There's an app for that

     We live in an amazing world of technology.  Depending on your favorite mobile device, you can get an app for just about anything. My family is currently involved in many games of "Words with Friends."  You might know this app...it's Scrabble without the face to face interaction.  In case you are social, like me, you can send messages through the app where you can trash-talk or question your opponent on the reliability of their word choice.  It is through this app, that I have become aware that many combinations of letters are actually words!  Cool words, surprising words, words that I have had to look up multiple times to internalize their meaning.  Did you know that qat is a word?  No, I didn't spell that wrong...there are words in our language that do NOT require a U immediately after the Q.  (I wish I could tell that to my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Smith!)  Qi is one of these!  Wort, hiller and tartufe are all real words too.  Ironically, rune is a word that I recently learned. So with my ipad open to previous games of Words with Friends and a dictionary on my lap, I attempt this poem RUNE using some of my newly learned vocabulary.

An Invitation to Play
By Melinda Harvey

Words with Friends-
What's that you say?
Invitation accepted
I'd like to play.

He started with Narthex
Now my brain hurts
Who knew it was
a porch on a church?

She played the word nodi
Meaning problem, in plural
I didn't expect this
game to be neural!

Over the course of the game
Ixia, wort and qat
all scored large points
but left me with "What?"

I opened a book,
It was quite a thriller
Found me a great word...
I scored big with "hiller"

I was on a roll
My word choice was foolproof
Until she played
the religious word tartufe!

His qi threw me off
Too many points too soon
I gave up that game
and I finished this rune!

     Okay, it's rough...the pattern is inconsistent and the rhymes aren't spot on, but how about that word choice!?  Thinking now about what type of poem this is, I am stuck.  There are so many poem forms out there that it seems like this must fit into one type or another.  At first I was thinking blank verse, but I see that blank verse does not rhyme.  I was about to throw in the towel when I realized that this is a collection of QUATRAINS!  Problem solved, words used...now, back to my "Lexemes with Chums!"
     Feel like trying a quatrain?  It's not too hard-just four lines and you get to choose the meter and the rhyme pattern.  You can use a dictionary, a word game or your favorite app for inspiration.  Leave your quatrain in the comments; I'd love to hear your work!