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)

Witch Disappointed

Oh she put on her goddess gown —

purple it was, and black —

in order to dance for the Equinox

at the Castle down the track.

And she put on her crystal point —

she hung it around her neck —

to go and chant for the Equinox

at Uki Castle, by heck.

And she put on her fine Spring cloak  —

the sun appliquéd on its back —

because she would feast the Equinox

with her friends  … but alas, alack!

She turned the key; the car was dead.

She could curse and she could hex

but it would not take her down to Uki

to celebrate Equinox.

And brooms don’t fly as fast as cars —

isn’t that a thing to vex?

And so it’s quiet and solitary here
that she keeps this Equinox.

True story! Submitted for dVerse Form For All: Ballads.