The prompt today was “reprieve.” Sometimes what seems to be a reprieve doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Here’s a poem I wrote three years ago that tells the tale of such a time.
No Reprieve
Caught short by the rainy season, I should have known better.
Though I’d left home high and dry, I knew I’d soon be wetter.
Defenseless in the downpour, I ducked into a store.
Just to get some shelter, I rushed in through that door.
I felt that I was lucky as this store was full of stuff,
though finding what I needed might be sort of tough.
The store clerk shuffled up to me, though he could barely stand—
an umbrella just as old as him held up in his hand.
Lucky when I chanced upon this ancient wrinkled fella,
he happened to be carrying a really big umbrella!
I opened up my pocket book and located a fiver.
Now I wouldn’t spend this day wet as a scuba diver!
But when I left that thrift store with my practical new find,
I found that I was actually in the same old bind.
For opening up my parasol, I uttered “What the heck?”
As rivulets of water ran down my head and neck.
The purchase I’d just made, I found, would be no help at all.
I hadn’t noticed that the shop was St. Vincent de Paul.
The fault was no one else’s. I know it was mine, solely.
I should have realized sooner that my purchase would be holy!
(Please note: St. Vincent de Paul is a secondhand store run by the Catholic Church.)
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
😀
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O caveat emptor (or however that old phrase goes.) Anyway, the old guy meant well. Nice pun. 🙂
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You taught me a new phrase, Christine, and one absolutely appropriate for something that happened to me today. I’ll add it to my blog with proper attribution to you.
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Just wrote a post on this, Christine. Thanks for the new phrase!! Does everyone in the world (except for me) know it?
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I’ve seen it many times in connection with something bought that proves defective, but I’m not sure of the exact spelling so I hope you looked it up. I believe it’s like the archaic “buying a pig in a poke” and comes of having the wool pulled over your eyes. I’ll be interested to see what you’ve come up with. 🙂
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Another gem for your sparkley coronet… it must be getting too heavy to lift 🙂
Have you ever heard of/seen Pam Ayres? She’s a humorous poet. This one reminds me of her work.
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No, but I’ll look her up on your recommendation, Jane.
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Jane–I agree, we not only have a similar approach, but pretty much the same meters. I don’t know of any other poets these days who are writing in rhyme outside of a few, including yourself, on blogs. Thanks for introducing me to her work.
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I thought you’d like her. She’s a household name in the UK, as she used to appear regularly on TV, but I’d be surprised if she was internationally known. Did you find her on Youtube? Her oration is priceless – as is Jake Thackray’s, and that of Victoria Wood. The UK has produced some brilliant humorous poets.
It would be a tragedy if metered rhyme were to become extinct. These days one can break prose up into ragged lines and call it poetry. As long as it’s emotive, it will be accepted as such, whereas metered rhyme has to be carefullly measured and arranged in such a way that everything works, and isn’t stilted. Maybe it seems too much like hard work, although GOOD free verse is equally hard work.
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