A Child Again

To Be a Child Again

T o be a child again!
    whittling a ship shaped from a stick
    walking homeward with a skip
being holiday-wise
    or seeing life from the teeter-
    totter tipsy view
    askew or upside-down for fun
and summer’s done through a hoop
    with a holler
wheedling a dollar for the theatre
    or grubbing in dear dirty earth
shelling peas to thieve the culls
these carrots onions turnips
    eaten raw or else disdained
health maintained precariously
    on a diet of
    crust   mouth full sticky with honey
    busting to be gone
    call on favourite pal
britches torn reaching for thrush’s nest
    in hedgerow
feet wet from leaping ditches—
    not quite
    socks soaking in sun to dry
provoking fights with kid brother
concluding nights
    out like a light

oh if i had my druthers
    to live life again…
what a chance to change
    nothing! but zip! happily
    range the gamut of joys and losses
owing no debt to fate
    except a taste i cannot sate
    and a lively heart like a ship that tosses

©Laurie Ashton, mmi
top

If

If a prince were a frog
  and a frog a prince
  who could tell
what would evince

would a princess arrive
  in a coach and six
  would she tarry and wive
or kick at the pricks

to one she was plighted
  it made no sense: which was which?
might be frog    might be prince
  then again   did they kiss and switch?

©Laurie Ashton, mmv
top

Ode to a Dead Mouse

quashed, repugnant, verminous mouse
  that did unauthorized ransack my house
your territorial rights were nil
  you trespassed and now foot the bill
for damages accrued while tasting
  my best Gruyere acquired on Hasting
s at great expense: you are a dunce
  the Cheddar i’d have happily stood for
and shown you, compensation-wise, the door
  it is by choice, not chance
you are the victim of a circumstan-
tial boot, that crushed you flat
  while full of loot – i cried, “Take that!”

Valedictory

You squirm no more, in state you lie
  with spatula i had to pry
and drape you with the newsprint shroud
  don’t worry, mouse, i’ll do you proud
this moral text i shall recite
  in homage due for your last rite:

>   a gourmand i respect as such
  but Gruyere cheese costs far too much!

©Laurie Ashton, 1998
top