Welcome to the Weekend Mini Challenge at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads with Kim from writinginnorthnorfolk.
Choose an instrument, give it a characteristic adjective or a personality, and write a poem about it, in any form of your choice. It doesn’t have to be about the instrument or music. But it must include a phrase like ‘sarcastic percussion’. You can take it wherever you want – I can’t wait to see what you make of it!
It was her grating
cackle that plucked
his attention.
Her usual lilting cadence
had been replaced with
the almost-shriek of
a panicked balalaika.
Eye contact was impossible
they darted about like
the frenzied silver ball
in an old arcade game.
He stopped listening
and merely watched her lips
spew a string of lies.
fromrussia.com
cool 🙂
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Cacophony is one of my favourite words, Susan, and it makes a great title for your poem. I enjoyed this vignette and imagined the scene. I especially love the wordplay in ‘grating cackle that plucked his attention’ and ‘the almost shriek of a panicked balalaika’.
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Thanks, Kim. Cacophony *is* a cool word, I agree. Thanks for the positive comments. Much appreciated!
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A beautiful description. You managed to weave a tale in here somehow. Now, I want o know who this horrid woman was (she sounds like a witch) and the lies she’s been spewing. Oh, and who is he? I enjoyed this.
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Hi Vivian! These people are just citizens of my imagination. So glad you enjoyed!
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👍🏽
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Quite an intense and atmospheric write, Susan! I love “the almost-shriek of a panicked balalaika.” 🙂
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Thanks so much, sanaarizvi!
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A panicked balalaika… when cornered a liar will resort to lie even more… quite a c cacophony
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Exactly! 🙂 Thanks Bjorn!
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“a panicked balalaika.”
What a thought!
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Yeah, it was quite a thought, for sure. 🙂
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“………the almost-shriek of a panicked balalaika….” such a cool phrase!
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Thanks, Sherry Blue sky. I thought it was very cool when I hit on it! I’m glad I wasn’t alone in this. 🙂
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