Alarm Clock Rejoinder
My alarm clock’s rude awakening I eschew vis-á-vis
a gentler mode of wakeup that is buzzer-free.
Questions upon awakening I find somewhat aberrant.
Kindly save your queries until I am more coherent.
If I’m a pebble that must drop into my daily start,
I pray the ripples of my morning come farther apart.
Prompt words today are vis-á-vis, awakening, coherent, save and ripples,
Click on photos to enlarge.
Coronavirus Reflections
Thus cloistered, I grow pensive. What shall I think of next?
Would thinking of the past or future render me less vexed?
My wild garden beckons. The dogs cavort and bicker.
Hummingbird wings vibrate. The swallowtails all flicker
here and there between the flowers each side of the path.
The small dog rolls and scratches. Perhaps he needs a bath.
As I inflict myself upon this wild abandoned scene,
will I disturb them here with my laptop and magazine?
If I lie very still they will barely know I’m here.
The dogs will settle all too soon and shift to lower gear.
Yesterday soon vanishes. Tomorrow goes unplanned.
Only the present holds me. Past and future go unmanned.
Word prompts today are cloistered, pensive, flicker, inflict and wild.
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
I was almost mature, I was almost thin.
Now I must start all over again.
So please have compassion. Eat your own surprise.
Don’t bring me donuts or candy or pies.
I’m redoing my fridge and throwing out naughties
homemade by friends as well as my boughties.
Ice cream and truffles go straight in the bin,
for I must amend this shape I am in.
I’ll begin my diet as soon as I’m able,
pushing myself away from the table
as soon as banana bread I baked last night
has been depleted to nary a bite.
Then I’ll eat salads and green beans and stuff.
Doing without sugar will not be so tough
tomorrow. I’ll begin tomorrow, I vow.
Tomorrow works out so much better than now.
Prompt words today are almost, mature, ready, compassion and organization.
Poised
My past retreats in the rear vision mirror
while in the windshield the future draws nearer.
Gliding along, sometimes I go slow,
fearing what the future will choose to bestow.
Ahead a small cove offers shelter from stress:
security, housing and a wedding dress.
But if I veer off and drive over the hill,
I may never stop again until, until—
I’ve encountered adventure like stories I’ve read
while curled up in the hammock or lying in bed.
All of those lives there lined up on a shelf,
each one revealing a part of myself.
One eye trained behind me and one on the highway,
will I choose the known road or opt for a byway?
Prompts today are rear vision mirror, glide, bestow, cove and housing.
Helpless:
Scene Viewed Through the Locked Glass Front Door of the Kitchen
There’s insurgent action at the rear kitchen door.
First one unrepentant rebel and now I see one more.
My houseguests didn’t secure the periphery completely
and now one paw has breached the screen and opened it completely!
A dog’s whole avarice is culinary. Now they seek it out.
That pork roast on the counter? Gone without a doubt!
That carrot cake I cherished? Demolished in a flash.
The potato salad vanishes. And now a furry dash.
They depart the opened doorway and soon they’re over yonder.
Their tummies adequately filled, I think they do not ponder
what the rest of us will dine on. Dogs are not endowed with guilt.
Should have factored in housebreakers when that sliding door was built!
Prompt words today are cherish, avarice, yonder, insurgent and potato.
Lack of Willpower During the Coronavirus Sequestering:
My First Two Excuses
I’ ve run out of storage for all the provender
I bought in advance, thinking chances were slender
that in a month there’d be staples enough.
I thought that the going was going to get tough.
So with my freezer full and no cupboard space free,
the only place left to store food in is me.
I forage on fudge and I’m gorging on chips—
storing them here on my waist and my hips.
Please come to my rescue. I’m tortured by guilt.
Last year at this time I was pleasantly built,
but this forced isolation obliterates “no”
as an answer to chocolate and cookie dough.
You may be amused by my failure at coping,
but I am not drinking and I am not doping.
It isn’t my fault. I’m a victim of fate.
It’s my body that’s yearning to assimilate
cookies and candies and pastas and pies.
It’s my body’s fault that I’ve grown a size.
With no one to stop me, I’ve just given in.
I guess you’d describe me as formerly thin!
Words for the day are rescue, torture, obliterate, assimilate and amused.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
(Love in the Time of Coronavirus)
A penny for your thoughts, my dear, in this time of recession.
They’re only worth a pittance, since you’re in deep depression—
perhaps the worst since man evolved from the primordial slime.
If I cared less, I’d offer zilch, but now is not the time
to be looking for bargains, with your love so newly won.
If only we could ditch our masks and have a little fun—
a little kiss, a little hug, a cuddle and a snuggle—
it might be easier to woo without these rules to juggle.
But from day-to-day, I fear, we never can know whether
we’ll spend the day alone again or spend the day together.
So here’s a penny for your thoughts. Oh hell, it’s worth a nickel
to know whether your heart is true or if it has turned fickle.
It’s been said before that absence makes the heart grown fonder.
I wonder if you feel the same sequestered over yonder.
Prompt words today are zilch, slime, newly, pittance and depression.
At Sixes and Sevens
East is east and west is west,
but some say north and south are best.
Thoughts on this are bound to vary.
Righteous folks from Tucumcari
say the south is best, whereas,
folks from Chicago say no town has
Chicago’s flair and wit and jazz.
Rancorous California folk
think East Coast people are a joke,
whereas upper class New Yorkians
crack jokes about the Kavorkians.
Ordinarily, I’d say
that I’m a gal who’d like to stay
out of the north-south-east-west fray.
But when it comes to the siesta,
Mexico must be the besta.
That’s south, if New York’s home to you,
but north if you are from Peru.
Thus, this bit of wisdom I’d like to give:
Direction’s always relative
to where on Earth you choose to live!!!
Prompt words today are siesta, ordinary, rancor, righteous and east.
With Science
This word conscience–that pull from deep within us to do what’s right for the world? If we look at the original meaning of the root word “con,” it means “with science or knowledge.” And if science is the study of the natural world, then look to nature to understand yourself. Be cognizant of the fact that we are interdependent. Begin to hear the echoes of your own well-being in the state of nature. It uses what ammunition it can to bring its truths to our notice: flood, fire, more violent hurricanes, a rise in temperature, Coronavirus.
As much as we search for truth in the laboratory, it is in the wilderness that we find our answers. We cannot create anything except from the materials of nature, for that is all there is. We are a part of it, not its end. In choosing to blithely destroy the patterns of nature, we destroy ourselves.
Prompt words for today are wilderness, cognizant, begin, conscience and echoes.
Biker Wedding
Though I’m just your uncle and backward at that,
I’m exceedingly fond of my sister’s sweet brat.
I hear there’s a biker you’re eager to wed
and though I’d suggest a nice banker instead,
I’m here not to alienate, but advise
(since I am your kin who’s most apt to be wise.)
Instead of a veil you’ll be wearing your patches
and learning his lingo by listening to snatches
of biker bar gossip and those conversations
spawned over road talk and major libations.
You’ll be in your flannels and Kevlar-lined denim
(I’m sure that no bride ever looked better in ’em.)
You’ll whisper “I do” and then exchange your patches
before you head out for a ride down to Natchez.
But, first things being first, you have asked me to aid
in getting your wedding invitations made.
I’ve checked out your spelling. The words are all fine.
Only the printing may be out of line.
Though responsible service may not be impossible,
are you quite sure that leather is embossable?
Prompt words today are uncle, alienate, backward, responsible and service.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 