# September Challenge: "Charm"



## Chesters Daughter (Sep 1, 2016)

The prompt for this month's *anonymous* challenge, as chosen by ned is: *Charm

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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.

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


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 1, 2016)

Dystopia 


A politician’s guile and a lawyer’s smile 
can be disarming and somewhat alarming-
barbed wire grins and musty old sins 
is what makes them so deviously charming-

with a little white lie and the wink of an eye 
they will make you believe all the good they’ll achieve-
they take care of our fears with those crocodile tears 
and lull us to sleep not as wolves but as sheep-

by twisting the law they make us safe and secure
and make it our right to consume day and night-
their gospel and creed is to celebrate greed 
by corrupting desires and making us liars- 

kill all the lights and bring on the nights
our apathy has bred this catastrophe-
so forget the poor and those neighbors next door…

As the devil plays heR fiddle 
to a tune---We can All Dance to-


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 3, 2016)

*So Soft a Death*

Pale pin-stripe suit,
Thin cigarette trails,
Pale blue-specked skin,
Gray-painted nails.
Soft, oh so soft,
Oh so soft is the snow.

Cold dead fingers
Play songs of the pipers;
Charisma's a drug,
Charms them like vipers--
Soft, oh so soft,
Oh so soft, mesmerize.

So gentle a voice,
So soulless a song
Encircles their shoulders,
Threads them along;
Soft, oh so soft,
Oh so soft, hypnotize.

They fall in that song,
So deep in the snow,
And there they will freeze
And never know.
Soft, oh so soft,
Oh so soft is the snow.​


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 3, 2016)

*My "Charm" Bracelet*

I wear a simple bracelet
adorned wiith precious charms,
without needing more arms
this daughter is my favorite
I delivered only one,
she makes charming jewelry
on all natural congruity
placidly having fun.


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 11, 2016)

*
Charm Offensive*


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 11, 2016)

*Intoxicating (Mature Content)*

A bottle's worth 
of imbibed ounces
proudly pronounces 
liquid born charm
is raring for pounces.

With his true nature hidden
none are forbidden;
surely one and all 
will embrace
his carefully constructed
personable state.

He begins his beguiles
with smiles and wiles
sans a single slur
till the fast moving parade
becomes but a blur;
so many to choose,
all hail booze!

But he happens upon one
completely unfazed 
by his facade of fun,
and the ounces retreat
as he drags the poor girl
out to the street

A mere pittance was asked
never delve past the mask,
but this worrisome she
could succinctly see
what tonight's sour mash 
had hid so effectively.

On the morrow she'll be found
with eyes wide
seeming to stare at a gray sky,
but her newfound friend
guaranteed

the last capture
of that glassy gaze 
was her own end.

While he sleeps it off
with hilt in hand,
her folks will be shedding
grains of sand,
their overtaxed ducts
doomed to drought,
a gratis gift brought about
by an unseen man.

He adamantly asserts
intuition did her in
as sunset kisses
an uncracked gallon of gin,

and as he breaks the seal
to usher in the unreal
Prince Charming
who often fails
to keep him from harming
those who won't be wooed

he screams aloud
"No one is allowed
to burrow beneath!"

at least
If they want to keep
their tissues secure
from his subdued self
who adores nothing more
than to forgo portraying 
and commence displaying
knife skills galore

finely honed 
by disposing of those
who made it their task
to question his mask

and currently number 
two score and four.

"What's one more?"
He giggles
as he admires
a bewitching bloke,
happily wrapped
in a saccharine cloak,
In the full length

and then dances
out his door.


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 12, 2016)

*
Pinstripe Devil*


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 12, 2016)

*Liar Liar*

Reminiscing a six pack five pints in,
an athlete in all but figure.

Gun nut with his finger on the trigger
and an empty shot glass.

Queerly hetero, alpha man's man;
the one-up king, unless a queen is better.

City bumpkin, country slicker's
undecided backstory changing faster
than liquor to piss, and here's the kicker:
our Prince Charmless couldn't look thicker,
but I'm sure he tries.


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 14, 2016)

*Theater Girl*

Velvet curtains pull away
On flicks a single spotlight 
to shine down on a girl so bright

This is no grand performance
I'm a one man audience
Taking in her florid observance

After close, After dark
All I have to do is listen 
and she will let me embark

The theater in it's majesty 
cannot out glow her charm
No story knows her tragedy

Her voice echoes through the empty hall
It dances and plays 
It breezes by like the winds of fall

She closes her eyes and I close mine 
I can still see her
Even when I'm blind


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 14, 2016)

Between the Earth and Nowhere

It is a place, as new as the river is old,
a place of concrete and rivets
that has yet to see the winter’s cold.

It is not a place man was meant to be.
A bridge stretching from east to west,
the river, north to south, making for the sea.

Above and below, this place, halfway there.
Where? Well, that is a question.
Ponder, but remember to chose with care.

Toward the cranes with their sinewy chains?
Or a quarter turn to the right? Look.
See it? The tracks laid for the coming trains.

To the right or left rests the mortal coil,
yet there is still more to behold,
to the fore and aft, the river rich with soil.

To the rear it rests, a Bactrian humped hulk,
a collection of girders, slowly crumbling,
where ivy climbs and a parliament of owls skulk.

Away, counter to the current they rise, cranes,
riding the thermals on silent wings,
soaring away from the busy shipping lanes. 

To the north and south nature abounds.
Wetlands and channels, islands—
Kin of Morela’s ancient mound.

Fumes of diesel battle with honest decay,
with just a hint of something, a spice,
wafts of Italian, garlic having its tasty say.

A collision, a collage, call it what will,
all part and parcel this old town’s charm,
a finite moment frozen by evening’s chill.

Caught between the earth and nowhere…​


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 15, 2016)

*
The Charmless Poet*


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## Chesters Daughter (Sep 15, 2016)

This challenge is now closed.


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