Here is it, May 7, and I have failed NaPoWriMo, just like I failed NaNoWriMo last November. But I keep going anyway - my novel is progressing, I promise, and I wrote this poem for Circle today.
If You Give a Woman a Power Washer
(with apologies to Lara Numeroff, brilliant author of If you Give a Mouse a Cookie)
If you give a woman a power washer,
She’s going to want to power wash the front porch.
And if she power washes the front porch to
sparkling,
She’ll notice that the rocking chairs now look dingy
So she’ll power wash the rocking chairs.
And if she power washes the rocking chairs,
She’ll probably have the pressure too high,
And if the pressure is too high,
She’ll knock the paint right off the chairs.
And if she knocks the paint off the chairs,
She’ll have to go to the garage
To get a can of paint and a brush.
But to find the paint and brush
She’ll have to straighten the garage,
And if she straightens the garage,
She’ll know it’s time to take in the recycling,
And if she takes the bins to recycling,
She’ll have to pass the Walmart,
And if she passes the Walmart, she’ll want to
Stop in for pots and plants to decorate the nice
clean porch.
And if she shops for pots and plants,
She’s going to see the fountains and patio
furniture
And if she sees the fountains and patio furniture,
She’ll be tossed into the dilemma of wants versus
needs
And if she thinks about wants versus needs too long
She’ll stop in the middle of the aisle at the
Walmart to ponder them,
And if she stops in the aisle at the Walmart,
She’ll look around and soon wish she too, had worn
her pajamas.
And if she wishes she was in her pajamas,
She’ll think of how nice it would be to be on her
couch with a cup of tea
And if she goes home and makes a cup of tea,
She’s going to want a cookie to go with it.
And if she wants a cookie,
She’s going to have to go back to the Walmart for
ingredients
And if she starts to go back to Walmart for
ingredients,
She’ll have to stop on her way out to lock her
front door
And if she locks her front door,
She’ll notice how nice her front porch looks, all
power-washed.
And if she notices how nice her front porch looks,
She’s going to want to get that cup of tea
And a book
And sit in a power-washed rocker
And enjoy the afternoon.
Until she looks around and thinks how nice the
Front sidewalk would look
Power-washed.
Georgiann Coons
Women Writing for (a) Change
May 7, 2019
Peace
