More On Bin Morons

Posted on April 4, 2023 by sputterpub

It didn’t work. No matter how we ask,
the only one reliable is I.
Relocating the bins is no big task –
just once a week – but neighbors don’t comply.
They fill the bins but seldom cart them out.
“I’ll help if I’m around,” the young ones said.
But they are here (and studying, no doubt,
apparently disorganized instead).

It isn’t rocket science. If each dwelled
apart, they’d lug their refuse every week.
“Pretend that’s so,” today I whisper-yelled –
“A Sunday job that’s really not unique.
If when you try, it’s been already done,
well, that’s a benefit for everyone.”

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Juju

Posted on April 3, 2023 by sputterpub

She met the woman through the homeschool group,
a refugee from Evangelicals.
They soon became fast friends – among that troupe,
they were the most responsive to the pulls
of liberal originality.
She recognized this comrade was extreme,
her viewpoint black&white in tendency.
But friendship bloomed in mutual esteem.

This BFF helped make her garden grow,
and birthday-gifted her a healthy vine,
but sadly soon let disapproval sow
a rift, a ghosting, more than a decline.
She sacrificed the plant to that demise,
who might have healed the juju, were she wise.

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Interlude

Posted on April 2, 2023 by sputterpub

I plan to watch TV tonight, and rest.
I’ve had sufficient company for days,
and though no acts transpired that distressed,
no words offended, there were no displays
of foolishness, maliciousness or messed-
up observations spilled in gross arrays,
my friends and family were gently boring.
Now I’ll indulge in hours of ignoring.

(Ottava Rima)

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Wisteria Envy

Posted on April 1, 2023 by sputterpub

Perhaps the garden soil wants some food,
or maybe west is not the way to face,
or (likeliest) by too much shade I’m screwed,
but my wisteria does not keep pace
with all the neighbor vines around my place.
Where those abound with blooms, I’ve sparsity,
with scanty buds and stems resembling lace.
I’ll compost, but I’m keeping every tree.

(Ottava Rima)

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Faucet

Posted on March 31, 2023 by sputterpub

Supplies for plumbing made her father’s field.
Her granddad and his brothers did it first.
They bought the land their stores stood on, and sealed
the family in wealth as values burst
for Southern California coastal real
estate. But when her faucet broke, her thirst
for new took her to shop on Amazon.
It’s like her sense of heritage is gone…

(Ottava Rima)

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Spring Again

Posted on March 30, 2023 by sputterpub

Attracted to the winter all my years
(perhaps it was that January birth),
when chill will stimulate, and dark appears
so often it gives firelight more worth,
I can’t ignore the present buds and spears
of vernal growth – renewal on the earth
around. I watch the sunshine sweep my floor
now winter’s gone, but not for evermore.

(Ottava Rima)

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Listing

Posted on March 29, 2023 by sputterpub

The vet about my old retriever said,
“That nose will work as long as beats her heart.”
I think of that, as I view tasks ahead
of me, and make a list, and set apart
my leisure while they’re done. Until I’m dead
I think I’ll have some errands left to start.
I needn’t see them as a stress or strife,
but rather they’re my daily sign of life.

(Ottava Rima)

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Plane Snax

Posted on March 28, 2023 by sputterpub

So used to mini-pretzels and the sweet
of Netherlands, they gave me a surprise –
a choice of little packages, complete
with popcorn or new crackers met my eyes.
I chose two crisps of quinoa snack to eat.
They weren’t bad, and though I don’t advise
that you or I should buy them if we find them,
as mid-day airplane food I didn’t mind them.

(Ottava Rima)

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Child

Posted on March 27, 2023 by sputterpub

Our roles reversed when I was 5 years old
(she didn’t notice and she won’t agree).
Determining that I’d be self-controlled
was my reply to the barbarity
of mother, nurses, powers over me,
that overruled what should have been a hug.
She’s nearly 98 but seems to be
a child yet. I see, accept, and shrug.

(Huitain)

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Parents

Posted on March 26, 2023 by sputterpub

My parents are the ocean and the earth,
though neither carries gendering or sex,
or any measured motive in my birth,
and don’t directly breathe. I am complex
but not confused, about what each expects –
I take my lesson from the ebb and flow
and fundament. Their wisdom intersects
and underscores all benefits I know.

(Huitain)

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