No Escape
I’ve vowed that I will have no more
of all the things that I abhor.
Indeed, these things that I detest
that in the past came to infest
my head and home and my whole life,
causing pain and stress and strife,
I left behind when I moved South,
and merely hear by word-of-mouth.
And in return, I trade for tales
of my South-of-the-border travails.
For the Three Things Challenge the words are: ABHOR DETEST INFEST
Below is just the heading and opening paragraph of a post by M. Oniker that gives voice to exactly how I and many of my friends have been feeling. She gives a link to an article she is responding to, but if you follow it, please come back to this page and click on the link below it to read the rest of her essay.
photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash, used with permission
The Drying of Sheets in the Wind
When the world seems in a mess and you wax sanctimonious,
railing at the ills of those who make it less harmonious,
remember that life’s curses are only temporary.
When world events eat at your mind and the world feels scary,
remember bed sheets on the line, drying in the sun—
the sound of flapping in the wind as their drying was done.
The smell of bright clean sunlight on each wind-softened fold,
or the cracking of their ice crystals stiffening in the cold.
Remember their warmth around you, fresh from mother’s mangle?
Snapping them out in the air, her bracelets’s harmonious jangle?
Her even movements folding them, then spreading them once more
for you to slip into your bed as she stood at the door,
storybook in hand for that nightly big procession
through story after story, read in that grand progression
of venturings into a world that seemed so vast and magic,
long before you knew the world to also be so tragic.
Let memories of your mother still be a comfort to you—
with memories of fresh white sheets. And let them both renew you.
Prompt words are sheets, temporary, curse , sanctimonious. Wow. What a list. How are these going to come together?
Dropping Out
I’m tired of enlightenment, bored with my muse.
I give up on all topics that spur and enthuse.
I think I’ll be lazy for the rest of my life,
avoiding all effort and dodging all strife.
For what do I worry and ponder and seethe?
What care I for clean water and air we can breathe?
Let fools be our guides. Let them rule us all.
Let other fools follow them until they fall.
Let scientists fuss over theory and fractal.
I’ll deal with endeavors more sensual and tactile.
I’ll plot games of solitaire, fiddle with flowers,
play video games for hours and hours.
I’ll torment the cat and worry the dog,
lie in the hammock, my mind in a fog.
Let other folks solve all the world’s ills.
I’ll keep myself busy with vodka and pills.
Use avoidance to overcome all of my worries.
Let torpor eradicate all of my hurries.
I’m overlooking the problems in which the world’s mired.
If I need an excuse, It’s that I am retired.
The prompts today are seethe, guide, tactile and muse. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/11/10/rdp-saturday-seethe/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/11/10/fowc-with-fandango-guide/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/11/10/tactile/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/daily-addictions-2018-week-44/muse
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 