Long Mabel Poems

Make Do and Mend,

Years ago we had jobs
We had fun and money in our pocket
Things were much better then
Once you could go out the door
And never ever lock it

But still so many struggled
To buy food...

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If you could look through any window
Of any house on any given street,
You might find yourself quite surprised 
At the variety of people you would meet.

The couple at number twenty-three
Have been married nearly seven years
They...

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Sam the dog and Pearl the cat
Were sitting on the wall
They do it every day
So it isn't strange at all
They have little conversations
Which only they can understand
They talk about their little quirks
And none of them...

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I had an old auntie called Mable
Who could drink men under the table
She’d tell folks of her gout
Sup up six pints of stout  -
then stagger to the loo when able!

11~23~16

WRITTEN BY JAN ALLISON


My paternal...

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Two old friends
(who haven’t seen each other
in quite some time)
running into each other on the 
corner of Linwood and Clairmount
— A Detroit westside encounter


Man, it’s good seeing you Joe,
how is ...

Aw, Moms doing just fine....

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Candy floss, seaside rock, smoothies, and flags sporting
Union Jacks
Replace the old traditions of striped deckchairs 
And Kiss-Me-Quick hats.
Chipwicks for our salt and vinegar fries
And their pole-and-line freshly caught local Cod;
The Vintners Parrot: For thick sizzling...

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Women are the womb
and the backbone of society 
So in this women's season 
let's celebrate how we came be

When I look back in history at the many
women who have come and gone 
And the impact...

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White dove over troubled waters, she flew into the morn
As sun surfaced over sails lit the wreckage of midnights storm.
A tiny dot upon the waves, shackled to a beam.
The condemned man has survived against all...

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“Ever met the Pinkertons?” I asked my friend, Nadine. “Well…Dexter’s wife, Matilda, is a gossip through and through, 
And yesterday my sister called to see if I might know if what Matilda’s aunt, Marlene, had...

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An old lady sat near a window, near a window looking out.
With her radio going she sat there sewing, with an occasional look about.
On her thumb she wore a thimble, as she pulled the thread...

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Mabel Jones and her four kids, Tyrese, Sheldon, Christopher, and Myriah (each with different fathers) went to church every Sunday, and the kids attended bible school five days a week in the summertime.
As a family,...

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I
my visions— i miss them. 


II
the summer i was 18,
i thought i could be a poet.

sleep till noon,
at night, at midnight,
in Gage Park,
a divine place of youth.

III
July, the cicadas are out, 
the band shell is...

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It was in the Barley Tavern, on a normal Friday night,
I’d ordered flatty tails and chips for tea, before I’m sitting down,
with a schooner full of Coopers stout, when I caught a sight,
of Curly Easson...

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Well it’s one o’clock on a Tuesday
The regular crowd wanders in
There’s an old broad
Sittin’ next to me
Wonderin’ which room she’s in

She says, “Girl can you join me for bingo?
I don’t really like playin’ alone
But I’ll...

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Connor the baby dragon went to see the queen
He knocked upon the palace door insisting he was seen

The courtiers and the equerries on seeing the little tyke
Told him to be off at once his kind...

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 We're all gathered in goodbye to last year
And to ring the new year in with good cheer
Plenty of wine, beer and goodies to eat
It's going to be a glorious meet.

Well that's what I thought...

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J.D. and the Lawyer

J.D.’s a cowboy’s cowboy, ain’t no doubt
Knows aplenty what this world’s about.
Born on a hoss – never seen him fall
That’s why what he did surprised us all.

Some lady attorney moved into town,
Just...

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I get up early at the crack of dawn
Gotta see my babe ‘fore she’s dressed and gone
Daylight peekin thru the window blind
Me and that gal get to feeling fine

The crack of dawn, nothin’s wrong
My baby...

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IT COULD BE HEAVEN
                               ...

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It’s 1914, and Hollywood star Mabel Normand has just
helped new boy Charlie Chaplin to develop his “Tramp”
character. She is wondering if she’s done the right thing.

    I gave him everything – even...

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The crisp cool breeze
helped the sailboat to glide,
like a swan on a lake,
or the glory of a kite.

The shiny exterior
shone pearlescent white,
the gold, christened lettering,
gloriously reflecting the light.

Newly purchased, fridge stocked,
husband proudly at the wheel,
his...

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She’d kept the pewter dusted and displayed
since 1959.
A verdigris had leached out of the urn nevertheless
She had been hard on him, had forgiven little,
but felt much closer now.
The television became a corner coffin,
its screen a...

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Happy birthday to a lovely lady called Jan
Who's a poet from The Isle of Man
So please raise your glass
To a very nice lass
Burn (s) the candle at both ends while you can.

Have a ...

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The other day my cousin Mabel
She said to me
Mike I ain't never seen
Nothing before like your poetry

Cuz, you need to be famous
We're going to take this on the road
We're going to knock down some doors
We're...

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Yesterday Auntie Mabel’s latest letter arrived in the mail
Telling me she is finally retiring at year’s end without fail,
That she’d heard from Aunt Lula Fay who is rather frail
And, is upset because her nephew Sid...

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