Tilus Against Cycling

1. Motorist’s Lament

A narrow road, a mob

of cyclists —

Curse!

Double lines,

must not pass

go.

Slow up the hill, behind

chug, clatter

squeak.

All those tight, bright bottoms

in my face

eww!

2. Pedestrian’s Lament

“Easy as riding a

bike” — but I

can’t.

Nervous little mother

insisted

not.

When I got to fifteen

new schoolmates

tried.

Lunch-time lessons each day

in the lane

but.

You leave some things too late —

forever

lost.

I fell in love with this three-line form (used for a dVerse prompt in previous post) and decided to use it again for Poets United's Bicycling prompt, creating two chains (how appropriate for cycles, lol).

Tilus for a Friend

Text from my friend: cancer

surgery

now.

Sunny autumn morning

clouds over

fast.

The tall tree by the fence

unchecked weed

grew.

Each of the above can stand alone. Also they work as a sequence, and that works in whatever order you read them.  They appear in the order they were written.

The tilus is a form invented by Kelvin S.M.  At dVerse just now we're asked to give it a try. The tilus is supposed to be about nature, but I found it also worked well for the thing uppermost in my mind at present (see first stanza above).  Then the nature ones I tried reflected the same mood, like an oblique commentary on the first. I realised I had not only a series of separate poems but also a connected sequence.  Then I noticed that the sequence worked in any order.  So all in all a very useful form!