Bad Poetry

Just a few more hours till my tired, old, ass is off for a much needed vacation! I am sooooooo looking forward to the break. No work, no writing, no yard or house work: just fun time with the family. Very cool!

Last night was Boy Scout night so I didn't get anything done writing wise. I am planning to take the GS synopsis with me for the trip (which belies my earlier statement about no writing, but just a little!) I'll work on it as the wife drives. It's a six hour trip after all, I should be able to knock it out before we get there. (I hope!) I always let the wife drive when we're doing any traveling together. She's a bit of a control freak and if I drive all we do is argue while she puts her foot on imaginary brakes on the passenger side of the car and tells me when I should be switching lanes, etc. After 15 years, I've figured out it's easier to just let her drive. (I'm a quick study, huh?) Besides, it gives me a chance to read, write, or even just catch a nap and there are no arguments.

I have nothing to really post about today (the mind is ALL on the vacation!) so I thought I would post another of my poems for your reading enjoyment (or pain: not sure which!) As I've said in the past, poetry is not really my form: I just do it for fun. I have a tendency to stray into doggerel and almost always use solid rhyme and meter so it's not exactly cutting edge work here, but it makes me happy to write it once in a while, so I do! The one below is something I wrote in a card for the wife on our 15th anniversary (who needs friggin' Hallmark?) Enjoy, and I'll be back for posting next Monday.

Later!
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AFTER FIFTEEN

And they lived happily ever after
At least, so the story said.
It made no mention of diseases
Or of nights in hospital bed
The story never told of things
Like chicken pox and cancer
It told a tale of wedding rings
With true love as the answer

In the story: Prince and Princess
With waving hair a-flowin’
Instead we both went bald
And our asses kept a-growin’
The story told of wonder
And of joys that never end
But true life’s filled with thunder
And surprises round each bend
Romance fills each day
In that foolish lover’s tale
We work, and cry, and pay
And take out the garbage pail
The story claimed each night
Would be awash in lover’s thrills
We bitch, and bicker, and fight
About taking vitamin pills

It took fifteen years to see the fable
A decade and a half to see
The smiling eyes across the table
Still belong to you and me
I guess it took us a while to learn
Life is not what we both dreamed
All our joys and peace we earn
Bad times were better than they seemed

And now I like to think, at last
We’ve laid that story down to rest
Only ghosts remain of dark roads past
And sad shadows fade in the West
So you and I will stand together
Though life may toss us to and fro
There’s many a storm for us to weather
With fifteen down, and a life to go

by JA Coppinger, 2005
All Rights Reserved, etc., etc. . . .