Brutal Truth
Fresh as they come, you’re the pick of the litter.
Though too young for pathos and too soft for bitter,
how can I describe what fate has in store
later in life as the innocent lore
of your earlier life is exposed as just part
of what might affect your innocent heart?
Prompt words are soft, describe, pathos, later and young. Image by Alex Gomes on Unsplash.
Mirror Image
She’s a dingy sort of doppelganger, lackluster and fretful,
and when I’ve caught a glimpse of her, she seems to be forgetful.
She looks surprised to see me and although it should be magic,
when she catches sight of me, it seems she finds it tragic.
It’s a shame she never catches me when I am at my peak,
and so I seem to be an image that she’d like to tweak.
We both look in the mirror and we don’t like what we see,
the irony of that being that both of us are me!!
Prompt words today are doppelganger, tragic, forgetful, dingy and peak.
About the assemblage:
“After Picasso: Self-examination”
The watch part that serves as the womb to the woman beats with the pulse beat of the child within, whereas the mirror reflection contains no moving parts. An antique “Tabu” powder tin is imprisoned in an old pocket watch case. A tiny portrait of a woman is framed by one of the watch parts that make up the rest of this collage.
Mr. “Do It Myself”
The manifold reasons I love you are these.
Though you puff and you pant and you groan and you wheeze,
recruiting much help from your back and your knees,
nonetheless, my piano you managed to squeeze
up the stairs to the tower, saying it was a breeze.
So as I snap a photo, be sure to say, “Cheese,”
then promise me, dear, for I’m down on my knees.
If we move it again, hire a moving crew, please!!!!
Click on first photo to enlarge, then click on it to enlarge next photo, ad infinitum!
1 P.M. and She’s Talking About Her Dog Again!!!!
My pesky new apprentice assists me in my writing
with tugging and with growling and with nuzzling and with biting.
She sees my busy fingers as toys for her to play with
that no matter what I need them for, she’s sure to have her way with.
She demands my attention with her robust barks,
then sits upon my keyboard, leaving puppy marks.
She’s not a mere disturbance, but a 24-hour duty.
I’d do something to change this, but she’s such a little cutie.
In the area we’ve made for her, she has no urge to pee.
She prefers the dining room for her morning wee.
There’s no way to out-wait her and monitor her poops.
Why do it where Mom wants you to when you can prompt an “Oops?”
She’s such a cagey customer, there is no way to catch her.
When she is determined, no force on earth can match her.
When I slip out of my shoes, she slips her teeth into them.
Instead of learning to eschew, she chooses just to chew them.
I’ve tried to write my daily poem since roughly 6 a.m.
Which was the hour she chose to use me as a jungle gym.
With push-ups on my face, then tug-of-war using my hair,
she was my canine alarm clock extraordinaire.
First there was the feeding, then the pee and pooping,
the washing, disinfecting, the blotting and the scooping.
Then hours in the backyard with the other dogs.
With so much activity, who has time for blogs?
Then the screening of the porch so I can keep her close.
Otherwise, I know that her intention’s “Vamonose!!
Whether perky little houseguest, scavenger or daughter,
In spite of changes in my life, I’m so glad that I got her!
Prompt words today are apprentice, robust, oops, cagey and disturbance.
Doorways
The poignant memories of threads that I cannot rewind
lie all trailed out behind me, unraveled in my mind.
Decisions I can’t alter, choices without reprieve,
hours wiled away because I wanted to believe
but that yielded no return. Recompense was naught,
proving once again that happiness cannot be bought.
The future spreads in front of me. Will I win or lose?
As in the past, it depends on the doorways that I choose.
Prompt words today are thread, reprieve, poignant, that and doorway.
Culture Queen
She was a universal maven. Up on every trend.
Music, art and literature thrilled her to no end.
She raised no petty cavils. Her eye and mind were keen.
Her taste was impeccable. She was the culture queen.
She painted masterpieces when she was just a maid,
and though detractors said that her genius would fade,
she remained keen in her eighties and proved her critics wrong,
tackling every challenge as they came along.
She kept her zest for life until they laid her down,
and so became the object of the world’s renown.
Although this poem was written about a fictional character, when I started looking for photos of classy ladies, my friend Gloria, who luckily has not been laid down, seemed to fill the bill.
Neighborhood Shopping Spree
I can’t abide the wantonness of my neighbor’s wife
and how it encroaches upon my family life.
And though her husband seems content to overlook her ways,
believing her disinterest just a menopausal phase,
when she goes out for groceries, I watch her shut the door
and know that she’ll be shopping for a single item more
than bread or milk or celery, for as she leaves her house,
I hear my back door closing and know it is my spouse
off upon some shopping spree—some sudden hungry whim
that guarantees her shopping list is bound to include him!
Prompts today are encroach, wanton, content, abide and grocery.
Image by Jessie McCall on Unsplash.
New Messiah
From whom among the worldly scrum
will Earth’s brighter future come?
Who’ll point a twitching finger to
a skyline of a sickly hue
and before our future’s gone,
transform it from its dull and wan
pallor to a richer hue?
What newer race will then renew
as their fathers failed to do?
Who forms these saviors of the world?
In what infant brain lies curled
the savior of the human race?
Or will we vanish without a trace?
Prompt words today are twitch, skyline, scrum, wan and finger.
Feeling grungy, out-of-tempo, out-of-sorts and kinda mean.
Need a new Thanksgiving turkey, ‘cuz last year’s is turning green.
Can’t avouch for what would happen if I tried to serve it now,
but perhaps I’ll scrape the mold off and try to serve it anyhow?
Come to think, it’s penicillin, so how dangerous can it be?
It might just be beneficial, so let’s try it and we can see.
I’ll whip up some new potatoes, open cans of cranberries.
Don’t forget to bring the pies. I await your RSVP’s!!!!
Bedbound
I have pain in my back and water on my knee
and not one single friend has expressed sympathy!
I’ve called every doctor in town to explain
my aches and my ills, but it’s all been in vain.
Not one can discover what it is that ails me.
Each remedy that I’ve sought out simply fails me.
The sun hurts my eyes and the rain brings depression.
It hurts when I walk but bed rest brings compression
that freezes my spine so I’m forced to just lie here,
seeking assistance from all who walk by here.
And although I’ve no appetite, still I must eat,
so there’s one request that I have to repeat.
If you’re going to town, could you help me out, please,
and bring me a pizza? Sausage. Extra cheese.
Because I’m so thin, the doctor prescribes beer.
and since there’s a Quik Stop that’s really quite near,
could you pick up a six-pack, some ice cream and chips?
For I simply must add some flesh to my hips.
My bones are protruding so far that they hurt
from the weight of the sheets and the thinnest night shirt.
I’m under the weather, headachy and thin.
I cannot convey the bad shape that I’m in.
My offspring don’t care and my spouse says I’m making it
hard to stay with me because I’m just faking it.
I have to complain because I must confess it
is impossible when one is ill to repress it.
Although all my friends say I’ve bats in my attic,
these ills you can’t see are not psychosomatic!
Prompts today are under the weather, offspring, flush, repress and stay.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 