As a youngster
I used to pull faces –
‘just because’ –
and practiced it in front of the mirror.
This morning the mirror took revenge.
At the rebellious age of thirteen,
I sneaked eyeliner past my mother;
squinting for ages in front of the mirror
to get a fine line in equal lengths.
Now I squint to put in my contacts lenses.
I practiced how to say ‘No’
in front of the bathroom mirror –
just in case the ‘wrong’ guy
should propose to me.
The fly marks on the mirror don’t come off.
I inherited the cracked mirror
on the bathroom cabinet
when I moved into my flat
after the divorce.
I own seven years bad luck - one more year to go.
My eyes change colour
depending on my mood:
it is deep azure when I’m happy,
but grass green when I’ve been crying.
The mirror tells me my eyes are jade green.
I grabbed a towel
to clear the steam off the mirror
from the refreshing shower
after my gym session this morning.
I would not do that again in a hurry.
It is my birthday today
and I need to spruce up a bit
for the occasion
as the children will be here soon.
My mother looked out at me from the mirror.
Categories:
spruce up, age, life, remember,
Form: Other
I've traipsed down a cobble of your path.
If you're ever lost, forgotten or misstep
I'll surely spruce up a room for you.
It'll be on the mundane -humble side
but safe-warm and welcoming
like in a child's sunlit dream.
I can cloak the well-worn floor
with a pattern of your choice.
There'll be no rent (of judgement).
Only a gray shoulder to stain
with the colors of your
desperation and heaviness.
We'll whisper of the misty past
untangle the present and its jaggedness
pan the gold from the slag of tomorrow.
I'll gently lay a patch upon
that blue chip in your heart
for I love you immensely
you can stay forever if you wish
dear heart
Categories:
spruce up, love,
Form: Free verse
The costume she wore was a drag
It made her look like a hag
She tried to spruce up
But looked like a pulp
Who soar with the colors of a flag
Categories:
spruce up, humor,
Form: Limerick
birds in summer sun
fluff their feathers comb with beaks
spruce up in sunshine
winter is a grind
wind is strong rain is heavy
not time for preening
Categories:
spruce up, bird, summer, sun, sunshine,
Form: Haiku
All the coming and going,
going out
guests coming, so -
dress up
make up
spruce up
brush up
tidy up
don the new getup
shake the dust
off the best plates.
Its so uplifting and fulfilling.
This is so becoming.
Categories:
spruce up, fashion, fun, people,
Form: Free verse
Through crisscrossed muntin,
patterns, and panes of clear glass,
the world outside is painting itself gray,
a wet mess of monochrome.
Muted cars speed by,
reflecting a leaden sky.
Their moans and groans wash over
every rooftop, passing by.
Nature's call is heard as rain,
the plate glass her melodic conductor.
The drops, each a source of sound and light,
spruce up this dreary suburban sight.
As an onlooker, I marvel
at the hidden pulchritude of this travel.
The hoariness holds an ambition
of lingering thaumaturgy.
The texture of the windowpane,
the ancient scent of rain,
as a visitor to this scene,
I find magic, dawning, to be divined,
Even when engirt by zones of storm.
Categories:
spruce up, devotion, growth, magic,
Form: Free verse
There once was a hornet who tried
To build a strange straw nest inside
As soon as grass was cut
He'd bring to his little hut
To spruce up, but on water he rides
He tried to build his nest inside the curved spout of my plastic watering can. The first time I tried to use it after he started building, I got a shock when he flew out.
