Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Old Fashioned

I'm old fashioned, so people tell me.
I wear a wide brimmed feathered hat when the weather turns nice,
and I eat ice cream from a silver bowl,
as unhurried as a house cat.

I don't drive--
I stay by the side of the road, wearing my high button boots
and a sash of deep sky blue.
There are cirrus clouds that move faster than I do.
I like to watch them and give them names
like Gwendolyn, Lillian, and Marguerite.

Come calling, one of these days.
The glider on the wrap around porch has seemed poorly balanced to me;
it turns street-side by itself, as if to look for you,
when all I want to do is to listen to the bees in the honeysuckle or the catmint,
and to fan myself as I read my Emily Dickinson.

I'm old fashioned, that's the rumor.
Maybe that's why I hold my tongue and shade my eyes,
only dropping my reserve around Rose, the old calico.
She knows your ways,
because hers are the same.
So, if I'm patient and rub underneath her chin in exactly the right way,
she'll rumble and spill.

Pussy will undo you, like fingers pulling pink ribbons.
That's when I'll spring and make you mine, the old fashioned way--
believe me, little bird,
mark my words!
________

Concocted from a scrap of comment I made at Verse Escape, about something entirely different. Sometimes my imagination takes off without me!

 

18 comments:

  1. I'd love to see that hat. But I did enjoy this vision of feline grace and deviousness, all tangled up like a ball of yarn with spring and love. And your word play..ahem...is excellent. For some reason that third stanza really seems alive for me, and the fourth has my favorite lines--the last four. If I were not a goat, even I might purr.

    Dinah Shore??? Who knew she was so smooth.

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  2. Oh, if only I knew the correct interpretation of this piece. There are a few ways I could read into this. I must now retire and mull it over in my head...

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  3. I love these character driven story poems... and it is fun to imagine ALL the ways this little sweet piece could be imagined. :)

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  4. What a wordy vixen you are!
    But at least you tried..... :P
    Pussy will undo you!!!

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  5. You are so damned brilliant. How do you come up with something like this, as if Emily whispered it into your ear: The glider on the wrap around porch has seemed poorly balanced to me;
    it turns street-side by itself, as if to look for you,
    ?

    Loved the naming of cirrus clouds, especially because one of my favorite cats ever, a great love of mine, was named Cirrus (she was purr white, and a wisp of a thing).

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  6. The playfulness of this--or at least I thought there was one hilarious play on words--was quite entertaining.

    Only you, Shay, could write a poem with an old feel to it, and make it so relevant and today at the same time.

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  7. how totally entertaining with such fun word play.

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  8. What a beautiful cat! I couldn't guess where any of your inspiration comes from on any given day, but the poetry is always a sublime experience.

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  9. "Come calling, one of these days." For me, the poem really came to life from this point on. I love the second half. The whole poem is excellent --- the build-up, the cover-up, the illusion. But what I found most fascinating was the revelation of the life she held beneath her tongue and behind her eyes. How about a follow-up poem about the "you" being waited for? Maybe from her perspective?

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  10. Shades of Shay ... last stanza ~ unbelievable! (believable :)

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  11. This is just . . . grand. Yes, that's the word for it.

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  12. Shay! I am a cat person and appreciated all the cat "ways" you mentioned. I'm also old-fashioned as per manners being important and swearing in public being verboten.

    But, sister, that last paragraph turned the whole thing... on its ear? Is that the right part of anatomy? LOL Loved this! You go! Amy

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  13. Such a beautiful cat. I am much too loud and I don't think there is much old fashioned in me. I think with what life brought me I had to morph to many times into whatever it took to survive. Lovely work as always!

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  14. The most stylish "old fashioned" person I know, Shay. :)

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  15. here kitty, kitty......

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