by Helen Ksypka

“Police: Live cluster bomblet, ammunition found with donation
at southeastern Wisconsin thrift store”
—AP

Could a bomb in a Goodwill donation
Send their customers running amok?
No, I’d say this unique situation
Would have buyers embracing their luck.

It’s with savvy they’d see that this merch is
One heck of a deal to be struck,
‘Cuz the shoppers who jump at this purchase
Would be getting a bang for their buck.

by Bruce Bennett

“A modified version of the classic mirror test suggested that roosters recognize their reflections.”
—The New York Times

“What’s new? Of course I recognize
that perky comb. Those glowing eyes.
What were they thinking? I do best
when those with smarts devise the test.”

by Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

“Britain’s ‘loneliest sheep’ stranded on Scottish cliff for two years”
—Independent

Lest you become the loneliest of sheep
On British soil, marooned along a beach,
Not able to ascend back up the steep
Escarpment you slid down, beyond help’s reach,
Lamenting all the lambs you could have had
If you had met another on the hill
Equipped with what it takes to be a dad,
Soliciting canoes for help until
The beach runs out and makes you ewe-turn, as
Slim hopes of rescue fade, and you’re forlorn …
Hear my advice: Don’t be the sheep who has
Escaped the shears but rues that she’s unshorn.
Ewe, mimic not who’s pining for her flock—
Penned in between a hard place and a rock!

by Julia Griffin

“The Beatles release their last new song—thanks to AI and archival recordings”
—CBS News

And now and then:
If we must start again,
Since half of you have died,
We’ll know you’ve been AI’d.

I know it’s true,
Now you are missing two,
That if this makes it through,
It’s not because of you.

And then and now,
It’s time to take a bow;
But we’ll get through with these:
Your evergreen LPs.

by Steven Urquhart Bell

“Why are whales throwing seaweed on their heads?”
—BBC

We all like fancy dress at Halloween:
We try the spooky costumes on for size,
Or make one from a sewing magazine,
And hope that our endeavors win a prize.

And whales are just as sociable as us:
They want to get dressed up and be a hit,
But when you’re twice as hefty as a bus,
It’s hard to find a fright wig that’ll fit.

by Julia Griffin

“Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered
Repairs to footbridge mean straw must be dangled to warn oncoming shipping
of work going on beneath”
—The Guardian

To mend this web of tempered steel ignites an ancient law:
It first must be bedecked with bales of cautionary straw.
Oncoming shipping duly warned, discussions now begin:
Exactly which Millennium does London think it’s in?

by Steven Kent

“Pro-Trump lawyer [Kenneth Chesebro] accepts plea deal in Georgia ‘fake electors’ case”
—The Guardian

“Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis takes plea deal in Georgia election subversion case”
—The Guardian

The odds are good John Eastman‘s getting moody,
Since things look really bad for him and Rudy.
Their fake elector scheme is now on trial,
With Ken and Jenna bound to flip in style:
If “Inmate [X]” is not to be their greeting,
They’ll have to spill the beans about that meeting.
The Kraken was released but had no sting,
So now you’d best believe these birds will sing!

by Paul Lander

Iceland women strike.
Prime minister joins pickets.
Now that’s really cold…

by Bruce Bennett

“Lamb Mowers, billed as the country’s only sheep-led lawn care service,
is munching its way to success.”
—The Washington Post

Mary had a little lawn.
She watered it each day
So much the grass just grew and grew
And grew. “That’s not okay,”

Said Mary, so she made a call
And Lo! Lamb Mowers came,
And now, she has a model lawn.
And you could have the same!

by Alex Steelsmith

“[N]ever get in harm’s way by enticing or provoking a wild bear [to attack] …
You can run afoul of the law as well as the bears if you get too close and end up
paying a fine.”
—CNN

Curious
sightseers,
when they have
barged

into bear
habitat,
sometimes get
charged.

by Philip Kitcher

An ex-Prime Minister shares her wisdom.

The end of party misery?
What I’m inclined to bet is
that, just like me, you too will be
outlasted by a lettuce.

by Nora Jay

“Ancient rock carvings revealed by receding Amazon waters amid drought
Human faces and other figures believed to be up to 2,000 years old exposed
as Brazil river level hits record low”
—The Guardian

The change of climate is a curse, no doubt,
But still, there’s something to be said for drought.
Receding waters resurrect such skill:
Behold, the Bronze-Age Banksy of Brazil!

by Bruce Bennett

“Fourteen articulated skeletons of men, women and children—two positioned as if they were embracing—
have been found inside one of six cells or side rooms” in the ruins of a 5,000-year-old tomb.
—The Guardian

Two skeletons embrace. It’s an old story.
True love companioned with memento mori.

by Bruce Bennett

Jim Jordan, aiming to rule the roost
and give his MAGA hordes a boost,
reached high, reached far, but came up short.
Sometimes it’s wisdom to abort.

by Julia Griffin

“‘Every square inch is covered in life’: the ageing oil rigs that became marine oases”
—The Guardian

Think of the prospects of the ageing rig,
Abandoned in the middle of the sea,
So bare, so gray, so jagged, and so big,
Unwanted even for its former work
Of sucking out the ocean’s muck and murk
To blight the air and doom posterity:

Whoever would have dreamed a thing so dead,
Activists’ ghoul, Big Oil’s discarded toy,
Could bloom into a grove, a busy bed
Of waving tendrils, colored like the dawn,
Where mollusks sprout and cod and rockfish spawn,
And young sea lions soar like shots of joy?