Mean Jean

Some folks just don't have a life of their own. Some live on other's problems. Some live on other's dreams, and hopes for the future. Some live on just being the antagonist to everyone else; They are the worst of all. I once had a neighbor who somehow held title to all of these faults. In her mind and spirit she knew that The most important mission in her world Was to lay into everything and everyone she could find. She had found a way to prod with this fitful fate Dead center on my illustrious household, Which was consistently filled with my four kids, Their friends, their friend's friends, a dog, cat, parakeet, And a considerable amount of hustle and bustle. Not forgetting a handy-man husband Who collected airplanes in the backyard To every neighbor's delight! Granted, she had a lot to be concerned about, But it was her open-mouthed, execution style of expression That obliterated any sense of reasonable consideration. She was an unhappy, consternated, inflicted, Petty worry wort with the biggest mouth anyone could imagine. Mean Jean would repeatedly ask me for sugar, Names of the children visiting my house, When we might be leaving to go anywhere, Did I have relatives, insurance, and safety latches on my cupboards- Did I graduate from school, and what did I do to make money. I began to see her in my 3:00 a.m. dreams that kept me awake at night Which was becoming a 24 hour ceaseless onslaught. I did my best to maintain an uncanny sense of humility and compassion, But she was making me just downright CRAZY! Then The "D" day came with her last brittle complaint: "Can you keep your darn cat out of my tree!" she said "He's messing up the way it looks - he's destroying the branches." There was absolutely no place to go with my filled-up rage. I had let it build into the Atomic Bomb of Articulation! Out of my mouth, heart, gut, and years of pent-up quiet, Came the most indiscernible, undesirable, undefinable, inconceivable, Perceptibly horrifying dissertation that was ever heard! Her shock was bright red in her face. Her eyes looked like a fish being squeezed, With her brows appearing to raise like the Golden Gate Bridge. It forced her mouth open to a point of Lock Jaw. My favorite last words, after she had to swallow not only her pride, But the biggest, baddest, most significantly nastiest black fly ever..... "So hear this! You need to LISTEN more than you complain!" "For a fly does not enter a closed mouth!" September 3, 2019 Romani Proverb Poetry Contest Sponsored by Julia Ward