Not Missin’ Dissin’
I’m inclined to winnow out
friends who grouse and whine and pout.
I prefer to share my housing
with companions much more rousing.
It’s not that I’m beyond reproach,
for my mood’s been known to encroach
upon the moods of those around me,
yet, within reason, I surround me
with folks of a happier bent
who, if they rail and curse and vent,
do so at a minimum
and once they’ve finished feeling glum,
do not make their own frustration
part of my reeducation.
One time or two I’ll gladly listen
to your pointless constant dissin’.
But if you’re gloomy day and night,
kindly grant me a respite.
Put my phone number on hold
if you just wish to bitch and scold.
You can always reinstall
my number when you’ve cured y’all
of your pointless railing at
the traffic, neighbors or the cat.
Fair weather friend? Indeed, I’m not.
I’ll soothe your brow and stir your pot,
but I will not be joining thee
in the quagmire of your misery.
Prompt words today are reinstall, reproach, frustration, winnow and housing. Image by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash.
The Course of True Love
My induction to your heart was met with brackish tears
intermingled, yours and mine, as though we both had fears.
Would our love form a hybrid, jubilant and true,
or would there be conditions, demands and counting coup?
Fresh love may be wild, rushing a vagrant course,
sloshing over edges, straying from its source.
But as it is a river, it will resume its banks
and flow us down together, with our deepest thanks.
Prompts today are brackish, hybrid, jubilant, induct, and condition.
Click on photos to enlarge and view as slide series.
Layoff
I cannot endorse your obvious redundancy
due to the work force’s current abundancy.
Our air of pathos is painful to bear
with all life’s prosperity gone from the air.
The garlands are down and the flambeaus blew out.
There’s no joyous reason for dancing about.
When bosses agree to some conciliation,
then it will be time enough for jubilation.
‘Til then, I’ll commiserate, cry in my beer,
wishing that you weren’t regrettably near,
for with you at work, I am fed and supported.
What will I do if your job is aborted?
Prompt words today are flambeau, conciliatory, pathos, endorse and redundancy. Image by Thom Masat on Unsplash.
Jesus and I have been working hard getting our show together. He’s been working for two months on the amazing armoire pictured below which he’ll be showing along with some of his paintings. I’ll be showing my silver and paper jewelry along with my retablos and sculptures. Here are some shots of my work and a photo of his armoire along with information about our opening on Saturday, March 26, 3-7. Directions below.
Mr. “Do It Myself”
The manifold reasons I love you are these.
Though you puff and you pant and you groan and you wheeze,
recruiting much help from your back and your knees,
nonetheless, my piano you managed to squeeze
up the stairs to the tower, saying it was a breeze.
So as I snap a photo, be sure to say, “Cheese,”
then promise me, dear, for I’m down on my knees.
If we move it again, hire a moving crew, please!!!!
(Click on photos to enlarge and read about today’s mysteries.)
At the Movies
Looked up too late and so I missed
the moment that the lovers kissed.
Taking a break, I closed my eyes.
Missed seeing how the hero dies.
Paresthesia setting in
caused me to take a little spin
for five minutes or maybe ten
to the lobby and back and then
when I got back, the credits started.
So as everyone departed,
I left as well, regretting so
how I had missed most of the show.
With old film cameras, when the bulb flashed,
it produced something that would last.
A photo mounted in a book
gave something upon which to look.
But movies are impermanent.
Moment after moment went
into the past, so if one blinked,
what they had missed became extinct.
That’s why next time I didn’t go
when invited to the show.
I stayed at home and had a nap,
my photo album in my lap.
Prompts today are look up, missed, paresthesia, bulb and old film camera.
Story Time at the Library
Cluster here around me. Cross Your legs. Open your mind.
I’m going to tell you stories of a slightly silly kind.
Or lie back on the carpet, close your eyes and try to see
all the varied images that are going to be.
We’ll be crossing to another land where we can be whatever
each of us may want to be: beautiful, brave or clever.
Light the bulbs above your head. Imagine what you hear.
For the next half hour or so, you’l be “there” and not “here.”
In imagination’s magic land, all your dreams come true.
Climb aboard my story train and I’ll share it with you.
And now as then, the crowd being both clever and magnanimous,
They decided they’d all come along. The voting was unanimous.
And so the children climbed aboard to hear a tale or two—
precisely the same stories in the past that I told you.
Prompt words today are cluster, crossing, bulb, unanimous and carpet,
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 