Tag Archives: 2020

2021

2021

This is a pretty kettle of fish,
a quagmire that we’re caught in.
You only need to take one sniff
to know that something’s rotten.

We thought we’d amble on through life
as lively as we pleased,
but then someone got a fever
and another someone sneezed.

Suddenly, we all slowed down,
imprisoned in our houses,

devoid of underwear
and wearing nightgowns for our blouses.

Watching TV all night long,
avoiding lowlife dives,

reduced to just our families,
we floundered in our lives.

That’s how we came to beg for it,
to scheme and plot and wheedle.

Who thought we’d be so grateful
for the nose swab and the needle?

Prompt words are kettle, quagmire, sniff, amble and lively.

Containment

Containment

Flitting here and flitting there,
sometimes just in my underwear,
unsmitten by the winter weather,
rarely am I aware whether
there is sun or snow or rain
outside the walls of my domain,
the fervor of the climate being
something far beyond my seeing.

The phrase that March is coming in
like a lion? Beyond my ken.
They’re merely lyrics in a song.
I’ve been a shut-in for so long
that weather doesn’t apply to me.
For one year, I’ve been climate-free,
nestled here, cat on my knee
in front of laptop or T.V.

Two thousand twenty and twenty-one
have addicted me to other fun
than outside social interactions.
I have narrowed my reactions
to the confines of four walls.
No homes of friends, cafes or malls.
It’s been a year since forced to choose
any other type of shoes
than flip-flops or my Birkenstocks.
Or since I donned a pair of socks.

Have styles changed, or is the blouse
purchased before banned to my house
still in vogue? How would I know?
Where does anybody go 
that it is possible to share it?
There’s nowhere left for me to wear it!
My social life is now in traction,
suffering from under-action.

No pub-crawls, dining out or dancing.
No hobnobbing and no romancing.
No skiing and no beach vacation.
Simply solo relaxation!
We suffer lives of self-containment.
No other trips or entertainment.

The whole world sharing one elation—
the prospects of a vaccination!

Prompt words today are flit, smitten, phrase and fervor.

If These Walls Could Talk


Coping with the 2020’s
If These Walls Could Talk

“It’s for your own welfare that we tell you this,”
my four walls all conspired to tell me with a hiss.
Your life is but a fantasy. It’s dreams that tell the truth.
It’s daylight that echoes the things that are uncouth.
If you could but live in dreams, your life would be an idyll.
It’s living with reality that makes one suicidal.

Prompt words today are echo, welfare, fantasy and idyll. This poem was written in response to the below comment on THIS POEM made by my friend Mary Francis McNinch of the Murdo Girl blog.   “A sad moment. A poem like this with the house talking would be good, too.”

HERE is Mary’s own Talking House poem.

 

Dear Santa

Dear Santa

Make the sleigh bells jingle, put leather to the back
of every lazy reindeer. You’ve an extra-heavy pack
to deliver in this year when folks can’t get out shopping
so there’ll be way more presents that you’ll need to be dropping. 

You’ve always been a busy guy every Christmas Eve,
but this year with the extra presents that you’ll have to leave,
you’ll need some extra energy and upon great reflection,
we’ve come up with some special means to show our great affection.

Milk and cookies will not be enough for you this year,
so we’ll leave you a Wassail cup, a porter or a beer
along with a sub sandwich, some cookies and some chips
and some vaseline with glitter to protect your chilblained lips.

May you have sufficient energy. May reindeer find a way
to keep up with the pressure of this extra special day.
And may you be assured while you’re delivering your plenty
that no year in the future will rival 2020!!!

 

 

Prompt words today are glitter, leather, wassail and jingle.

 

When the Title is Longer Than the Poem

COVIRUS FIGURES, MASSIVE FIRES, HURRICANES, TORNADOS, FLOODS, GUTTING OF THE U.S. MAIL, RIOTING IN THE STREETS, RACIAL INJUSTICE, POLICE BRUTALITY, HEALTH DEFUNDING, JOB LOSS, INCARCERATION OF CHILDREN, MASSIVE FRAUD, PARDONING OF CRIMINALS, GLOBAL WARMING, WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WORLD COMMUNITY, HYPOCRISY, SOCIAL DISTANCING, PANDEMONIUM!!!

There might have been a different outcome if a clown had not been ruling—
If the ones making decisions had listened to their schooling.
If so many others had not chosen to go rogue.
If the heresy of empathy had not been out of vogue.

If so many teeming masses had not chosen to go blind,
perhaps we would not be in such a tumultuous bind.
How to find a way out of our massive sinking boat?
No matter what new walls he builds, get out there and vote!!!!

 

Prompt words for today are clown, heresy, empathy, different and outcome.