Night crept out
window’s mouth,
scented breeze
singing trees,
early morn
coffee warm,
again.
Grabbed a cup,
toast popped up.
paper news,
ink-black views,
daily chores,
then outdoors,
again,
again.
Walked with dog,
ravens called,
flowery scene,
southwest green,
season brings
near same thing,
again,
again,
again.
Evening mixed
dinner fix,
greet, speak, eat,
watched TV,
minutes gone,
day moved on,
again,
again,
again,
again.
Stretched lake breeze,
ten thousand trees,
continuous bay,
milky waves,
lonely twinkle,
solitude hills,
daffodils pensive,
golden thoughts.
——
The Daffodils
William Wordsworth, 1770 – 1850
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Sometimes before falling asleep in bed
I tune in people who now are long dead.
Glamorous actors from last century
look stylish in dramas or comedy,
film noir, or high jinks of action frolic
city bustle or somewhere bucolic.
Cinema loved a storybook romance
feelings expressed in a well-rehearsed dance.
Entertainment sang on Hollywood lots
before stars got cast into dark, final plots.
On my screen they shine without special effects,
computer zombies, or uncomfortable sex.
Found random words to rhyme about:
lazy, lout, pig, snout, sauerkraut.
I’ll doggerel combine,
in limerick time,
to put off scrubbing my bathroom’s tile grout.
That lazy Lout guzzled vermouth,
showed potbelly and looked uncouth.
A picture of sin,
with bottle of gin,
and when not drinking, he fed his sweet tooth.
As to a snout, little I know,
it’s needed for truffles to go.
You might ask French hog
or look at his blog,
Couch Lout’s likely viewed an animal show.
It might taste good but sauerkraut stinks,
spread on hot dog or sausage link.
Meat made from pig snout,
“Goes with beer,” burped Lout,
then, grease on his shirt, he died in a blink.
Limericks are completely done,
such silly lines but I had fun.
Now, I am sincere,
I had no Lout here,
and thanks, but no thanks, please don’t bring me one.
What’s inside contains
the same. However,
before the journey,
to be marketed,
like people, eggs get
grouped by their color.
F-R-I-E-N-D
Fabulous, Funny, Friendly,
Responsible, Reconcilable. Ready,
Interesting, Inclusive, Ingenuous,
Expansive, Empowering, Eccentric,
Natural, Nutty, Nice,
Dependable, Distinctive, Demanding
Affectionate, folksy farewell,
including youthful fiasco
Fresno to Frisco, then elderly
fun with a friendly finch, plus
facts on a near-forgotten
fight for freedom in France.
Photographed face featured
flat above phrases flippant,
or funereal, flattering, though
possibly fatuous, fashioned
by family or forever friend,
for a few lines in a newspaper.
Elaine Anne Westheimer 