Bedding

I have been playing with a new poetic form recently. This was created by Luke Prater at his blog Wordsalad, which I don't seem to be able to link here. Anyway, note the first word in the form name is 'stress' that's fitting in more ways than one. I found it very challenging, but ultimately worth it, if for no other reason that being part of the 'checkered sisterhood.' So, below are the parameters for the form, and below that is my poem. Hope you enjoy :o)

Stress Matrix Dectet/Stress Checkerboard Stanza -

10 lines, 10 syllables per line: a-B-a | B-c-B-c | D-c-D
where lowercase are iambic pentameter and uppercase are trochaic pentameter – they alternate the whole way, giving a perfect ‘checkerboard’ of stressed and unstressed syllables, ten lines down x ten syllables across (=100 syllables completely evenly distributed and the rhyme scheme also utterly even/symmetrical mathematically).




Our cotton sheet is flapping on the line;
breezes pull and finally blow through it,
a square of white: the flagged surrender sign.

Every evening, though you try to do it
I cannot really say our love life thrives.
Simultaneously we cry, ‘Oh screw it!’
Through this near miss no nuptial bliss derives.

Wind is hurried, blowing without caring
through tangled, twisted fabric of our lives,
love and dirty laundry without sparing.