Dog chases own tail
By way of training the writing muscles, a wee collocation/word association exercise developed from a chance photograph taken on this morning's stroll.
I noticed this dog whistle coiled helpfully around a post by its finder in the hope that the owner might see it. This loss provoked a short story idea that remains burbling in my subconscious (it put me in mind of a childhood favourite, The Lost Yodel by Carol Watson). In the meantime, and in a slightly more conscious area of my brain, a little collocation chain began to form. The resultant fun verse sees the word dog collocate and link to other stray thoughts and come full circle to devour its own tail and become dog once more. Not the highest form of verse but a fun exercise in associations, homophones and collocations.
The Lost Whistle
Dog whistle
Wolf whistle
Whistleblower
Whistler’s mother
Mother may I
Mother Earth
Earthenware
Earth Day
Day of rest
Daily bread
Bread and butter
Bread of heaven
Heaven help us
Heaven sent
Pick up the scent
Sent to prison
Prison scrubs
Prison walls
Walls have ears
Wall’s ice cream
Cream of the crop
Cream cake
Piece of cake
Caked in mud
Mud slide
Muddy paws
Paw prints
Pause for thought
Thought-provoking
Thought police
Police headquarters
Sleeping policeman
Man the lifeboats
Man of the year
Yearly check-up
Old Year’s night
Night on the town
Take the night off
Often as not
An off-cut
Cut above
Cut your hair
Run with the hare
Hair of the dog
I love this idea, I'm going to try it myself! Thank you for the inspiration ,Darienne.