Bad Parenting

I made it! 30+ poems in 30 days for NaPoWriMo!!!   Yay me!

 I must admit

that I have been too indulgent with my muse,

treating her as if she were a queen,

demanding nothing.

Now she has become a spoiled brat,

petulant and contrary.

She will not rouse when summoned,

burrows under the covers and whines,

"I don't feel like it!"

I should have been more firm from the start;

now it's a battle of wills.

She ignores my taps and gentle shakes,

covers her ears to my reveille,

refuses to budge.

"Well, I'll just start writing without you!" I shriek.

 She calls my bluff- "Just try."

Summer Jane

source

Summer Jane

comes with the wisteria

Her autumn chestnut hair

grows a crown of auburn as June rolls on

The girl ripens with the summer

Her cheeks pink

like a peach

and her sweet scent draws the boys

like bees to soda pop

Summer Jane loves them all

She writes their names

in the margins of her dime store paperback

Tells them

the cicadas sing at night

just for them

Most times, they believe her because 
she tucks a magnolia blossom behind her ear

and paints her toenails red

and she’s so damn pretty

No one knows where Summer Jane comes from

or ever sees her leave

but just like summer,

one day she’s gone

Everything is a little less bright

and the breezes blow a little colder.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Beginnings

source

We are born of water, and to water we return

We may shed tails and grow feet but we remember our beginnings

Once we forget our origin, we will fail to survive

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Transforming Frog Day

Save the Frogs!

Rainbow Frog by Hannabobanna.from savethefrogs.com

 April 27 is Save the Frogs Day! 

This poem is based upon a true incident when I was a camp counselor last summer!

The day was hot and so we took

our campers for a swim

The lifeguard sat upon his chair,

so blond and tan and trim

But he was not a nice boy, no,

He was callous and cruel

He said that he was going to kill

frogs in the baby pool!

"How could you do that awful deed?

Don’t do it," we beseech

"Sorry, they’re a nuisance so

in goes the Clorox bleach."

"But we will get them out for you

so you don’t have to do it"

"They’ll just come back, those nuisance frogs,

and that’s all there is to it."

Most counselors then just shrugged and said

"That really is quite sad,"

but three of us would not give up

Frog murder made us mad!

And so we hatched ourselves a plan

to have a frog rescue

We’d sneak the frogs out of the pool

to hop in the fescue

We waited til the pool was closed

to save frogs from their fate

But it would not be easy for

a lock was on the gate!

And all around the baby pool

a chain link fence we found

It rose to five or six feet up

and went down to the ground

But we did not give up, oh no,

Our will would never fail

The three of us decided that

the stupid fence we’d scale!

Three women nearing fifty must

have been an absurd sight

Climbing up a metal fence

as day turned into night

We made it to the other side

and grabbed the lifeguard’s net

We chased those frogs around the pool

and got ourselves real wet!

Those frogs were very quick and so

were not easy to catch

But we were most determined that

the frogs had met their match

We finally caught all of the frogs,

released them to be free

over the fence where they could hop

in grass or on a tree

When we at last were finished then

we grinned about our joke

"The lifeguard won’t be hoppy but

the froggies will not croak!"

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Transforming Frog Day
and for Poets United, Poetry Pantry #148

Voices Rise

source

The children have no fear to speak

Their voices rise above the grief

that cuts us low and makes us meek

but children have no fear to speak

Our honesty is all they seek

Just listening provides relief

The children have no fear to speak

Their voices rise above the grief.

 

submitted for Verse First, Voices, at Poets United

Behind Glass

Children's faces pressed against glass, the SUV sits in traffic

Animal shelter eyes pleading, "Take me home with you, please."

Too many prisoners and not enough knights to rescue them all.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Form For All, Out of Asia-sijo

Overexposure

source

I feel so exposed,

so vulnerable

These clothes, this skin

don’t protect me.

Where is my armor,

my home?

I want to hide. Instead,

I clash with everything around me;

I can’t seem to stay still;

I make too much noise!

The predators will surely find me,

and I, no tougher than a worm,

will yield to their teeth

in a frenzy of flesh.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, FB Friday, Not Feeling Like Yourself?