There Is No Hiccup in This Poem

 Today the challenge was to write a poem that used at least three of the the six words in this unpromising list of words:

• pest
• crack
• ramble
• hiccup
• wince
• festoon

I tried my level best to get all of them in there.... but seriously, hiccup? I mean, unless one is inspired to write very humourous verse (considerably harder than it sounds) how exactly does one casually slip that word into a poem?

This is what I managed.... and it is not all that bad:

I’m not fond of spiders, though I know

Their point and purpose, and rejoice,

At their harrowing of graver pests.

It is not that I fear or loath,

The little hunters, but that their guise –

All long-leggity and shadow-fast –

Evoke a sense of great unease.

And yet, one morning, thick with frost,

When ice cracked at the touch of sun,

I rambling went in wincing cold

And saw a spiderweb strung across

Two fence-posts, wighted and festooned

With rime that glittered, silver-gold.

And for that joy, the spider blessed.