Poem: word challenge again!

[alpharaposa]

A poem I wrote for haikujaguar's words for this week. For a good chuckle, I can't top this comment using the same words.

The Seraglio Imbroglio

The master guard of the harem
Was an argosian wolf from the West
Who slept with two eyes open
While the other two would rest.

Essentially fierce are the wolf men,
But his manners were muted and chary.
His fur was soft and he kept it clean,
And his song could beguile a fairy.

The dourest slave had a smile for him;
He was lionized by the guardsmen, too.
And the women slept with easy minds
When he padded lightly through.

So the seraglio stayed contented
while the warg wolf watched his sheep
Until a girl with subfusc fur
Was numbered among his keep.

She was the meanest of the crew;
Her pelt was matted and dull
And her limbs were lean and rangy
But that hardly mattered at all.

He brought her the best of his dinner.
She allowed him to untangle her fur,
Brushing til it shone like an oyster
While the two would quietly confer.

The chiefest wife grew jealous
When the old man's eye was caught
By some mongrel sold at market
As part of the bargain lot.

Her garb concealed the bottle
When the wife was searched at last
while the old man's corpse was cooling
And the guardsmen stood aghast.

She went to her death protesting.
In the chaos, the two wolves ran.
They sought the sea and joined a ship,
The cap to a masterful plan.

That's them over there at the dockside.
Be careful if you have them as crew;
A wolf is loyal only to his pack,
And it probably won't include you.

---
This story is probably from the same tavern that this story is from.

After writing the longer poem, I was thinking over the various pirates and rough types in this setting, and composed a quick haiku:

She killed ten men
By the time I took down four.
They call her Pixie.

Comments

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

I see I wasn't the only person whose first thought at seeing "imbroglio" was "seraglio."

I wonder how many similar words you could pile up. There's "intaglio," and after that, my brain runs dry.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Those are all that the internet yields.

I spent some time wracking my brain this morning to remember seraglio. I knew there was a similar word that sometimes referred to harems, but couldn't bring it up for the longest time.

I think I need more sleep. :D

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

They're all Italian in origin, I think. In German, Mozart's Abduction From the Seraglio is Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Of course, you can make a rhyme with the name of cartoonist Phil Foglio . . .

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. That would be an interesting poem!