# October Challenge “Eye of Newt, Wing of Bat”



## Chesters Daughter (Oct 1, 2020)

This is a “regular” month, therefore, *entrants must post their own entries this month.
*
Discussion regarding any entry, or any challenge related issues, may take place in either Bistro during any phase of the challenge. Kindly be mindful that secure entries are only discussed in the Secure Bistro to preserve the first rights of entrants.*

Please remember that in submitting an entry you are obligated to cast at least one vote in the poll once it is opened. Failure to do so will result in your entry being disqualified.

*The prompt for this month's challenge, as chosen by Gumby is: *Eye of Newt, Wing of Bat

*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.
*Entrants must post their own entries in this thread, or if you desire to protect first rights, please post your entry in the *secure 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 for entries on the public board, and the Secure Bards’ Bistro for entries on the secure board.

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



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


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## rcallaci (Oct 4, 2020)

Blind Bats and Skinny Newts

eye of newt wing of bat
tail of cat add some fat
sing soulful songs in rhyme
in mezzo measured time  
with a tidily dash of puckered lime and
a pithily pinch of sweet-lipped thyme 

stir to the left
stir to the right
dance a wiggly wobbly jig 
throw in a dried up freckled fig
mix in some toes fingers and bows
have a clown fart and jump up and down
and slap him if you see him frown

fire up the pot make sure it’s hot
and enjoy a delicious witchy cappuccino
















©Robert F. Callaci
all rights reserved
10/04/2020 ​


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## ladygarmadone17 (Oct 5, 2020)

“MOSQUITOES”

Squish Squash
Bzzzz bzzzz
Busy are we
Like vampires

From kill 2 kill
I get bitten
From bloodthirsty mosquitoes
Buzzing in my room

Falling like poisonous shurikens
Those newt-eyed bats stab my skin
Leaving big fat juicy welts
Hiding within

Squish squash
Bzzzz bzzzz
No stopping 
This inevitable plague 

Either bite or be bitten
The mosquito’s motto
As I lay anticipating
Their next strike


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## Matchu (Oct 6, 2020)

Down on the beach we buried his phone
Not the I-phone, it was his old phone
From the drawer.
Martha spat on the damned thing
And a sandcastle later we stripped down
danced round the hill of sand
In bikinis chanting
Death to Jonathan Broadhouse
What a stupid name
The tide arrived, flooded electronics
Very satisfying I think everybody agreed
As a team of women
 desperate for a pee
And then, sun setting, the most dreadful incident
 Occurred the musical interlude, techno tingle
Sent a shiver up our spines
Who would call at such an ungodly hour?
We never discovered.
Of course, bitterly disappointed, 
some witch I said.


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## midnightpoet (Oct 9, 2020)

Blade

In the misty glen
a single claymore
stands,
stuck hard 
in the dark
and rocky ground
blood still drips 
down its hilt
smell of battle
circles around
sword.

Three sisters, 
dressed in white
robes
dance in a circle
around the blade
singing a death chant

Their hollow eyes
glowed with hellfire
wild hair flew
behind them like the fluttering
of bats

All around the low hills
ghosts of the fallen
gather, circling the sisters
as the claymore slowly rises
as if by some unknown hand

Faster and faster as in a whirlwind
the spectral
warriors circle the sisters
who scream as their flesh
rips from their bones 
eyes explode from their sockets
their robes turn black
as the bowels of hell.

One of the sisters grabs 
the floating blade 
with skeletal
fingers,
and holds it aloft
all is silence
as the glen fills
with rotting corpses.

Three ravens 
comes to rest
on the shoulders
of the sisters
as they chant
in unison
“Go to your breakfast,
my dears.”


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## Carmen (Oct 11, 2020)

October
31 Days
&
31 Nights
October 31st
The
Night of Fright
Dripping Red Blood
on Fangs
So white
Add 2 the
Fun
of a
Halloween
Nite


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## Darkkin (Oct 11, 2020)

*On the Wings of a Fox*

On the Wings of a Fox:  A Villanelle Juxtapose

Deep and doleful, full of doubt a desperate song takes wing.
Ride the winds, soar high as old Turtle in the midnight sky—
Find the Standing Stones where the Silver Selkie still sings.

On a flute of bone, Phi calls Sky Fox to the old obsidian ring—
the Standing Stones of Selkie Wold, wherein nightmares die.
Deep and desperate, that song of the Sky Fox’s velvet wings.

Phi, gaze alight, about her shoulders a Cloak of Shivers clings,
as she cast her bright melody high to draw good Sky Fox nigh.
Doubtful, desperate up from the darkest deep velvet wings sing.

Skin stretched drum tight, the hum of wind floods the stone ring.
Sky Fox, that deepest shadow in a softer night, blots out the sky.
Stars swallowed, veiled by a Sky Fox, come on whispered wing.

Phi clad in Shivers, tucks her flute away, rushes to get her things,
among them her string of pearls so to lasso a Sky Fox now nigh.
Each pearl a day in her years, betwixt her fingers slides and sings.

By tracery touch, through the tenebrous void Phi felt the wings
rush, brush, and bend the breezes in the Stones: It was do or die.
Count the Sky Fox’s thrum, heed the gushes as the heart sings.
Lasso cast. Pearls in a brass ring. Phi beneath Sky Fox swings—

Away from the Stones, snatched high into the sweet indigo sky,
Phi clutched tight to her rope of pearls, beneath Sky Fox swings,
to and fro and back again, each down stroke a sleepy child’s sigh—
so says the wind: Find the Azure Salamander Kin to gain the Eye.

Phi heard the mutter and in her bones knew she had to at least try
to face down that fear bloomed, fear of a horrid, conniving thing
she fled once before, rode paper wings into the sweet indigo sky.

Now duty and deed call her to find the All Seeing Newt’s Eye—
to snatch it up so Pi would not reach the City of Seven Rings.
Phi, the last line of defense for that sleepy child’s dreamy sigh.

Hand o’er hand, Phi hauled onto Sky’s back, a bat flyin’ high—
harnessed, round and about woven by a length of pearl string.
Knees to neck Phi astride, rider of deep velvet in indigo sky.

Before the wind the Fox Bat soars far above the ocean’s cry,
Sky, the Fox Bat blind in the night, sees where echoes sing—
Down to the billows, gunmetal waves hold the echoes’ sigh.

Fold. Hold. Fall. Heed the billows’ call.  Follow as stars die—
Phi frees her bubble wand as Sky plunges, unfurls her wings
on a bubble flight through the abyss to find the Newt’s Eye.


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## Chesters Daughter (Oct 15, 2020)

This challenge is now closed.


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