Thankless Ranking

Posted on October 3, 2022 by sputterpub

I cherish your opinions more than most,
until you tell me you evaluate
this guy as uber-smart, and also boast
your son to be ingenious. I can rate
intelligence. I frightened both my folks.
And teachers were a little awed by me.
I grew to where I eagerly took tokes
to dumb existence, for equality.

I never try to rank intelligence.
A person’s either smart enough, or not.
Taxonomy of loved ones makes no sense
to me – what use is level, rank, or slot?
They neither are as bright as you assert.
Your statements only set you up to hurt.

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How Dare You?

Posted on October 2, 2022 by sputterpub

How dare you treat her like she’s making noise,
who had a rare occasion to feel glee
with someone she six times a year enjoys,
in walking talking and a drink or three.
She gets few breaks from caring for you boys,
so back off now and let the woman be
the powerhouse obnoxious and beloved.
Your jealousy and anger should be shoved.

(Ottava Rima)

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The Uninvited

Posted on October 1, 2022 by sputterpub

Omitted for your politics?
Your singledom? Or why?
It might be something you could fix,
if you’d admit a try.
Instead I hear for all events,
a reason to exclude.
It’s not about intelligence,
but nasty attitude.

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Bad Transit (or: Shit Show)

Posted on September 30, 2022 by sputterpub

I like the train for the diversity,
and also cause it lets me drive nowhere,
but sometimes a repellant quality
confronts and makes the journeying unfair.
The mass I noticed in the bathroom sink
was not a bean puree, I dread to think,
and though the toilet bowl was feet away,
some dumper deigned to leave that gross array.

I pressed ahead, embarking on the train.
The car was almost empty, clean enough
(in spite of fellow travelers looking rough).
I felt secure and able to maintain
composure, though the rider several feet
from me left nasty pooling on his seat.

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What Did She Mean?

Posted on September 29, 2022 by sputterpub

“I know that’s valued in your family,”
a friend observed when I described the scene.
I’d asked a 5 year-old his strategy
for taking 7 units from 19.
(He broke the puzzle down into its parts,
and added 2 to 10.) What did she mean?
Does her clan not appreciate the darts
of brilliance children show? How can that be?
Indeed, they’re valued in my family.

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Significance

Posted on September 28, 2022 by sputterpub

I didn’t feel emotionally numb,
but when my eyes began to leak, I knew
significance. They didn’t flow, but from
somewhere in me tears welled and brimming grew.
I felt no grief or sadness. I stood dumb,
and recognizing something seeping through.
A little seam of stamina emerged
I hadn’t understood had been submerged.

(Ottava Rima)

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Stupid Moves

Posted on September 27, 2022 by sputterpub

Coronavirus sent me to my room,
of course increasing time alone for me.
I got away sometimes, or met by Zoom
and FaceTime, but there were more hours free
for solitaire – I went from one to three
a day, amassing undefeated streaks.
I learned to sometimes choose stupidity,
to keep on winning all these many weeks.

(Huitain)

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Eleventh Day

Posted on September 26, 2022 by sputterpub

I started YouTube yoga on my floor
eleven days ago. I found it tough.
I modified and gentled it, for sure,
and gradually I’m starting to improve.
The humbling fact is I’m beyond mature,
and I will lose what flexibility
remains in me, unless I move. Endure
I think I shall. I’ve energy enough.
Today my eyes leaked happy tears of cure.

(Magic 9)

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Responses to a Threatened Tantrum

Posted on September 25, 2022 by sputterpub

As usual, she teemed with empathy –
the feelings of her little boy were strong.
She turned her No to Yes, the moment he

(the father) warned the kid that he was wrong
to argue – if continued, they would stop
the storybook, and send the boy along

to bed. The grandma wanted both to drop
their tactics and, by talking, to deflect
with narrative until the child could swap

(in seconds) to acceptance from demand.
The auntie disagreed – he must respect
and watch his tone, she stated like command.

Their four opinions didn’t intersect.
You want to guess if any had effect?

(Terza Rima)

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Ignoring You

Posted on September 24, 2022 by sputterpub

Ignoring you is not a goal for me.
But carping hot and bothered like a shrew,
your shrieking carves the only path I see:
ignoring you.

When I share bothered feelings like I do,
you leap to denigrate my family
with facile observations, never true.

Of late I hesitate to call. Debris
is clogging us and stunting what we grew.
You’re so combative now, I need to be
ignoring you.

(Roundel)

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