Categories:
spruce up, insect,
Form: Limerick
Here with fond wit
Opt cheer to fit
Move joy's fine bits
Etch a true style
Apt that grand smile
Thrill sparks worthwhile
Make time for space
Ink words of grace
Dream syncs this place
Treat works that tell
Old touch greets spell
Wise worth glimpse well
Now and here note
Peace brings warm tote
Ends meet brisk vote
Near and far see
Taste what will be
Heart knows mind's spree
One by one sense
Urge grows sure tense
Spruce up suspense
Easy feel knows
Mind reads deep flow
Yields thus may show
Signs flavour nice
Keep fragrant spice
Embrace good vice
Taste that pure dream
Choice and poise stream
Heart knows sure cream
Boom here fond grace
Oil in smooth trace
Old and new face
Keep lavish store
Ink words plus more
Dance from stern core
Embrace fond gist
Apt that short list
Sure feel persist
Note here and now
Opt love's endow
Work why and how
Leon Enriquez
01 June 2019
Singapore
Categories:
spruce up, change,
Form: Rhyme
When you are lost in confusion
With your heart full of depression
When your life is tangled in mess
With your mind marked hopeless
Be aware, God's the giver of gladness
When you run after clover in fold
And you couldn't latch on it in hold
When all painted over you are scars
Even without the discerning of stars
Be conscious, God is in your mind.
When you sight your home & espy nothingness
And your connected blood are designate aimless
When you long for for an abode spruce up of rest
When the bodies in sight breathe a zest of a pest
Be apprise, God is your matchless healer of pains
When you behold your portrayal in richness
But your assets are painted in emptiness
When your bones are fashioned powerless
Don't be melt away in the ache hopelessness
Be informed, God is the giver of bountifulness
©Muhammadnasir Aloba
Eminent
Categories:
spruce up, hope,
Form: Rhyme
What's gods currency?
What would you do, if there was nothing to do, but find it?
Seems we'd be on an odyssey for a redeemed community
To spruce up the defoliated faces
Cut the noose of ornamental laces
The quest of placing tinder, in lights focal graces
Go
Categories:
spruce up, god,
Form: Free verse
Let's have some fun outside
I'll plant some new flowers
spruce up the tired summer beds
so out I wandered into the garden
Hunt high and low for my trowel
can I heck find it, bet your ass no
ok I will use a folk instead
that is right close to hand
Oh drats it's handle is cracked
I can't use it like this
so I search and finally find tape
repaired I kneel down to work
Only to find the soil far too hard
so I fetch a spade from the shed
backbreaking is the concrete ground
I labour on thinking how nice it will be
Taking a pause for a minute or two
I suddenly realise that it's almost dark
so much for not so well laid plans
I have yet again squandered away the day
Categories:
spruce up, humorous,
Form: Light Verse
There comes a fascination
with advancing years.
A vantage point unique
to view the shifting tiles
of one complex mosaic
made of overlapping lifetimes.
Seeing all those lives,
there are no words
but those of wonder
at an unvoiced challenge
to relate, or to pronnounce design
then shy away in impotence
as science yields
to mere mortality.
Still, I keep returning for a look.
I want to get to know this final act,
try to build a friendship,
and in a few short months or years
to welcome its embrace.
Already comes the news
of its arriving...not the hour,
But there is time remaining
to spruce up a bit.
A most illustrious visitor
with one last gift
is on the path,
and no event preceding it
can ever dim the splendor
of its truth.
~
Categories:
spruce up, death,
Form: Free verse
When we pray to God in
purity,
We speak our mind to Him
with alacrity,
when we study His Word
deeply
He speaks His mind to us
clearly
When we praise Him in His
beauty,
we spring into His
presence... in reality,
When we Thank Him
thoughfully,
we spur Him to doing more
constantly.
When we worship Him
willingly,
we spray Him awesome
words outrighly.
When we swin not in sin,
we spare ourselves some
troubles within.
when we sail more in
stains,
we spite him, so He
plagues us with pains.
When we endeavour to
evangelize,
in the fathers Heart beat,
we specialize
When we doubt his power
to heal,
we speculate what is a
settled deal.
when we trust in him with
passion,
we speed up His
intervention.
When we reject His
instruction,
we spurn His salvation.
When we walk in his ways,
we spruce up ourselves for
eternal grace.
Categories:
spruce up, devotion
Form: Didactic