The Basics

Now that I'm old and widowed
I meet up with my kind,

and all those single ladies

are of a single mind.

All their immaculate houses

quite put mine to shame.

In Domestic Goddessry,

they're at the top of their game.

"I don't want Help," they tell me;

"It gives me something to do."

They wait expectantly,

quite sure I'll say this too.

But I'm a weirdo poet

and live a different life.

I like my house OK

but I am not its wife.

We all get back to basics

our own ways, I suppose.

I should pay more attention

to vacuum and garden hose.

But needing something to do

that badly fills me with horror.

I have poems to write —
the dishes can wait till tomorrow.

April PAD Challenge 2014, day 21: back to basics

(Also back to basics poetically, with the loose ballad-like form)