# September Challenge: "Deceit"



## Chesters Daughter (Sep 1, 2017)

The prompt for this month's challenge, as chosen by Pete_C is: *Deceit*

You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you wish, though of course, site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board. *Please note that all entries* *are eligible to receive critique in the voting thread.* 

*The inclusion of explanatory text or links of any kind within an entrant's challenge entry is prohibited and will be immediately removed upon discovery. As always, only one entry per member is permitted.

*As previously announced, anonymous entries have been abolished, therefore, entrants must post their own entries in this thread, or if you desire to protect first rights, please post your entry in the *workshop thread*, and then post a link to it here in the public thread. *Failure to do so runs the risk of your entry being disqualifie**d*, so if you require assistance with the task, please PM *me*, and I will gladly help you.

If your entry contains strong language or mature content, *please include a disclaimer in your title.

*Kindly make sure your entry is properly formatted and error free before you submit. You have a *ten minute grace period* to edit your piece, but anything edited after that will likely see your entry excluded from the challenge. 
*
Do not post comments in this thread. Any discussion related to the challenge can take place in the Bards' Bistro. 

Everyone may now use the "Like" function whenever they so choose.



This challenge will close on the 15th of September at 7pm EST. 
*


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## Gumby (Sep 2, 2017)

The Card


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## Pete_C (Sep 5, 2017)

The Ballad of One Man and Two Man


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 6, 2017)

*Pick Up Day*

The phone hidden behind a lamp
never utters a peep.
Dust motes set up house
on the handset
unafraid tips dipped in chocolate 
would ever invade their landscape.
Such savvy little fellows.

Empty Whitman's boxes
litter the floor,
colonized by distant dusty cousins,
she had to forgo Godiva
when her office chair screamed,
then collapsed, forcing boss man 
to give her the axe.
Come sunup,
roaches pause their rave
to nap in paper candy cups.
No need to scurry and hide
in the dark of the double-wide,
all know she won't be stirring.

TV's been blaring
near two weeks
hour after hour
of the best bargains;
hurry! only ten remain!
Her scent has overpowered
the usual eau du filth
snaking its way 
through the laceration
left by a curve
thrown last spring.
Putrid perfume caresses
each jagged shard.

Nosy neighbors' noses
catch a whiff on a breeze,
time to call the cops, if you please,
for that woman has gone too far.
Pounds on the door get no reply,
peers through a window 
reveal why:
her four hundred plus 
bloated and black 
as feasting flies revel in attack 
and the QVC hostess
hawks fancy spice racks.

The phone hidden behind a lamp
never utters a peep
as the coroner wades 
through garbage in heaps.
Age of maggots will define
the timeline of her decline,
and the tox screen will surely show
arsenic as her source of woe -
foul play or foreplay -
they'll never know.

Mrs. Proboscis from next door
watches from her window
pleased to her core;
she's finally rid of that trash.
I've done my job
as head of Park Watch,
she thinks as she cracks
a bottle of aged scotch,
then returns her hand
to the pocket of her smock
to lovingly cup the vial
that gave her cause to dial
the sheriff 
on this fine summer morn.


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## ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord (Sep 7, 2017)

*Something from Nothing/Conspiracy*

His pipe is wrapped in checkered cloth
||||||||||and tied as a package around his neck.

Let him track the ducklings’ footsteps
||||||||||and count all the flies they’ve eaten,
Let him take his dirty handkerchief
||||||||||and use it as a map to find the way to Hell,
Let him draw lines in the dust from maggot to maggot
||||||||||and fashion charms from cigarette bones.

Now, watch 
||||||||||as he undos the pipe package.
Now, watch 
||||||||||as he breathes out circles of half-reality—
Hexes within hexes,

Maggots eating maggots,

—He dragged us all through the mud, 
||||||||||only to blow soap bubbles.
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## PiP (Sep 7, 2017)

*

Deceit*


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## midnightpoet (Sep 8, 2017)

https://www.writingforums.com/threa...-Deceit-quot?p=2105447&viewfull=1#post2105447


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## Firemajic (Sep 10, 2017)

*Phantom Pain*

Spinning make believe chores into epic endeavors
makes them last for many mundane hours
takes my mind off unused rooms
and lips un-kissed 
 and a bed where passion has passed away
if I shake the sheets, memories like dust motes
swirl and dance in a vicious vortex
pulling me into a black hole
so I pretend everything is the same
religiously scrub, sweep and polish
while dark matter collects
like phantom dust bunnies, in the closets of my mind
I wash your chipped coffee cup every day
even though you have not used it for months 

It has been a good day
no mail was delivered to the deceased
and no one called
asking to speak to a dead man...


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## sas (Sep 13, 2017)

*I Left Self-Deceit . . . wearing stilettos 
*
I found you in ’62     
no that’s not right  you found me
no catch in my breath

I was city lights
you were country air
one dance I’d do  not wanting to

but you were nice

the dance dragged on
comfortable  too comfortable
flat shoes bore me

today I’ll slip you off
today’s a day too late 
you slipped on a ring  I'll slip away barefoot

but you were nice

years went somewhere  thirty-five slipped by
each yawned in calm air  calm air, stale air, no air

but you were nice

somewhere you lost me  you never noticed
somewhere I lost you  I never looked

somewhere I left you
I can’t remember

but you were nice


.


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## ned (Sep 15, 2017)

*Nursery Crime*

.
Hush a bye baby, on the tree top,
abandoned by mother
for another to rock.

By a mother herself, the seeds were sown
to look after baby
as one of her own.

But when the wind blows and baby grows strong
and before the spring can sing her song
and before poor sparrow
can twig the pretence, 

hush a bye cuckoo has flown the nest.


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 15, 2017)

This challenge is now closed.


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