Alberta has pulled me many miles,
her hoofs are placed one after another,
But on this night of Christmas Eve,
She pills a load of hay behind her.
So many young smiles with laughter,
Candles flickering in windows,
With snow deep upon the ground,
Alberta pulled all behind her,
With Christmas songs being sung.
Fireplaces lit with stockings hung,
Sights of snow drifting to the ground,
Carolers singing at each door passing,
With smells of turkeys cooking,
Apple pies on the windowsills cooling.
Alberta an old friend of mine,
A cold winter night but still she trotted,
Trudging through the snow,
All for the faces with glowing smiles,
She kept her hoofs moving until the end,
Then sat in the barn with wondering eyes,
her hoofs tender hoping that someday,
They will invent a gas-powered wagon
Alberta Texas Florida …
We call her Bert for short
Was born near the Alamo
And soon brought to Port
Salerno in Florida … duh!
Where she contracted Covid
And languished in the ICU
Lucky to find a respirator
To no avail, it was a zoo,
So they finally took her off
In a unit close to the Gulf
And she became a statistic
Ten thousand and forty-two.
Bert chose not to be jabbed
Like so many nowadays
But it made little difference
For she died … anyways!
SIXTH PLACE WINNER
written December 14, 2021
especially for "Alberta Texas Florida" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Joe Maverick
Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world of conformists.
~Nikola Tesla
I've never been
To Alberta, Texas or Florida,
No, I haven't been
And I don't intend to go.
It's not Covid
That keeps me home
It seems that will be with us
Until Eternity comes.
It's a virus you know
And will mutate
In dozens of ways,
Survival of the fittest...
I am an almost hermit,
I don't like most people
Except for Mom,
Of course.
I venture into town
Only when I have to,
Covid hasn't changed
Me much at all!
Like Twain once said,
"The more I learn about people
The more I like my dog!"
In fact, all five of them,
And a couple of cats.
For: Alberta Texas Florida Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Joe Maverick
Alberta…..they probably just shook their heads and muttered “ey?”
Texas…probably rode it down, roped it, branded it and sent it on its way.
Florida….they probably took it fishing... in the Everglades…’nuf said!
John G. Lawless
12/5/2021
Alberta likes to stoke up on some beer
That way, she conquers each one of her fears
She can fly, even die
Without batting an eye
But she still won't undergo a pap smear
The snow is gently drifting down,
Not like two days ago,
When it was blowing sideways,
In a heavy dump of snow.
All the snow had melted.
The birds are coming back.
The flowers just now breaking ground,
And this dumps in our lap.
My lilies were up almost a foot.
Now they're laying flat.
I put some paper over them,
Hoping they'll come back.
The paper bags I used were large.
I made for them a tent.
I propped them up and prayed for them.
Poor things were limp and bent.
It's now April twenty-fourth,
And snow is drifting down,
Covering trees and flower beds,\
And blanketing the ground.
The weather man said we'd have rain.
We got cold wet snow.
Guess when Alberta is your home,
You just go with the flow.
Spring is here at last.
The first buds struggle to rise.
A sudden freeze comes.
The new buds wither.
Birds seek shelter from the cold.
Spring in Alberta.
Temperatures vary
Warm, cold, freezing in one day.
Never a dull moment here.
Winter's passed the snow is gone.
The weather's mild and sunny.
I dream sweet dreams of lazy days,
And eating clover honey.
Then suddenly the wind comes up.
First rain and then wet snow.
This morning it was plus fifteen,
And now it's ten below.
Welcome To Alberta
Cavan Lake, Alberta, that’s where I’m bound to be
You can’t beat the splendor of that wild serenity
Trees are all around me, there’s a robin at my door
And Cavan Lake is just outside, a hundred steps or more
Everywhere I look I see the big Alberta sky
And there comes Laura Lee with that sparkle in her eye
More lovely than a sunrise on the lake outside my door
Or the harvest moon reflecting off the ripples on the shore
Cavan Lake is calling me, that’s where I’m bound to be
In the big skies of Alberta, neath a rustling shady tree
Where the rainbow reaches shore to shore, and the big sky stretches wide
And the coyotes serenade the moon on the shores of the other side
I can see the lake from here, the water’s calm today
Gonna walk down to the shore and chase my blues away
If skipping stones won’t do it and the birds all fly away
I’ll have to take them back again and try another day
http://mike-martin.net/Cavan Lake
WELCOME TO ALBERTA
Winter's passed, the snow is gone,
The weather's mild and sunny.
I dream sweet dreams of lazy days,
And eating clover honey.
Then suddenly the wind comes up,
First rain and then wet snow.
This morning it was plus fifteen,
And now it's ten below.
Welcome To Alberta
Judy Ball
FLAX FIELD IN ALBERTA
Suddenly out of the blue we come by
A lazuline flax field under the cloudless indigo sky,
Filled to overflowing with perfume dry.
In the steady warm air, the smell of linens
And the small delicate petals’ nutty fragrance.
As the breeze pushes lazy waves into motion
In a summer Alpine lake azure , we are on
A magic carpet afloat, a billowing pale blue blanket upon
A waist-deep ocean: each blue bloom a tiny sapphire.
We want to dive and swim in this ultramarine cloud entire.