The Manicure News Blues

My nails are seldom
A Beautiful sight
But in gardening season
They’re rather a fright

I start out in gloves
But that never works
Bare fingers prove better
To dig in the dirt

Mud-caked and chipped
And forget about polished
A week’s worth of planting
Means ten nails demolished

They get clean eventually
And grow out again
I brush on new polish
They’re okay, but then

Look! Over there
Some weeds are now growing
About that new manicure?
Guaranteed, I’ll be blowing

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Bear Scare

Have made it to
My Vermont summer shack
First wildlife I see?
A bear that was black

He was frolicking (?) on
The road to the store
I walk there daily
There’ll be many more

Walks that is
But bears? Let us hope
He was lost and now’s found
Cuz’ with bears I can’t cope

Garter snakes and deer
The occasional toad
These I expect
On my little dirt road

But bears are too big
With huge teeth and four claws
If I see him again
It will give me great pause

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Not Madison County

Quintessential
Is a big word
For a silly poem
You might think it absurd

But Vermont has so many
Of these everywhere
Quintessential says it
It’s really quite fair

Covered bridges span
Rivers, brooks, and streams
Yes, of these things
The state really teams

To visit a few
We took a long drive
In this land where
Covered bridges thrive

Cows, farms, and woods
Down dirt roads we raced
To get to each bridge
To see where they’re placed

Of course we got lost
That was part of the vision
Of our covered bridges
Motor tour mission

But as these photos attest
We found quite a few
The most fun part of all
Is when you drive through

Wood planks above, below
Sound of water rushing under
Like much of Vermont
It fills me with wonder

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Character Flaws

I‘ve been writing about Cassie
For many a moon
Her character came to me
But not a second too soon

Sometimes a personality
Pops out of thin air
Some characters are easy
But sometimes, I swear

Sometimes they’re stubborn
They hide back in my brain
And refuse to come forward
No matter how I complain

Cassie’s been like that
What makes her tick?
She finally has told me
But like I say, none too quick

Cassie’s been coy
On her background, she’s been shy
I kept writing her anyway
Kept asking her why

Yesterday she finally
Took pity on my plight
She told me all about herself
Much to my delight

So Cassie’s the star
Of this book I am writing
And finally she’s talking to me
Oh, how exciting

I like Cassie a lot
And think you will, too
Her story’s called Unbelievable
I’ll tell you when I’m through

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Hello Vermont

When we get to Vermont
The first thing we do
Is put in our dock
And when we are through
We find the paddles
And hop in the canoe

When we get to Vermont
It’s usually late May
Although I’m a Vermonter
What can I say?
I don’t like cold weather
So until spring I’m away

When we get to Vermont
We sweep out the shack
Scare away the mice
And tell them we’re back
We buy a few groceries
And then we unpack

When we get to Vermont
The lake is unfrozen
A better spot for our shack
We could not have chosen
Got frolicking to do
So this poem I’m closin’

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Life in a Vermont Shack

Summer is
My favorite season
Listen up
To hear the reason

I go to Vermont 
Where I have this shack
Fancy amenities
It sure does lack

This shack of mine
Is on a lake
A setting like that
Ain’t hard to take

On the porch
I sit and sit
Do I get bored?
No, not one bit

The waterfowl
Make me happy
Sometimes I get
Downright sappy

The dock is small
But I like it a lot
In the whole wide world
It’s my favorite spot

Two weeks from now
I’ll pack the car
A very long trip
I’ll travel far

But boy it’s worth
The effort it takes
To get to Vermont
And be at the lake

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Unseasonal

My poem this week’s a little late
Because I couldn’t concentrate
Busy looking at the weather
I couldn’t get my thoughts together
This weekend: Memorial Day
Is supposed to be for summer play
But in Vermont it’s been so cold
That on Saturday it was so bold
As to snow!
So there you go
My concentration was destroyed
But rather than to be annoyed
I decided it was kind of nice
A bit of winter, at least a slice
It’s warming up again today
Back to what you expect in May

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Vermont on the Horizon

It is May, and so that means
I’m figuring out my Vermont schemes

The lake is thawed, our shack is calling
So I tell Hubby, let’s not be stalling

We’ll pack up the car with all our loot
Hubby will plan our two-day route

We can’t go ‘till the coast is clear
By that I mean no frost-warning fear

Like tonight, it will be twenty-seven degrees
The shack has no heat, and I don’t like to freeze

The pipes will freeze, too, if too soon we arrive
And so we postpone that very long drive

Memorial Day should be a good time
Spring comes late to Vermont, but is always sublime

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Why I Love Summer

The sights I see off of my dock,
Let me just sit here and take accurate stock.
Sailboards, and canoes, and kayaks galore
And every other kind of boat, you name it, for sure.

No yachts, but who needs something so big
When one can ski behind a much smaller rig?
Pontoon boats and power boats pull kids all ages and sizes.
Everyone has fun, but no one wins prizes.

The waterfowl need no help staying afloat.
They probably laugh at all of us fools in a boat.
Loons, and merganzers, a gull, and ducks mallard.
It’s the birds that inspired this ridiculous ballard.

The water itself is a fabulous sight
The lake gets all sparkly under brilliant sunlight
And the waterlillies bounce upon the waves so mild
Is it any wonder I’ve loved this place since I was a child?

Salute to William Gilbert

The Pirates of Penzance I did go to see
Gilbert and Sullivan is a definite guarantee
For nonsense to reign and let logic get set free
Just the thing to bring me happiness and glee

Gilbert, the master, could always find a rhyme
For any word or situation, he did it every time
Out of every muddle, mishap, and hill the hero had to climb
Because a sad ending would really be a crime

The stories are ridiculous, the characters are trite
But Mr. Gilbert was never ever any too uptight
To describe every silly saga as a perilous plight
Much to my sheer and thoroughly entertained delight

The silliest stanzas get repeated and repeated
Never, ever, ever would they ever be deleted
Since we the audience would then feel rather cheated
For the show for which we were staying seated

In comparison my own poems are almost somewhat serious
Although I try to make each one extremely cheerious
I could write until my eyes were bloodshot and blearious
And never come up with something quite so downright delirious