Poem: "Pranks and Shenanigans"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the November 1, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles.  It was sponsored by Shirley Barrette and Anthony Barrette.  The setting is the Whispering Sands desert in my main fantasy world, Hallelaine; and the language in question is called Seshaa, which means roughly "the voice of the desert" or "the sound of wind over sand."

Pranks and Shenanigans

When a bandit lad
empties all the wineskins at a revel
and refills them with vinegar,
that's a prank.

When Waterjewel's best potter
makes a pot from a dozen kinds of clay
just to see if that's possible
and then dances nearly naked through a revel
with the pot balanced on its head,
that's a shenanigan.

The wind carries one word
for these two things:
wayan.

The desert remains
a collage of cultures divided
by a common language.