Grandpa Will Getcha

Okay, so maybe I'm rushing the season a bit ... or maybe not ... I do seem to be bumping into a lot of pumpkins these days ... in and around the stores where I stroll on my daily walks.
Halloween just seems to come earlier each year.
One of these years, I suppose, it will be combined with our observance of New Year's Day.

Be that as it may ... this poem, based on an early frightening experience, is further evidence of why I write very few rhyming poems – and perhaps shouldn't attempt any.
I keep telling friends and fellow writers that I find it very difficult to advance the story line while maintaining even a semblance of meter and rhyme. It's true. So true.

To borrow a phrase, it's hard work. Really hard work.
But, with much labor in this instance, the dirty deed was done. The poem was sent out to mingle with strangers, found a friend at one magazine, and was published.
The poem:


GRANDPA WILL GETCHA
It was a dark Halloween night

With nary a goblin in sight,
No place to go, nothin' to do.
Where to turn, I hadn't a clue.

But wait! My brain just clicked on:

SOAP A FEW WINDOWS flicked on,
And quickly it was bar to pane,
Making abstract strokes, in the main.

Then, looking in, what did I see?
My Grandpa, looking out at me.
No little smile did he bestow
As he swiftly took me in tow.

So with a pail and a wet sponge
My fine art I had to expunge
Till the windows were far cleaner
Than they had been. My demeanor?

Subdued now. A tad smarter, too:
Soaping our own was dumb, it's true,
And getting caught was SO SCARY

The next time I was more wary.

© 1997

(originally published in Parnassus Literary Journal)

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Today's word: scary