Spring has arrived, and soon, we’ll have to start thinking about mowing our lawns. Today, I’m posting the following poem in response to two bloggers’ challenges.
The first comes from The WordPress.com Blog, which recently started offering monthly word prompts. This month’s word is “green.”
The second challenge comes from Stevie Turner, who suggests we post a poem or story on our blogs and link to her site as part of her new feature, Friday Write.
This poem was published several years ago in Serendipity Poets Journal. You can click on the title to hear me read it. Enjoy!
GREEN LAWN
by Abbie Johnson Taylor
Copyright 2013.
As a child of five or six,
I watched Mother push the mower
back and forth across the grass.
Afterward, I ran, rolled, drank in the scent.
We moved to a succession of houses,
each with its own lawn,
graduated to a power mower.
As a teenager, my younger brother mowed the lawn.
“You missed this corner here,
that section there,” Mother said.
In my adult years, I use a lawn care service.
Every corner and section is neat
with not a blade of grass out of place.
New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me
Copyright 2021 by Abbie Johnson Taylor.
Independently published with the help of DLD Books.
Sixteen-year-old Natalie’s grandmother, suffering from dementia and confined to a wheelchair, lives in a nursing home and rarely recognizes Natalie. But one Halloween night, she tells her a shocking secret that only she and Natalie’s mother know. Natalie is the product of a one-night stand between her mother, who is a college English teacher, and another professor.
After some research, Natalie learns that people with dementia often have vivid memories of past events. Still not wanting to believe what her grandmother has told her, she finds her biological father online. The resemblance between them is undeniable. Not knowing what else to do, she shows his photo and website to her parents.
Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.
Her younger sister, Sarah, senses their parents’ marital difficulties. At Thanksgiving, when she has an opportunity to see Santa Claus, she asks him to bring them together again. Can the jolly old elf grant her request?
***
I quite like mowing our lawn. Now that a lawn care service sprays grass feed 4 times a year I’m out there more often.
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Hi, Stevie. I’m glad you enjoy mowing your lawn. With my limited vision, I doubt I’d do a very good job.
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Great poem. I love the grass after it’s been freshly mown and so does my big Blue Dog.
However, the people they got to mow our lawns here in our apartment community did a lousy job so we’re hoping for better results from whomever they replace them with.
I sent them info on my old landscapers as they did a grand job.
Bubba Dog used to lay and watch them out the window and before they could back their truck out of the back turnaround he’d be at the door asking to go out and sniff each blade.
LOL.
What fun memories.
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Well, Patty, with my limited vision, if I were to mow my own lawn, I’d probably have similar results. I hope your apartment complex can get better landscaping services.
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Well in the meantime the grass is quite lush 🙂 so maybe this will be better for it in the end have a superb day
Patty Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works as an author and social media marketing assistant. Learn more at: http://www.pattysworlds.com
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