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?
***
My Corner 