Monthly Archives: March 2026

Many Me’s

 

Many Me’s

If I should have to paint a picture of my present mood,
I’d be walking down a staircase, unfortunately nude—
My many selves preceding me and coming fast behind—
for there would be not one of me, but many of my kind.
This scene is a mere copy of Duchamp’s solution to
a person who perhaps has found she has too much to do.

My list of tasks is growing, though I’ve dealt with one or two;
but how I’ll deal with everything, I fear I have no clue.
And so I guess my canvas style would simply have to be
like Marcel’s (though not cubist, still with more than one of me.)
That way I’d send off each of me to do what must be done.
They’d do all my labor while I went to have some fun.

While self 1 wrote my daily prompt and self 2 cleaned my shelves,
I’d go out to the water park with all my other selves.
We’d climb up all the ladders and slide down all the slides
and play a game of tug-rope where I would be both sides!
We’d go out to the ice cream place and have a cone or three
and they’d get all the calories with none assigned to me!

We’d take my bad dogs for a walk and I would be so free.
Two other me’s would hold the leashes, not the actual me.
I’d loll here in my hot tub, swing in my hammock, too,
while selves from 1 to 9 would do all that I have to do.
They’d figure out my airfryer instructions (all in Spanish.)
They’d sort out all my photographs and clean my loo with Vanish.

Agreeable to every task, they’d never mention “can’t.”
They’ll pick off all the yellow leaves from every drying plant.
They’ll organize my studio that is a horrid mess.
(It’s been that way for many months—a fact I must confess.)
They’d sort out all my closets and organize my drawers,
then go into my Filofax and sort out all the bores.

They’d shape my canned goods into rows—sorted from “A” to “Z.”
which makes it difficult for them, but easier for me.
And though my other selves keep warm from their activity,
my idleness seems not to create any warmth for me.
So although I like my colors and my brush strokes strong and bold,
I wish I’d put some clothes on us, ‘cause I am getting cold!!

Esther’s Writing Prompt this week is: Mood. (Obviously, mine is a silly one.)

Time of Death? For Limerick Challenge

Time of Death?

There was a young woman from Hall
who died jumping over a wall.
T’would have been a sad thing
if she’d died in the spring,
but she didn’t. She died in the fall.

See other limericks for Esther’s  March 9 “Laughing Along with a Limerick” challenge HERE. (Sorry, I didn’t realize there was a prompt word until after I’d written the limerick. Next time I’ll play by the rules, Esther!!!!

 

Bird Chorus, No Backup, for dVerse Poets

Bird Chorus, No Backup

Birds perch on countless branches, each a separate bell
ringing out the cadence of stories they must tell.
Around them, eerie silence, for no other sounds compete.
No sound of children’s laughter. No pattering of feet.
Compared to their iPhones, mere nature can’t compete.

 

The prompt for the dVerse Poets Quadrille prompt is “bird.”  A Quadrille asks for 44 words only…

The Numbers Game #115. Please Play Along. Mar 9, 2026

Welcome to “The Numbers Game #115. Today’s number is 237. To play along, go to your  photos file folder and type the number 237 into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the titleThis prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. 

Garden Warfare for The Sunday Whirl

And at the end of the day, leaf cutters still busy!

A colony of  thousands of leaf-cutter ants forms a chain to file in an orderly fashion around my house to my large Virginia Creeper vine that hangs over my terrace. It is their intention to crunch the life out of leaf after leaf by grasping them in their razor jaws and slicing off neat packages to carry off to their nest.

I rattle the tiny logs of ant poison in the can to spill several small lines of poison over their trail, then scan the procession to watch them carry them off. I hate killing any part of nature, still I have a hunch that if I don’t fight back, that they will strip the entire garden of its leaves–every vine, plant and tree. As I fit the lid back on the can, I try to reassure myself that in most encounters in nature, one creature loses while the other wins. This is part of the plan. But still, I experience guilt as I watch yet another ant carry a pellet back to its nest.

Prompts for The Sunday Whirl 747 are: colony rattling still lose crunch life fits hunch scan packages grasping chains.

Nature in the Pink for One Word Sunday

Click on photos to enlarge.

The One Word Sunday prompt is “Pink.”

“Distance” for Stream of Consciousness Saturday

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In the wide prairies of South Dakota, the only narrow to be found is the narrowing of the road in the distance.  It is a bit like perpetually driving into an invisible tunnel.

The Stream of Consciousness prompt is distance.

I love Thomas Dambo’s art and hope you do, too.

Fishing for Answers! for Fibbing Friday

Fishing with dad and my sisters, 1951 or ’52

For Fibbing Friday this week, the task at hand was:

Mish mash this week, so your suggestions please!

1. What is a cannery? An attitude readjustment retreat for pessimists.
2. What is a rookery? The part of a zoo with kangaroos in it.
3. What is hooky? A very small fish hook.
4. What is pinochle?  A fist held against private parts when you need to urinate so badly that you need help in not doing so.
5. What is a ricochet? A very small portion of rice.
6. What is hubbub? The primary bubble in the middle of a cluster of bubbles.
7. What is a podcast? A baited hook cast into the exact center of a group of fish.
8. What is a wingnut? An acrobat that performs on the outside of a plane while it is flying!!!!
9. What is a switchback? Someone who has had two sex-change operations.
10. What is a cacophony? A small child who pretends he hasn’t pooped his pants.

“Tools and the Man” for CFFC

No one loved tools more than my husband Bob, but I must admit that I have a love of them as well. Included in these photos is my most treasured object from my father–his hand-forged hammer with leather-ringed handle. It was the only one of his possessions I asked for when he died and I still use it. So, her it is along with other tools used by either Bob, my husband, or me.  And after the tools, the man himself, applying paper to fishing basket to use as a lampshade for one of his homemade lamps.  (I must admit that I don’t remember where I took the first photo. It was not in any of our studios, but I love it and the ingenuity of the tool storage.

For CFFC, the prompt is “Tools and Equipment.”