Rondeau
If not the first upon your list
of daft temptations to resist,
then this delusion—“Travel might
help Mom and me to reunite”—
is near the winning spot it missed.
Two weeks of knickers in a twist?
You’ll long to slash a throat or wrist—
your own or hers—the second night,
if not the first.
Unless you’re now a masochist,
the notion’s flakier than schist.
Her filter’s gone; your own’s too tight.
The last thing you two need’s a fight,
just face to face and fist to fist.
(If not the first…)
Triolet
To get along
with Mom’s a cinch:
Don’t say she’s wrong.
To get a long,
tight bond, your strong,
tight gag must pinch.
To get along
with Mom’s a cinch.
Julie Steiner is a pseudonym in San Diego. Her recent work (including verse translations from Ancient Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian) has appeared in Literary Matters, The Ekphrastic Review, The Asses of Parnassus, The New Verse News, and Light. She has just entered her third decade as an active member of The Able Muse Press’s online poetry workshop, Eratosphere (https://www.ablemuse.com/erato).