Each year the SCWC*LA holds a writing contest in which all conferees are invited to participate. The rules are simple: Write a piece in any form you wish of no more than 250 words based on the topic announced Friday night. The topic for the 8th annual L.A. conference was “Debacle.” Tracy Neis of Placentia, CA is the writer of one of this year’s winner.
Debacle’s Muse
by
Tracy Neis
Debacles have, since ancient times,
Inspired countless tragic rhymes.
The perils of the wine dark sea
Gave rise to Homer’s Odyssey.
Centuries later, a Viking fight
Prompted an unnamed scribe to write
The Beowulf Saga. Limbs went flying,
Blood flowed freely. Folks kept dying.
More debacles came anon.
King Arthur slayed his bastard son.
Henry the Second’s dumb remark
Caused Becket’s death. The age stayed dark.
Disasters ran through Shakespeare’s work:
Bewitched Macbeth’s wife went berserk.
The soothsayer’s warning was forgotten.
Out in Denmark, things were rotten.
Romantics loved Debacle’s force!
Tess lost both maidenhood and horse.
Doomed Light Brigade faced death with bravery.
Cursed mariner became an aviary.
And yet these hapless heroes’ fates
Gave them with lit’rature a date.
Though roughly used by destiony,
They gave their lives for poetry.
# # #
