NaPoWriMo Failure

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