Sleuthing, for NaPoWriMo 2024, Day 30

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Sleuthing

There’s a Clue in the Leaning Chimney and a Password to Larkspur Lane,
and no one will ever discover them without me, that is plain.
I’d love to go a-sleuthing, my sidekicks at my side—
George Fayne, who is so boyish and Bess Marvin who’s so wide.

Together we’d read diaries and find each hidden clue,
‘cause no one else but us has ever known quite what to do
with broken lockets, attics, tolling bells or hollow oaks;
for non-teenage detectives seem to come off like bad jokes.

They may have had the clues but never seemed to solve the crime—
these matters just too difficult for searchers in their prime.
I’d hop in my blue roadster with a picnic box from Hannah
and somehow I would wind up in Wyoming or Montana.

Interviewing cowboys is the way I’d have my fun,
returning to Ned Nickerson when all of this was done.
I don’t have other fantasies of being Peter Pan
or Goldilocks, Rapunzel, Cathy or Superman.

Those fairy tales and comic books and novels are unreal.
I’d have to be like Nancy—a character who’s real!
The only mystery I can’t solve of all her mysteries seen
is how I’ve gotten so damn old while she remains sixteen!

The last NaPoWriMo prompt of the year is to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend.

This entry was posted in Poem and tagged on by .

About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

17 thoughts on “Sleuthing, for NaPoWriMo 2024, Day 30”

          1. Vidya Tiru

            Oh yes, I grew up on Enid Blytons, Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, DC/super hero comics, and so many other classics.. 🙂

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            1. lifelessons Post author

              I thought I had read all of the Nancy Drew books but here is what I discovered: The Secret of the Old Clock, the first book in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, was published on April 28, 1930. The book was written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, and introduced readers to the 16-year-old detective Nancy Drew. The series ran for 56 volumes, with the first 34 volumes updated for consistency with later volumes beginning in 1959. The Nancy Drew Digest paperbacks of the series ran from 1980 to 2003, and included volumes 57–175. As of 2018, more than 70 million copies of the Nancy Drew books have been sold. I’d like to see a list to see how many I did read. Here I go to discover more!

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      I did, too. The closest store that sold Nancy Drew books was 60 miles from my house but luckily I had an older sister so between us we probably spent most of our allowance for years on Nancy Drew books. Then Bobbsey Twins, Mercer Boys, Hardy Boys, Honeybunch and Patty and Jo Detectives. Until I was 11, there was no TV in my part of the state of South Dakota and with the exception of Our Miss Brooks, The Shadow and Amos and Andy, no real radio shows, so books were it. At any given time in my house other than meal time and cleaning, the whole family including father, mother, two sisters and me were huddled over books in different part of the house. Thank goodness.

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      1. Eilene Lyon

        I was also a voracious reader from a young age. TV was never a big part of my life, especially when we lived in Guatemala. I imagine most writers tell similar tales. Will there be no writers someday?

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      Ah yes. No Nancy Drew in Russia…As I said before, never too late. She drew me securely into reading. Along with East of the Wind and West of the Moon and Dr. Spock and Old Mother West Wind stories.

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