Rapeseed flowers and summer
are no longer yellow, rather
bushy, their pods buffed and brittle.
Wheat and emotions bristle,
stalks and stubble stiffly sway,
growing more bleached every day.
We wait, baskets filled with apples,
watching as the season dapples,
before autumn’s fruity, rosy hues
tip us into winter blues.
Kim M. Russell, 13th August 2024
Image by Julia Kicova on Unsplash
It’s Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub, with our host Melissa, and we are writing zeugmatically.
Melissa tells us that the word ‘zeugma’ is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses”. It’s a rhetorical device used to emphasise, add humour, or surprise a reader, and to juxtapose two objects. She gives us its etymological background as well as some examples. In all the examples, one word, a verb, applies to two other words or ideas, one being literal and one being figurative or metaphorical.
Our challenge is to write a poem including one example of zeugma, although we may come up with more if the muse strikes.
writing in north norfolk 
You get extra credit for using more than one! I love the pace and the rhyme of this. There is a sense of waiting throughout, even through the consistency of all the changes. Brava!👏🏻
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Thank you very much, Melissa. I wanted to do your prompt justice. 😎
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I appreciate it!
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LOVE everything about this one, Kim! The rhyming, the play with words that happens with zeugma (a new word/poetic device for me!), and the repetition of sounds. I read it aloud after I read it silently….love it!
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Thank you, Lill! I enjoyed writing it.
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Delightful use of zeugma, rhyme and alliteration. Bravo
much🤍love
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Thank you, Gillena, with much love!
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The best poems are about nature on the surface (for me), wwithout any grandiose pretensions, which of course lets the reader feel the emotions and dip into personal memories or other associated thoughts.
But this poem is a jewel…deceptively easy you made it appear, because writing about the harvest and what’s to come can feel a bit gimmicky, but absolutely the opposite here, lovely, just lovely and the zeugma (s) just smoothly a part….wheat and emotions bristle….what a line!
Poetry like this is a joy to read.
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Thank you kindly , Ain, for such a lovely comment.
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Keats’ “To Autumn” ghosts this poem with the faintest frost – a delicious apple of that here. The fade and chill is coming, but for now ’tis the blush of late summer sunsets.
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Brendan part of Keats’ poem will be in Monday’s quadrille prompt. I can see the same aura in it here in Kim’s poem.
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Thank you very much, Brendan. Nights are already drawing in here, dark by eight thirty. But at least we have that blush.
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Kim you used it seamlessly. Change is in the air isn’t it.
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Thank you , Lisa! It definitely is. There are already conkers on the huge horse chestnut in the leisure centre car park, and our trees are laden with plums and cooking apples.
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You’re very welcome. I imagine you on your walks enjoying these things ❤
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Now you have me wishing for Fall with your great poem. It is full of wonderful imagery! Well done, Kim.
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Thank you very much, Dwight. As you have probably gathered over the years, I love autumn!
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You are welcome. Yes, it is a beautiful time.
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Inspiring write. As I’m in the tropics, I’ll end up with a slightly different take.
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Thank you, Shaun. That’s what I like about the dVerse Poets Pub, the diverse perspectives, both personal and geographical.
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beautiful poem. here it’s monsoon season so maybe I’ll write something about rain.
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Thank you, Jay. A rain poem would be welcome right now.
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I’m sure I have used Zeugma unwittingly before but when you try to think of them they won’t come so well done for your two examples, Kim…
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Splendidly written, Kim, and like many others I love the shared “bristling” of “wheat” and “emotions!”
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Thank you, Chris!
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Well done fitting the prompt into a proper poem!
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Thanks Jane!
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This has a great rhythm to it, Kim. You really nailed this prompt.
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Thank you, Sara!
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Love the alliteration and rhyme in this one, Kim! 😀
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Cheers Frank!
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