A blooming tree brings joy unseen -
But felt is joy, but felt is green!
Soon spring-born birds burst through the scene.
We watch them pick and pluck and preen,
And only fools would intervene
With this most exquisite routine.
I've felt a sense of gloom and doom looming over me
As if I'd set a rabbit's foot or lucky clover free
What have I done to put me in this hypnotic trance
No more can I endure this endless neurotic dance
So I steered into the skid to really test my fate
Stepped on every sidewalk crack with a spry gait
Broke a mirror and opened an umbrella wide indoors
Spilt salt and left it on my cleaned and just dried floors
Walked under a ladder to get my 13 new black cats
Left on the bed all my cowboy and lumberjack hats
And wouldn't you know, my luck began to show change
Bad luck thwart with bad omens, it's oh so strange
One day I woke, and a small noise I heard.
Since very near the window it seemed to be,
I thought perhaps that it could be a bird.
I got up from my bed and went to see.
What a big surprise!
Yes, big surprise, but what I saw was NOT
too big. In fact, what I spied was quite small.
And I am sure it wished not to be caught,
way up there looking startled on the wall.
What met my eyes?
A fairy I saw there with wings outspread.
A pretty fairy. Yellow was her hair;
her hands pressed on the wall above my head.
I wished I had not given her a scare.
Happily I cried hello!
And then I begged her to come down and let
me view her closely. Curious was I.
No sooner did I speak – I saw her get
onto my ceiling fan. It helped her fly!
Out my window she did go!
May 4, 2022 for Jeff Kyser's Tall Tales 2 Poetry Contest
Let me put your parenting skills
Under the microscope, my thrills!
You share your food with the young
You eat, regurgitate for the fledging
What childcare, what love & nurturing
You, bird parents take turns food hunting
I adore how you bring food to the nest
You feed the chicks as if you don’t rest!
You, dogs and cats hunt and share the kill
Mother dogs help the pups to eat to the fill
I see animals bring down prey and feast
In a social order, in packs, this, that beast
I see parent animals teach their young
To walk, hunt & who says that`s wrong?
Apes & simians feed each other when caring
For the wounded or the ill, when …yes, dating!
I don’t know whether elephants teach their young
Courting, but yes, food choices & a good tongue!
Should I write in rhyming words
are you babies I should coo
and speak of love and little boats
and of Dr. Seuss’s zoo.
Should I write of baby dolls
in rhyming words oh so sweet
Are you babies or men all
aged and complete.
I should coo and speak of love
of pacifiers and bottles
and little boats and planes above
size with a throttle.
Should I settle for small little men
who never tire of Dr. Seuss's Zoo
or go to bed, and say amen
let the throttle through.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.