IISZ 2018 Challenge #2 - Death by Words

[rayheinrich]

The 69 ways
...
spoiler--> I know the rules said 17, and that this probably disqualifies.  But I have indecisiveness issues and the words mutinied
and it became an all or nothing situation.  : So that’s what went wrong there. <-- spoiler

    Well... someone* screwed up because the Queen's guidelines** specifically stated "17 or more".
    I've corrected the guidelines... you were right all along (and amazing).


* It was obviously either lizzie or vagabond since they're not here to defend themselves.

**The challenges in IIce Station Zebra are defined by "guidelines" not "rules", thus making it legally acceptable to deviate from them.
  Though, it must be noted, becoming a deviant risks angering the gods and pissing-off the Queen...
  (The former being FAR preferable to the latter.) 

[rayheinrich]

                < the immortality of a kitten, the eternity of a kiss >

                        a dream, shattering
                        a tear, splattering

                        desire and destiny, busy nattering
                        misery's wounds, no longer flattering

                        passion and longing, victims of battering
                        joy, hugs, and harmony, all busy scattering

                        love and forever, no longer mattering

                                                - - -



    The Queen thought this was going to be much harder for her peasants;
    that it would be difficult to craft decent poems when they were constrained
    to contain god-awful bunches of the hyperbolic words frequently contained
    in sordid love poems. She was wrong delightfully surprised again.

[Todd]

Quix, it's not only that you completed this with all the words, it looks like you went alphabetical. I also wouldn't have expected to like so much of the content like I do.

Very nicely done.

Todd

[Keith]

A master class Quix, job done. I doff my cap

[Lizzie]

Moose and Squirrel

I like the themes you wove together in this one. Nuclear war to rocky and bullwinkle. It is a little more sprawling than your normal works (welcome to the dark side ), but it adheres well.

---

weak beneath my heavy feet,

Nice line.

---

Immortality is for those who believe in infinite joy. 

Yes.

---

don't drown in their Doomtown, darling.

I'd move to Doomtown....
Very metal.

[nibbed]

Moose and Squirrel

One burden of childhood is time,
hour stacked upon hour
a wall of bricks stretching 
into an endless forever.

You learn this first at school
through the torture of the hands
of the clock that will not move,
no matter how hard you stare.

Eternity is cruel when you’re always waiting
under your desk, like my mother was
paralyzed by the siren, the inevitable 
extinction, that blinds, then burns, leaving
 
your shadow an immortal chalk drawing
as what you were emptied from the room,
a spilled cup that no longer has to stand
amidst the devastation, under the nun’s waiting
ruler to spell that final word. 

For me, oblivion was as far away as the dinosaurs.
We still counted missiles in our icy war
our gun was bigger, or it wasn’t.
It became a game of spies at recess. After-

school we would sit eye-damagingly close 
to a black and white
television, its ears stretching 
like the rabbit, our fool magician hero could never

seem to pull from the hat between his antlers. 
He would tear away his sleeve, and reach down.
Instead of a bunny, he would reveal a savage beast.

This is the second burden of childhood.


~~

Words used: blinds, bunny, burden, burns, cruel, devastation, emptied, extinction, eternity, fool, forever, icy, immortal, oblivion, paralyzed, savage, torture

Todd, that was amazing. The words became your friends, without strain-
you flowed.

nibbed

[Todd]

Thank you, Janine. Glad you liked my ode to childhood during the cold war.

[Richard]

Rejected Hallmark Cards

hotheaded hugs
burning shame
heavenly humiliation
cute paralysis
awesome misery
drowning kittens
torture-slave sweethearts
shattered serendipity
traumatized victim day

[rayheinrich]

Rejected Hallmark Cards

hotheaded hugs
burning shame
heavenly humiliation
cute paralysis
awesome misery
drowning kittens
torture-slave sweethearts
shattered serendipity
traumatized victim day

Creative expansion of theme.
FYI? ... "CafePress" sells a whole line of BDSM greeting cards: "Don't torture yourself, that's my job." etc.