Poetry - 5 things exercise

A while ago our writing group had as its topic a list of words and phrases. We had to take five of them and incorporate them into a story or poem.

The words I chose were: an old armchair, a book with the last page missing, boots, a car in a swollen river, and barbed wire.

5 things exercise

Looking out at the trees,

book fallen to the ground,

I sit in the old armchair that

now lives outside, after housing,

for three days, a mouse

who escaped the cat

My son lent me The Dreaming Void

in which the inside third

of page 53/54 was missing

which is not the same as

a book without the last page

but more puzzling.

It rained this morning:

the bush paths were wet

and water running high

over-flowed my boots

turning pink socks brown and

squelching mud between toes

On the bank of the stream

lies the shell of an old,

dangerously rusted refrigerator

which is not the same as

a car in a swollen river

and its possibility of death.

The fence around our bush

is a five strand electric one

which, I guess, prevents

the natives from escaping

but inside they are devouring

ancient barbed wire rolls.