Month: February 2021

 

Itching 

I’m itching for a Covid trip

straight down memory lane

ticket stubs and photographs 

       calling out my name 

where to go and what to do – 

is anybody game? 

A drive to Vail

A flight to Maine 

A train to New York City 

all I need’s a B&B escape 

from my self-pity

 

Just Write

Three years ago, 

Sarah said to just write. 

Set a goal: 5 or 10 times a month. 

Set a timer: 10 or 20 minutes. 

Pick a topic: whatever comes to mind. 

Open a journal, pick up a pen, and write. 

Bring words to life on the page. 

Make it a habit. 

Some days, revisit seedlings. 

Other days, remain satisfied. 

Watch what happens!

A Sonnet of four quatrains with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF and a rhyming GG couplet, with lines of ten syllables in Iambic pentameter with the emphasis on the second heartbeat. 

 A Diminishing Thyroid Sonnet

I didn’t eat for health again today 

instead I ate a pound of M&Ms 

I know there has to be a better way 

than caving to my cravings and crazed whims

My thyroid’s gone and left me in the dust 

these pills I’m taking frankly don’t absorb 

I’m scared to even measure my huge bust 

my derriere’s a pair of cratered orbs 

no diet can be found to satisfy 

and exercising’s too much work for me 

a serving size is hard to justify 

so obese may just be what I will be 

someone please come and turn this barge around 

or to the fat farm my big ass is bound

Alternate Plans for Educators During a Pandemic

our pantries stocked
with emergency tuna
we have a plan b, c, d, e….

but like tufts of a dandelion
parachute we wonder:
will we hold?
or will
Sal Khan get his wish
and become the world’s
one teacher?

 

Steps to being Kim Johnson

First, reconsider. But somebody has to do it. So…

1 Be born to a Southern Baptist preacher in seminary who plops you down on his desk in the middle of all his open books and speaks to you in Hebrew. Just smile and coo. 

2 Accept that you will always be in trouble somewhere- even when you’re not in trouble everywhere. The church shares joint custody of PKs.

3 Love dogs. Want them all – even ones that aren’t yours to have. 

4 But reject cats. Your DNA makes no sense why this is so. It just is.

5 Be accident prone! Fall off houses and out of trees and get thrown off of strange bareback horses you had no business riding in the first place. Then lie about how it happened. No…..wait. Be a creative storyteller. Yes! A mystery writer with a less incriminating plot. 

4 Don’t pay attention in math class. It’s boring as all hell and you’re never going to be successful at it, anyway. You can’t even count. 

5 Grow up on two Atlantic Coast islands. Learn to crab, fish, swim, ski, and how not to drown in a “for real” undertow – not just the one you’re living in. 

7 Have a little bratty brother who finds less trouble than you but who always gets caught. Write a book about him one day and tell all the family secrets – well most, anyway. You’ll be friends for life. 

10 Don’t listen. Do it your way, the way your friends say. What does family know, anyway? Throw a wedding with the wrong one, then see what family knew. Get a divorce and be grateful for three good things that came of it – your children. 

7 Listen. Consider your family’s nod. They tell truths others won’t risk. Marry the right one – the one who calls you the love of his life and is the only man on the face of the earth who could possibly ever mean it. Love that man to pieces! 

8 Move to the Johnson Funny Farm. Have dogs – lots and lots of dogs. Realize you are far more successful at parenting dogs than you ever were at parenting humans. 

9 Read. Write. Teach. Travel. Blog. Enjoy too many sweets. Wave a tearful goodbye to your thyroid, wipe your eyes, and then throw away that Kleenex! 

10 Realize at your mother’s death that your dad has reverted to speaking Hebrew. Pray that you can find him his own Schnoodle puppy who speaks all languages of the heart. Call your partner-in-crime brother who still loves you and devise a tag-teaming delivery plan: a surprise Schnoodle attack. 

11 FaceTime the delivery. Just smile and coo in Hebrew. Grab five more Kleenex – one for letting the puppy be someone else’s, and one for your dad’s happy Hebrew heart!

In the End

every morning
I pour the kefir and
swallow eight teeming world populations
of life: 50 billion
microscopic bacterial organisms
in a double gulp

all in the name of probiotic health. 

I line up the containers
on the refrigerator shelf
and ponder these
overpopulated colonies
like so many bacterial pilgrims
boarding a Mayflower
praying for a journey of survival
through treacherous depths

and wonder
what they hope for
in the end.

 Today we were inspired by David Duer to write Diction Poems, using relationships with word sounds and the repeating line Let’s Meet Somewhere….

A Clandestine Valentine 

let’s meet somewhere
between Tallahassee and not-a-hassle
face-to-face – no more Facebook
at the Albany Walmart parking lot
after our late-night indite to seal the deal 

let’s meet somewhere
between happily married and woefully wed
a quick tryst – a clandestine Valentine-destined
love potion – not broken –
not nine on the corner of 34th and Vine
what was yours- now mine
not red not pink not blue not green
we’ll share this love somewhere between 

let’s meet somewhere
blue RAV, white Chev
and share the love from his to hers
spouses unknowing where we’re going
yours won’t detest in the midst of divorce
mine may weep tears – a reason he fears
or smile, when he finds out about this love child 

let’s meet somewhere
and do the math – no dollars involved
you: one to zero, me: two to three
this act of love is painful- but free
I can’t wait to meet this new life
she’ll be sweet
I’ll hug her and love her and raise her just right 

…so pass me this Schnoodle pup full of delight
my Valentine baby, all mixed black and white!

 Inspired by Allison Berryhill – I tried my hand at a sonnet based on a friend’s Facebook post about the 12022021 palindrome ambigram that can be read as a military date or a traditional date and all be seen correctly, and I tried to get the pulse of Iambic Pentameter heartbeats in there but there my be some arrhythmia….

12202021: Sonnet for a Palindromic- Ambigramic Non-Illusion

back, forward, upside-down and inside- out
this palindrome and ambigram inspire
reminders to us all to think about
perceptions not embedded in quagmire

the way we tell a truth is often slant
Miss Dickinson’s prophetic verses ring
conundrums help us CAN when we all CAN’T
just lift one voice in unity and sing

enigmas’ mirrors make us stop and think
perspectives shift and bend like rubber bands
the hills we’ll die on flash with every blink
when will we open eyes, heal hearts, join hands?

there’s more than just one way that can be right
try different angles for increased insight!

     -Kim Johnson

 

No Itinerary

Those midwinter weekends 

of no plans ~

just the two of us 

sandwiched between the dogs 

are better 

than any summer picnic

on a crowded beach.

 

Floors

Not long after I had arrived 

at work 

the news came in your silence

after my hello. 

She was gone. 

I rushed to meet you 

there by her side ~

gray lips,

ashy skin,

completely still, 

lifeless

. 

As we waited in silence 

for the funeral home to come 

I wondered if all this world 

is a lobby 

where we wait for a room key 

from God 

in a judgment elevator 

that dings our faith 

takes us up 

or down 

opens to a certain floor 

of works

and which floor she was on.