For Sunday Trees 373
The Monarch of Plastic
We’re up against the wall, now—climbing, scratching, pawing,
as behind us in the ice, monsters are quickly thawing.
We have great gratitude for life and all the joys it brings,
but now we have to pay the price for all our pretty things.
Those lovely cars that speed us on toward our various pleasures
now ask their price in taking from us other dearer treasures.—
Breath and water we might drink and swim in with no thought—
those departing natural things our pretty toys have bought.
Plastic for our jar tops, plastic for our carrying,
pretty soon this plastic will be handy for our burying.
In the hilltops safe above our ocean’s spreading grasp,
the king of plastic sits surveying his world’s parting gasp.
Still he does not worry, for he feels safe on his throne.
unaware that one day he’ll enjoy this world alone.
The prompts today are wall, gratitude and thawing
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/05/fowc-with-fandango-wall/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/gratitude/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/thawing/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/your-daily-word-prompt-natural-January-2-2019/
Our birding trip through the lagoons near La Manzanilla yielded more laughs than birds. For Rachel and Gloria, who had never made the trip before, the hour and a half long trip down the mangrove swamps yielded more surprises than I had counted on. Click on the below photos to read the story as well as the photos:
On our way to La Manzanilla, Gloria and I stopped at a magical little hidden-away spot named Pinar del Chayán. Click on any photo to enlarge all.
Menagerie
When she asked us to sleep over, we had no trepidation,
but this one-night segment of our motoring vacation
was a lapse in judgment we will not soon forget,
for though we are assuredly most deeply in her debt,
we didn’t know the bed she offered came complete with pets
not to mention wild creatures struggling overhead in nets!
We can forgive her for the kitten who just curled up on our bed,
sometimes on the foot of it and sometimes at the head.
The puppy, though mischievous, we grew accustomed to,
only suffering damage to a purse strap and one shoe.
Successful in their recovery, we sealed our luggage up,
opened up our bedroom door and exorcised the pup.
Flipping off the light, we offered gratitude for rest,
closed our weary eyes and did our very best
to try to get a full night’s sleep, but it was late in coming,
for our next visitation came complete with constant drumming
as various creatures of the night knocked against the netting
hanging down around our bed, we commenced regretting
accepting her generous offer of a free night’s lodging.
We didn’t know the various creatures we’d be dodging.
The monkey we grew used to, but not the kangaroo
who boxed my husband’s earlobes and trod upon my shoe.
The cockatoos and lorikeets slept peaceful through the night,
but in the morning wakened us at the dawn’s first light
with such a loud cacophony that jolted us awake
and luckily allowed us to leave before the snake
slithered from where it rested, coiled beneath the sheet.
And that was it! That final guest signaled our defeat.
For though we have great gratitude for the invitation,
I cannot overemphasize the complete jubilation
we felt upon exiting that jungle she calls home.
And need we tell you that the next time we choose to roam,
we’ll gladly pay the room rates for a first-class lodgings?
We’re finished with the hassles and the terrors and the dodgings
that come with staying with relatives such as sister Sue
who forgot to warn us we’d be staying in a zoo!!
The prompt words today were hospitality, forgive, recovery and gratitude.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/rdp-friday-hospitality/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/04/fowc-with-fandango-forgive/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/your-daily-word-prompt-recovery-January-4-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/gratitude/
Surprise Seduction
My hair is thin and spiky and I snore when in repose.
There’s madness in my family and hair grows from my nose.
I don’t ignite great passion in every man who sees me.
Men from nine to ninety have no great urge to squeeze me.
And yet there’s one attraction that has aided me in life.
You may think I’m no one’s sweetheart and surely no man’s wife,
but I bake a wicked pie. My flan is so divine
that when I ask the suavest man to visit me and dine,
by the end of dinner, he lies prostrate at my feet,
and the frailest grandpa has been known to go in heat.
It is the oldest adage that the plainest girl can flummox
even the studdliest of men by seducing their stomachs!
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/rdp-thursday-spiky/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/03/fowc-with-fandango-madness/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/ignite/
For FOTD
Breaking Tradition
A tradition is a habit that we’re loath to break,
a memory that our hearts continue stubbornly to make.
It is our continuity, our chain link to the past.
We make a resolution that it’s always going to last.
And yet our lives must segue to what future we might grow.
We cannot drag the past with us wherever we may go
lest it become a ball and chain that keeps us from what may
be an opportunity that may come our way.
Traditions are so comforting. They deal with what has been.
They make tiny departures seem a sort of sin,
but sometimes they just hold us back, keep us from being free,
and we must let loose of tradition to see what we can be.
Revenge can be tradition and one that’s hard to break,
causing backward facing hearts to fester and to ache.
As hard as it may be for us to turn around and heal,
it’s the only course that may enable us to feel.
When we peel away tradition, it gives hearts room to grow.
We plant seeds of new memories and tend them row on row.
The garden of our consciousness so fertile and so vast
that there is room for new traditions as alluring as the past.
The words of the day are segue, revenge, resolution and traditions.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/rdp-monday-segue/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/31/fowc-with-fandango-revenge/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/your-daily-word-prompt-resolution-December-31-2018/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/traditions/
