HE ALWAYS LIKED TO BE RIGHT — FOUND POEM

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Found Poetry Review Prompt #6 is from Noah Eli Gordon. Actually, he gives a bunch of prompts and I just have to pick one. I'm going to fool around with this one:

"Write a poem comprised of a single sentence, spread across at least seven lines of no fewer than five words each. Repeat one of your lines three times, but not in succession. Include the following:

the phrase “as when the”
a scientific term
a flower’s proper name
the name of a country in South America
a person’s proper name
the phrase “which is to say”
something improper"

HE ALWAYS LIKED TO BE RIGHT

He always liked to be right,

said he'd know when it was time 

so when the call came we cried, 

upset as the unweaned puppies

we removed too soon from their horrified mothers,

drove past newly flowering tabebuia, as he called them,

which is to say primavera, but didn't I say

he always liked to be right,

as when the news came out of Chile the miners were safe 

and he said for sure there'd be a movie

but the miners would get screwed over royalties

which, of course, is what happened—

he always liked to be right,

and we delivered the puppies

to their new homes, drove back in silence

except when Oscar yelled at the faceless voice

on the radio who got the date wrong 

for the hurricane last October, 

broadcasters got no integrity any more.

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