Don't You

Jay, who writes the blog Jay's Poetry, has challenged readers to write a poem starting with the words "Don't you..."

Here's my attempt:


Don't you forget to take out the trash.
Don't you forget to clean up that mess.
Don't you forget to put that away.
"Don't 'don't'," says he.

CatSpeak

Good morning, Cat.
Did someone step on your tail?
Someone invisible,
whose secret, silent lurking
is betrayed by this pitiful cry?
Why are you grating my ears
with your screechy "EE-YOW" now?
Wait!
No!
Don't jump up!
There's no room on my lap
and this morning I really need to --

Sled Ride

I decided it was about time I brung "Sled Ride" and "Election Day 2008" over from my primary blog, "Life in Merlin". I thought it was a good idea to keep all my artistic stuff together in case somebody wants to publish my Collected Works someday. Ha ha.

This is the first poem I've written in a long time. Reader, she married him.

SLED RIDE

Two tiny girls,
capped and mittened,
snug in a baby's sled,
Mother's boots squeaking
in the crisp, new snow
as she pulled us along,
down the hill
and through the park,
across the creaky wooden bridge.

The stream trickled slowly
as water stood freezing in the pond.
Bare branches rattled in the ice-blue sky,
clutching at winter as if to hold it close.

Spring was stirring in our mother's frozen heart.
Who was this man we didn't know?
Her smile was warm as April,
her laughter, dazzling as crystals.
Who was this man out walking in the snow?

Election Day 2008

Arriving at 6:30 AM, I saw
a lady in MY place,
up smack-dab
against the schoolhouse door,
camped out on a folding chair, no less.
The line stretched round the school to the dumpster.
When the millipede finally lurched forward,
I lost my balance for a moment.
"Steady, there," said a neighbor.
By 7:15, we were halfway to the door.
Helicopters clattered overhead,
while birds on wires
observed our strange, flightless flock.
Inside the schoolhouse gym, long lines
snaked back and forth.
Signs in English and Spanish
advised and admonished.
I voted at 8 AM.
I have a sticker to prove it.
"I voted, Yo Vote," it says.

-----

("Yo vote," is in Spanish, but I don't know how to apply an accent to the "e.")

While You Were Out

I wrote this in August, 1999, during a visit with my sister and her husband at their retreat in Door County, WI:

While You Were Out

While you were out
the bees came calling
on the coneflowers,
the hummngbirds dropped by
for a drink,
the lake kept waving
from the shore
and the thimbleberries
almost covered the house,
sowing their ever-spreading
quilt of green.

Haiku 6

Leaf-blown windy day.
Snug blue cap, teddy-bear ears:
His Royal Cuteness.

--------------------

OK, the hat's on crooked, so only one teddy-bear ear is showing, but
that's His Royal Cuteness all right.

Haiku 5, revised

Autumn's beginning.
A solitary firefly
Beams "hello" in vain.