Breaking news and hearts…
he’d waited all his life to see the Northern Lights
and when they finally shimmered – he slept through it
Breaking news and hearts…
he was her Pole Star
and without him she lost all direction
Breaking news and hearts…
the last Polar bear had
no Arctic ice to hunt upon
Breaking news and hearts…
she broke the mirror her grandmother
smuggled beyond the reach of the Holocaust
Breaking news and hearts…
the baby drove the boy away
and not surely into her arms
Breaking news and hearts…
a premmie did not heroically make it
as the movies teach us to expect
Breaking news and hearts…
the dead in Gaza top forty thousand
and Zion still hasn’t had its pound of flesh
Breaking news and hearts…
another little babe is born
somewhere under the stars…
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Uncategorized invites us to write Zeugmatically. The word zeugma is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses”.
Hi Andrew, an evocative poem. Your repeated line really drives the emotion home.
Thanks, Robbie, I was hoping for more examples of zeugma but once I had that line in mind it just kept repeating…
The repetition of your zeugma works really well, Andrew, and I like the irony of the opening stanza and the tragic poignancy of these lines:
‘she broke the mirror her grandmother
smuggled beyond the reach of the Holocaust’.
Truly a procession of human folly from the mild to the extreme, Kim…
There’s so much broken in this world, Andrew. Your repeated line hammers it home.
A little hope at the end be it ever so fragile, Jane…
Andrew, you remind me how often hearts and breaking go hand in hand. You’ve captured the zeugmatic spirit well here.
Yes indeed, Lisa – the zeugma released an unstoppable flood of grievous images…
The repetition of the line is so effective….and it just keeps coming and coming and coming with your examples. But yes, I feel hope in your last example. All may not be lost.
Not a very cheerful effort, Lillian, but sometimes these things need saying by poets and not necessarily sugar coated…
As others have already said, the line really drives it home. You used a lot of hard hitting examples as well.
I immediately tried to think of more than one zeugma to meet your challenge Melissa but the one line was so powerful it just ran away with me…
Nice use of the repeating line.
Happy you dropped by to read mine
much♡love
Thanks, Gillena…
Breathtaking, especially the last stanzas, Andrew!
I enjoyed hearing you read it aloud last Saturday. (I could swear this is the one, but the way my mind flows? 🤣Apologies if I recalled incorrectly.)
It was Famous or Infamous, Frank but I am so glad you found this one too – its amazing how after hearing those who read at OLN, we can hear their voice when reading their poems…