If you were organized, you would have guessed
the closest are the favorites, realized
when I said “help yourself,” not to my best!
If you were organized…
You grabbed the first you found. I was surprised.
If I were you I’d choose among the rest.
My stuff is ordered, first-to-lesser-prized.
A drawer of socks is like a sorting test.
A cluttered workspace, food that’s crystallized
on dirty plates, are symptoms soon addressed,
if you were organized.
(Roundel)
The gate was open and I took a peek.
The house was empty. No one was around.
My little cottage, tiny and unique,
abuts their yard and decorates their ground.
I never see my north side. Is it sound?
I gazed at painted boards and ivy sign.
The wall looks shorter out than in, I found.
The bed-side of my habitat is fine.
(Huitain)
When I embarked upon this House Arrest
assignment, I explored a hundred sorts
of metered rhyming verse. Although I’m best
rehearsed in sonnets, I attempted forms
I hadn’t tried and some I never guessed
existed – it was like a daily quiz.
I found, as days to weeks to months progressed,
some types I kept returning to of course.
Most days my thoughts are in 8 lines expressed.
(Magic 9)
We walked last night into our mother’s place
and saw her on the couch – she’s 96
and usually upon her feet. Her face
looked pallid, tired. As we hugged and kissed
her stooping over she announced a case
of Covid, in acquaintance from her midst.
Right then we wished to take back our embrace.
Exposure was four days ago, she guessed.
And now we wait for her and us to test.
(Ottava Rima)
The marks of age surprise me even now,
when I’ve been senior over seven years.
I’m startled every time I meet with how
too readily I’m injured. Like my peers
I’m quick to bruise and slow to mend. My brow
is corrugated just as worry clears.
For lately though I shuffle, I am not
as nervous – I outgrew it, or forgot.
(Ottava Rima)
I’ve paid for cable TV 30 years,
and all my life I’ve used a landline phone.
And as for Comcast Internet, it nears
about as long as cable in my home.
It’s primitive, I know, but many peers
are likewise habit- and nostalgia-prone.
My son stepped in, imposing modern day,
and took with love old-fashioned plugs away.
(Ottava Rima)
The question asked – What quantity of you
is water? I expected it was much.
But 61%? Turns out it’s true,
of humans fully grown. A baby’s such
a budding creature, full of life and new,
perfection-plump and cushiony to touch,
she may be fluid 96%.
(I overstate, but you know what I meant).
(Ottava Rima)
I didn’t feel particularly stressed
when I arrived. But she was still at nap,
the house was neat, the other grownup dressed
and leaving on an errand. I made lap
with book and water – of a sudden blessed
in quiet solitude. I had a gap
invade my schedule and I realized this –
a respite well-deserved engenders bliss.
(Ottava Rima)
An hour early at my desk today,
I published verse and started to compose.
Awake at sunrise has become my way,
but till this morning I inclined to news
and solitaire and puzzling to delay
the work of thought and exercise till 8.
The early hour nudged, as if to say
why wait to be productive? So I chose
reversal – early work instead of play.
(Magic 9)
At least 2 times a week I pass this tree,
and I have worried that it might be dead.
Well-shaped and large, it’s shown no greenery
when all around are plants a-bud in bed
or trellis-woven, fenced or blooming free.
I’ve longed to see it leafing out, instead
of rearing naked-limbed majestically.
Today I saw some sprigs of green emerge
that charm my eyes and make my smile surge.
(Ottava Rima)
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