Random Prompt #13

[Tiger the Lion]

Write a poem inspired by the number 13.

Bonus points for using the words "asp," "quench," and/or "napkin." 

*** a reminder that prompts are not rigid. Poems about drowning, bulldogs or campfires will not be considered out of place.  

Go!

[Tiger the Lion]

Paranoid Schizophrenics 

rarely show for scheduled appointments
made for them by some "well-meaning" worker
to see some strange doctor on the 14th floor
of a government building.

They know exactly 
who and where you are,


and would never fall for it.


We're not so stupid.

[TranquillityBase]

Departure in 13 histories

i.

Sunday morning
split down the middle

ii.

Possession in great measure
some kind of last word
its meaning churned by the blue sky

iii.

The sun is high in heaven
showing all things, good and evil
the evil must be curbed
the good brought close in embrace

iv.

Hero of my dream:  yes, finally

v.

Two miles east of Mosquero
the highway pours you down
a dance of switchbacks
to a desert plain of buffalo grass, chamisa, 
creosote and mesquite

vi.

A broken tooth in the mouth
sharp like a dragon in its cavern of night

vii.

Enough of this, enough of that
it burns, it burns, it burns!

viii.

Mountains dwindle into distant mesas.
Sand hills cut by arroyos 
encroach on the road

ix.

Attachments:  innumerable,
particularly of the four-legged variety

x.

At Logan 
we cross the muddy red Canadian
its carved canyons
twist and turn out of sight,
one moment of a river
nine hundred miles long.

xi.

Fascist tendencies:  o yes.
For me, for you, for ever
until Götterdämerung

xii.

Eyes blurred, lines conflict 
telling different stories 
inside horizontal confusions

xiii.

Captive whose confession
leapt off a bridge 31 years ago:
still waiting

[rowens]

Thirteen

A Name,
2-10-1,
seek and go through.
Mostly go through.


She looks like an actress
and flies like a penguin
and a Hawk.

[rayheinrich]

        The Number Thirteen was inscribed on a Nap'kin,
        Its spell on Welch Imbolc on our Hazel Catkin;
        That quenched the asp's sting to brave Maelgwn our King,
        Who mated Pict's Princess for Royalty's Ring.