Best Best Laid Plans Poems
trap sprung, mouse missing
a Christmas gift left behind
spinning a grey tail
Brian Johnston
December 6, 2015
My sisters were coming for a visit for the very first time,
Heading to New Hampshire, leaving the Georgia heat behind.
Our friend Charlie was a house guest before they arrived.
My husband, Charlie, and I all hatched a plan brilliantly contrived.
We decided to impress my lovely sisters, and hired a limousine,
To greet them with champagne, and treat them like queens!
The surprise was going as planned as we met them at the gate.
Barbara and Lisa were unaware of the limo that did await.
However, the surprise was on us as we got to the limousine.
The hood was up, and it was the saddest sight we had ever seen.
My sister Barbara said, “Those poor people are broken down.”
We were chagrined, and could have crawled in the first hole around.
We had to admit that limo was our broken-down ride.
Their hysterical laughter then eased our bruised pride.
My eighty-year-old father-in-law gave instructions to the driver,
While we were hoping the chauffeur was another MacGyver.
Eventually we were in luck, and we were homeward bound.
We broke out the champagne, and the laughter was profound.
The driver is the one that made out like a bandit.
My husband, Charlie, and father-in-law all tipped him in private.
6/6/17
A flawless ceremony,
and elegant reception,
followed by long honeymoon
delayed by snowfall.
For John Freeman's love /humor contest Won 2nd place
Best laid plans of both mice and men
Can surely go wrong, can screw up in the end
Your very best shot
Will be enough... NOT
Best laid plans... to the looney bin, you descend
Ann planned to lose her cherry in full moon,
She even picked the month, that to be June.
Her hapless hopes had sunk,
She hooked up with a hunk -
In the middle of December, at noon.
June 6, 2022
Perfect plans just don’t exist
No matter how you try.
It’s possible to nail the gist
But other parts won’t fly.
For circumstances do contrive
To ruin the precision
With which you kept your hopes alive
The way you did envision.
“The best laid plans of mice and men”
Is such a brilliant quote;
When Robert Burns put down his pen,
He knew a gem he wrote.
Such simple words and so succinct,
They perfectly suffice
To mark their message, long-time inked,
For us and also mice.
Peddled up the hill of life
Intent on coasting down
Discovered much to my chagrin
No place to turn around
Getting one solid piece of wood that you mold.
Going to create something everyone can behold.
It will be something you will be proud of, so will they.
You get your tools ready and begin to chip away.
This will be very difficult, but that you knew.
So you start shaping it into what you want, a canoe.
Your son comes out to help every one in a while.
Son when this is all over, we'll sail on the river for miles.
The days and months and even some years pass.
But it is coming to fruition, and almost done at last.
This is something you put your whole heart into making.
Everyone around you knows that it has been pain staking.
Finally you put the last few touches on it and its done.
Tomorrow we'll go out and test it on the water, okay son.
You get up early and go to the river next to the town.
But when you put it in the water, it sinks straight down.
Both of you watch it as it fades into the murky abyss.
All that hard work and effort gone, I can't believe this.
Not everything in life works out the way its supposed to and comes together.
You can have the best laid plans for a picnic, but you can't predict the weather.
THE BEST LAID PLANS…
When I was young…growing up…still a boy…not yet a man
when thinking about my destiny…I had some awesome plans.
I knew early in my life what was in store for me…
I knew what I was going to do…I knew who I wanted to be.
I wanted to be a post office clerk…like my dad…although he didn’t make a lot of money and sometimes times were rough…He loved his job and he’d always smile and say…
I think we have enough.
But I soon turned why hopes to baseball…where I was going to be a star…
until I realized I had trouble catching…and I couldn’t hit a baseball very far.
Next I wanted to be a football star…people would have my name embroidered on their shirt…until I realized I was much too small…and how getting tackled hurt!
So I thought…I’d like to be an astronaut…where I’d soar up among the stars…
until I realized my stomach ached…just riding in the car.
Next I turned my attention to politics I wanted to be President…in charge of all the masses…until I realized there are some days…I can’t even find my glasses.
So I chose instead to be a teacher, a husband and a father…where I didn’t make a lot of money and where sometimes times were rough…but I loved my job and I was always able to smile and say…I think we have enough.
Who knew when I was growing up…with all the different plans I had…I would end up living a life that was closer to my dad’s.
But those choices led to being a grandfather…perhaps the easiest job of all…
where I didn’t have to to be coordinated…or rich…or intelligent…or tall.
In fact…from the minute I became a husband, a father, a grandfather…the moment our lives intertwined…all I had to be in their eyes…was loving, compassionate and kind…
So there you have it…in a nutshell…this is who I came to be…
and I’ve often wondered…did I choose this life…or has this life chosen me?
Either way…I’m happy…
for my life has indeed been quite amazing
and wonderfully grand…
I guess when I stop to think about it…
it has gone…exactly as I planned.
Robert Burns knew schemes.
Like all of us,
His vanity
Lent him an illusion
Of control.
How did his wisdom come?
Did his head fall beneath the trap?
The cat is away, time to play.
What's dearest to your heart?
A night in paradise?
A glass full of lies?
Maybe a vision of ladders
Climbing closer to your treasures.
Come now, come now,
Free will, will reveal the maze.
Starving for peace,
Our plans
Unfold like walls and cul de sacs
Before us.
Hunger for control,
Needs too deep to fathom:
I am the master of my destiny.
And of course, we're right,
Right as rain.
Our destiny, our plans "gang aft agley."
>center>THE BEST LAID PLANS
I planned to marry her in spring – but then I found she had a husband
24th August 2020
When Plans Don't Go To Plan contest
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