Today’s prompt: “write a poem grounded in language as it is spoken.” (http://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-6/)
Yard Work
It’s all too easy to mistake
a trash panda for an ROUS
and we can’t tell which birds
Are hawks and which
are falcons. Something to do
with how often they flap?
Or with how pointed their
wing tips are. In any case,
best to keep the small
Yappy rat dogs out of sight:
too easily seen as prey.
The whatchamacallit isn’t
The same as the thingamajig
and never mistake it for
a whatchamathingy. You’d
Best not try to use the
zoopy-zoop to do the job of
the swingy dingus. Nor can
The dingle dangle, nor the
dongle dingle. Why did no one
ever tell me yard work
Was so confusing? Which isn’t
too say yard work is the same
as gardening, which isn’t
The same as tree planting nor
hedge trimming, though all
these go together to make a yard.
A lawn mower, a leaf blower,
a weed wacker, a hacky thwacker.
An ax (or is it axe?) and a hatchet
And an adze and a pickax(e).
The big belly shovel, the long
skinny shovel, the pointy shovel,
The hand trowel. Farrow furrows
and long lines of plants. Blood,
sweat, tears, and lots of curse
Words.
John the Librarian 