Challenge 851

Wish Wash

1. In James Robert Rudolph’s There Is No Malibu Cred in Santa Fe:

   1. How does the concluding stanza explain “Malibu Cred,” in the title?
   2. In what way is “stars” an ironic metaphor?
   3. Might readers in other places or times need a footnote to epxlain the cultural significance of Malibu and the location of Santa Fe?
   4. What tone distinguishes the poem in the genre of lyrical nature poetry? What is the moral of the poem?

2. In James Rumpel’s A Quest for Heaven:

   1. Why is “heaven” located where it is? What seems to be its function?
   2. The manager at the “complaint” desk creates a new reality for Tormot, one that fulfills his every wish. Does the “many worlds” theory in quantum physics and cosmology do something similar?
   3. What happens to the “old” reality, where Tormot’s wife and daughter both perish? Does Tormot die in that reality, too, when he is transported to the alternate reality of wish-fulfillment??

3. In Michael Wooff’s A Dizain for Palissy:

   1. What is a dizain? Who is Palissy?
   2. Are “bumps” more likely to “smooth” or decorate “anfractuosities”?

4. In Oonah V. Joslin’s Apollo 13, the poem admits that well-wishing cannot do what science and skill must do. And yet how might the wish justify the Apollo mission itself?

Responses welcome!

Copyright © April 13, 2020 by Bewildering Stories
What is a Bewildering Stories Challenge?