Two Lives for The Word Garden Blog Prompt, May 14, 2025

26 Replies

    Two Lives

My childhood dollhouse was a helium balloon,
caught in a tornado with a flock of flying squirrels,
equal novices in these midnight adventures
soaring out into the world away from horses,
wheat fields, henhouses and unpaved roads.

Escape was a constant theme in that jumprope, hopscotch life
where costumes were for Halloween and dreams kept silent under wigs.
Sailing rainwater rivers down deep ditches,
wearing vestigial vernix as protection against inevitable dunkings,
my uncle’s porkpie hat my umbraculum against hot prairie skies.

The only exit from that world I escaped in time was too often an ossuary:
tunafish Catholics buried under Papal supervision in one part of the cemetery,
Methodists in another, lily-white in their observance of the rules:
Sunday morning church a prerequisite for Saturday night dances.
Jazz nights under covers, Jesus Loves me in the light of day.

Inner tube boats traded for planes and ocean liners,
orange juice traded for absinthe, I sailed and flew into the world.
Using my first world as a grounding place,
I seized chance’s fortune as well as its mistakes––
to venture out and earn a life.

For this prompt, we were  to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. I used all 20!!!
absinthe
costumes
dollhouse
flock
flying squirrel(s)
helium
henhouse
horse
jazz
jump rope
lily
ossuary
Papal
porkpie hat
rainwater
tornado
tuna fish
umbraculum
vernix
wig

 

https://fireblossom-wordgarden.blogspot.com/

26 thoughts on “Two Lives for The Word Garden Blog Prompt, May 14, 2025”

  2. fireblossom32's avatarfireblossom32

    You were ambitious, using all 20 words! Thanks for the snapshot of a limiting life escaped for a fuller one!

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      1. fireblossom32's avatarfireblossom32

        You couldn’t find the subscribe button because Blogger removed it a few years back. A new Word List prompt appears every Sunday and remains good all week. As the week goes on, it may not still be the top post but it’s still there, just scroll.

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      2. qbit's avatarqbit

        To subscribe to a Blogger website, you have to manually add it to your list of follows in the Reader. Go to the Reader view, then off to the right click on Subscriptions. There is a New Subscriptions button up to the right, and you can enter in the site url. It isn’t perfect, but mostly will let you know when content is up. The Blogger folks got started in all this years before WordPress became so dominant.

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  3. writingpresence's avatarwritingpresence

    “My childhood dollhouse was a helium balloon” – what an opener!

    The remainder did not disappoint, Judy. A galloping gambol, and also strangely bittersweet – as childhood and its memory can be…

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Sherry Marr's avatarSherry Marr

    Wow! Impressive use of all the words. I so admire the skilfulness. Your poem resonates with me. I loved it. So nice to meet you at The List. Hope you return.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      Thanks, Sherry, for the warm welcome. I will return if I can find it. It seems as though I can’t subscribe to it and although my memory for words has not decreased, my memory for negotiating the Internet and blogs certainly has. If I don’t have a reminder, chances are I won’t find it.

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  8. Susie Clevenger's avatarSusie Clevenger

    Using every word, making them flow perfectly from floating life of helium to the grounding of a life well earned. Beautiful writing

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  10. Ren's avatarRen

    Judy! loved what you did here! my favorite line = “my uncle’s porkpie hat my umbraculum against hot prairie skies.” and you used ALL THE WORDS. ❤

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