Paragon

Paragon

I’m a paragon of virtue. I don’t eat me any carbs.
My comebacks are not prickly. My rejoinders bear no barbs.
I never take shortcuts. My work habits are precise.
I’m sure you can foresee that I won’t practice any vice.

I have huge moral fiber. My ethics can’t be beat.
I do not gossip, lie or steal. I do not fight or cheat.
I’m studious and ethical. My boss says I’m a smartie,
but as you might have guessed by now, not much fun at a party!!!

Prompt words today are paragon, foresee, huge and shortcut.

I took this photo of a friend’s dinner when we went out to listen to music last Friday night. Decided that come what may, I’d use it as an illustration for today’s prompt words, only four of which had been posted by the time I decided to write this. As you can see, it is a bit of a stretch, but a resolution is a resolution!

And Yet More Kalanchoe, FOTD Dec 21, 2022

For Cee’s FOTD

More Kalanchoe: FOTD, Dec 20, 2022

For Cee’s FOTD

Duelling Chefs

Duelling Chefs

I try to think up a riposte
to my neighbor’s blatant boast
his guacamole is the best,
well-noted for its creamy zest.

He made it for my solstice party,
cilantro sprigs to make it arty.
And, concerned that we’d run out,
he brought an extra carton out.

Superfluous, for, undiminished,
even his first bowl went unfinished,
for I made guacamole, too,
and it was mine that counted coup.

The two were polar opposites.
Mine was the best. His was the pits.
For though his pot of guac was fine,
I put the pot inside of mine!

Prompt words today are solstice, superfluous, riposte,

polar, concern and carton. Image by Yakshi Virmani on Unsplash.

 

Selfie Generation

I sat in the food court at the mall yesterday and watched an eight or nine-year-old girl and her baby sister, who couldn’t have been more than three, posing for selfies at a table, the smaller girl mimicking her “older” sister’s every pouty, hopefully sensual grimace. They finally became aware of the fact that I was photographing them photographing themselves and they shifted chairs, turning their backs to me, but went on for another few minutes, determining the face they wanted to turn to the world by what they saw reflected in the older sister’s phone.

Selfie Generation

I like a crinkly sort of smile
that lacks a single trace of guile.
Smiles sinister are not my thing,
nor are the polar chills they bring.

Selfies contain In their morass 
little I might label class.
Sexy smiles, much composed
of postured puckers, planned and posed.

Babies imitate their sisters,
miming come-ons to strange misters
who might stumble on their page
that online might become the rage.

They learn the lingo and the walk.
Mime the postures, talk the talk.
Mindful of how they come and go,
everything done for the show.

Prompt words today are morass, sinister, crinkle, polar, talk and come.

Kalanchoe: FOTD, Dec 19, 2022

For Cee’s FOTD

Egg Carton Flowers: Art Day at Judy’s House–Wordle 582

(Click on Photos to enlarge.)

Egg Carton Flowers: Art Day at Judy’s House

Fairy breath and greedy flush, scissors, paper glue—
they go about the mutual task of everything they do.
Twin sisters, they spill out in life, perpetually torn
apart since that rude splitting the day that they were born.

One demands the pink paint, the other requests blue—
their lips stained orange by Cheetos, fingers covered by goo.
Voices raspy with excitement, they call each other’s bluff
as their grandma hisses fondly, “Girls, that is enough!”

The yellowing sun descends to orange as they end their day
out on the back terrace where they have gone to play.
Safe now that frisky littler dogs are locked behind the screen,
they pet the Scottie’s matted hair, soothed by his gentler mien.

Inside, their older sister helps us clear away their messes.
Not the first time, right? I ask, “No, not quite,” she  confesses.
She fondly rinses paint brushes and points out the incredible—
blue fingerprints on cookies that someone had turned inedible.

The prompt words are bluff torn spill yellowing fairy breath greedy flush soothed safe hiss raspy for Wordle 583 on The Sunday Whirl
Last photo by Harriet Hart. Others by me.

When my good friend Harriet asked if I’d think up a project for her visiting grandaughters, I was pleased to have an excuse to get to know these lovely young ladies. Egg carton flowers it was!!!!

FOTD Dec. 18 Bed and Breakfast

 

Click on photos to enlarge.

This grasshopper has found the perfect accommodation.

For Cee’s FOTD

A Dog’s Life (The Wish)

A Dog’s Life (The Wish)

We wish our mom would come to bed but beg to no avail.
Our attempts to draw her in have gone beyond the pale!
We break our vow of silence to bark and bark and bark.
Our pleas, extravagantly loud, echo through the dark.

But she is so disorganized that she can’t come to rest.
There’s always one more task to do before she joins our nest.
Each dirty dish must be rinsed off, each Wordle game be played.
No single task so trivial that it can be delayed.

Headed for bed, there is another detour she must make
as she remembers one leftover slice of chocolate cake.
Once in the fridge, a pitcher of sangria comes to view.
Handy to wash down cake, she has a glass of it, or two.

Through the Virginia creeper, the Xmas lights are winking
and of course she must go out to end their constant blinking.
Once there, the pool calls her, so she has a little swim.
On the way to bed, she can resist no task or whim.

She trims the bougainvillea that spills over the water,
resisting not one dumb excuse to fool around and potter.
Meanwhile, we are waiting to curl up by her side
to stretch out on her legs and sleep. This wait we can’t abide.

We’ll curl up on her sweater so hastily abandoned,
right here on the bed, where luckily it landed
when she changed into her nightgown an hour ago or two—
before she found those other things that she just had to do.

It’s like this every evening wherein there’s no debate
about the fact that we will have to wait and wait and wait
until she finally joins us with no more for her to do
except work on her computer for an hour or two!

That a dog’s life isn’t easy is not hyperbolic
when you share it with a Mom who is a workaholic!!!

Prompt words are break, beg,extravagant, trivial and disorganized.

And, for Weekend Challenge: Wish

More Juan Diegos plus a Juana. Lens Artists Challenge 230

Since you enjoyed my other photos of Juan Diego, here are some more, along with a little girl who is dressed up traditionally for the Virgin of Guadalupe parade. If you didn’t see the earlier post go HERE to find out who Juan Diego was and to see another miniature Juan.

Lens Artists Challenge 230, Last Chance