For the Monday Window Challenge.
ForCee’s FOTD
Ablation
Time temporal drips away like ice cream from a cone.
We cannot help its melting as it leaves us all alone.
Jackpots won, creative gains, come at last to naught.
We cannot leave this world of ours with anything we’ve got.
Every appetite assuaged ends finally in thirst.
We don’t determine the final act, no matter how rehearsed.
Though we avoid the truth of it, alas, all that I say
is truth regarding what life gives and what life takes away.
Once again, thanks to my sister Betty for these images of my
childhood. Without her, fewer memories would remain.
Prompt words today are temporal, creative, jackpot, thirst and help.
For Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Illustration by Isidro Xilonzóchitl, copyright Judy Dykstra-Brown, 2020
Doggies of the Realm
In seeking to coordinate the canines of the realm,
they formed a grand committee with a countess at the helm
to account for all the dachshunds and classify the terriers,
find greyhounds in their kennels and yorkies in their carriers,
to track down the grand pyrenees up in the highest rocks,
to record all the lapdogs and dalmatians on their walks.
At first strict in her discipline in separating breeds,
in protecting bloodlines and meeting owners’ needs,
when her helpers warned her that they’d run out of spaces,
she had to capitulate in order to find places.
Since they’d run out of kennels, she had to loosen rules.
She locked labs in the closets, tied boxers to the newels.
Put shih tzus in the cupboards and toy poodles in the drawers,
stored retrievers in the boathouse, tied Chihuahuas to the oars.
She felt she’d scored the jackpot when the prisoners all made bail
and so they handed over the former county jail.
She converted all the cellblocks into canine cages
and began to fill up rosters—pages upon pages.
At first she sorted breeds using a system alphabetical,
but later sorting systems became more hypothetical,
and as her sorting powers eroded over time,
soon she had her doggies classified by rhyme.
For example, in the cages assigned to standard poodles,
she filled the extra corners with the labradoodles.
She recorded canines of every breed and size—
dogs with every length of hair, in every shape and guise,
until at last she had them all down in black and white—
every wagging tail and every growl and bite.
So the snappers and the lickers, the yappers and the yippers
got to go back home to retrieve their masters’ slippers!!
Prompt words today are realm, coordinate, jackpot, capitulate and walk.
Mountaineers
However many acts we stage, however many innings,
we’re constantly made vulnerable by our new beginnings.
One resolution brings another problem to be mounted—
a new one starting just as soon as the last one is counted.
We ascend each mountain, and when we reach the top,
we see summit after summit and know we’ll never stop.
It may seem that for some others life is a flat plain.
We may resent our struggles, but as much as we complain,
catching sight of that new mountain, we begin the climb again.
Prompts today are new beginnings, vulnerable,resolution, ascend and stop.
Photo by Ria Puskas on Unsplash. Used with permission
3030
Today we all breathe easy in our kingdom by the sea,
wondering how much longer the air will still be free.
We’ve heard the air is sickening and folks will have to pay
to buy it in large cylinders one not-too-distant day.
It’s best that people stockpile their air just like their water
for that upcoming day when our weather will get hotter
and we will have to stay secure within our houses
and purchase air and water for our children and our spouses.
Machines will roam our world for us. We think it will be best.
They’ll do all our shopping and play golf at our behest.
We’ll tuck away our bodies and exercise our minds
as we simply view the world outside from behind our blinds.
The reality show outside will be one that we all view
once the air and water is not safe for me and you!!
Photo by Fred Rivett on Unsplash. Used with permission.
Prompt words today are breathe, best, kingdom, confidence and think.
