Wrapping up May in cinquains from other years

May 3 --

Adding
this season's spent
Easter lily to my
side-yard assortment of foliage
and blooms.
~~~

May 8 --

I snap
my summer robe
all the way down against
the coolish, early-morning breeze.
Brr! Brr!
~~~

May 9 --

To my
Mother, a bag
of potting soil and a
flat of dianthus that I'll have
to plant.
~~~

May 12 --

Mother
Nature answers
our need for moisture, but
on the weekend when a book fair
is planned.
~~~

May 13 --

"Let me
paint your toenails,
Grandma," the 5-year-old
said. Might as well live it up while
I can.
~~~

May 18 --

A bird
flies to the high
wire, but with the dense oak
leaves, all I can see is its tail
flicking.
~~~

May 27 --

Gosh! You're
a noisy bird!
Are you a teenager
who hasn't learned to modulate
your voice?
~~~

World War II poster, from an email

 

 

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

(a cinquain sequence)

 

Dressed in

red, white and blue,

my dear mother thumbtacked

the flag across the top of her

front porch

 

despite

myriad warnings

never to climb a stool

or ladder without someone near

to help

 

if she

happened to lose

her balance, black out, fall.

But she didn't, and I told her,

"Nifty!"

 

The man

across the street

hollered, "I like your flag!"

They met near the road and chatted

a spell.

 

With towel

and water, he's

off to "run the bleachers."

"Wanna'go?" he asked her, smiling.

"No way!"

#

 



I don't really want to go

Emma - granddaughter

 



DREAD

(a Minute pattern created by the late Verna Lee Hinegardner)

 

I stand alone beside the spring

before the fling

called Senior Prom.

I need the calm

those water-lilies, frogs bestow.

(Breathe deeply, slow.)

I lean from hip

but then I slip!

My blue chiffon's all crushed and wet

(I don't regret.)

--tell Tarrio

that I can't go!

 

 



Merry, merry (snowy?) month of May

pic of southwest bed at Couchwood

 

[parody of "May You Always" by Larry Markes & Dick Charles, for May meeting of Malvern (AR) Poets]

 

 

May's the month we laud our mothers

though we love them all the time.

Give them flowers, gifts or candy;

let them know with us they're prime.

 

May is always graduation;

school is over for awhile.

Any student you encounter

may have on a happy smile.

 

May, you always bring the roses

--yellow, red and white.

The privet, honeysuckle, pollen--

allergies both day and night.

 

And May, you're always such a beauty,

gentle showers, morning dew.

Till the year rolls round again,

we'll say goodbye to you.

 

--PL

School's (nearly) out! Woo-hoo!

Daughter Anna and granddaughter Emma

 



by Pat Laster

SCHOOL DAZE

I.
Each day Home Ec teacher Miz Florence
would spew out her anger in torrents.
        "Stop talking and clean!"
        Girls glared at her--mean.
A dirty fridge was an abhorrence.

II.
A wild English teacher, Aegean,
attempted a task Herculean:
     "You'll write every day
     a good one-act play."
Her students became quite protean.

III.
World history was Miz Samples' thing--
The difference 'tween premier and king
        she carefully taught,
        but all was for naught.
Our ears only heard the bell ring!



SIGN ON TEACHER'S DOOR DURING PARENT CONFERENCES THE NIGHT BEFORE THE LAST DAY OF  TESTING

My psyche's fragile, weak and frail;
I'm resting for tomorrow's hail
of energy when testing's done
(they'll need some time to hit and run).

Two hundred kids: 'way, 'way too many--
my patience's fled--I haven't any.
So if you have a bone to pick,
please call tomorrow--tonight I'm sick.

[from Variations published 1994]