Persnickety fussbudget never had a mess
Raised two daughters – Wilhemina and Tess
They both became hoarders by age seventeen
No lie, I am not attempting to insult or be mean.
Their mother had spent years throwing their treasures away.
They hoard everything since they are emancipated and now have a say.
If she would have let us keep any of our trinkets for a little while
We might not have become so opposite, Tess said with a smile.
My sister is a fussbudget
I am shocked.
Why do you call her that? I ask.
She worries about everything.
She is fussy about everything.
Like what? I asked.
She fusses over recipes, they have to be put in an order.
What kind of order?
She has them color coded and alphabetized.
Which one?
Both.
She fusses over a piece of lint on your shirt.
She can talk about it for weeks.
There was a piece of white lint on Leland’s shirt.
How can anyone talk about that for weeks?
I don’t know, she replied. Do I look like a fussbudget?
Her name was Miss Mosie and she was one of a kind
She watered her red posies, and she had a sound mind.
She is the only giraffe in the building, some whispered.
They tried to set her up, with old fussbudget McLispered.
McLispered was a horse, which was not the same at all.
At least they both have long faces, and they are tall.
She smiles at him sometimes from the window one said.
That is creepy, replied another, his name was Old Ned.
How could we entice another giraffe to move in?
She would be furious about it said Ratface, one of her kin.
They found a willing Giraffe, he was clever and tall.
But they had nothing in common, I mean nothing at all.
She was a Democrat, he said he was anti-vote.
She did not like sailing, he spent most of his time on his boat.
That sure did backfire! The neighbors readily agreed.
The next one they tried to match up was a fellow named Weed.
Weed was a bird who could not fly, thanks to a broken wing.
They tried to find another grounded bird, but was there such a thing?
The happiest thing happened, Weed and Miss Mosie found each other.
They live together happily, says her stunned daddy and brother.
She introduced herself to the staff as their new vice-principal.
It was not the truth,
Not quite a lie yet either.
In truth, she had
Warned the principal
She was after his job.
The principal did not get to choose
His own staff, and human resources
Had hired and sent him this
maladroit interloper in July.
He knew her quite well by the
Time the rest of the staff arrived
In August.
She was rapidly labelled an
unwelcome fussbudget. In
hours the staff knew to stay away from
her in droves, not listening
to her ravings or keen suggestions
for improvement on their inept performances.
Her most confident area, of course was self-confidence.
She had it in oodles and arches,
And she displayed it
With the skill of
a clumsy peacock, holding an exceptionally casual bull horn.
The last they heard her about her, she had complained to HR that her frustration level was through the roof, they were boobs, and she was leaving.
A little celebration good-bye party was held in her honor two weeks after she left
at the principal's house.
Now who forgot to invite her?
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.