
needing only
the rush of water
over strawberries
I picked myself
and then a knife
to trim the dusty
green heads
from each one,
to watch them
gleam cleanly
in a colander
in a patch of sun
near the sink.

Now that I hopefully have airily infused your Muse, we have come to the place where you put your proverbial pen to paper and warm it with your poetic spirit’s will in words.

• Pen us a poem of precisely 44 words (not counting the title), including some form of the word puff.
• Post your Quadrille piece on your blog and link back to this post.
• Place the link to your actual post (not your blog url) on the Mister Linky page.
• Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy.
• Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts! Reciprocation is the life of this challenge.
• Have fun (but only if you want to!)

Prompt is open until Thursday the 16th at 3pm NYT.