Ponyville & Other Poems

by AugieDog

24 - Covered in Tree Sap (rondeau redouble')

Covered in tree sap with legs intertwined,
Friendship undimmed since the last time we met,
Laughing like lunatics. Decades unwind;
Ours is a force with the strength of a jet.

Life has unrolled like we dreamed it, and yet
Nothing compares to the joy that we find,
Husbands at home, as we crash soaking wet,
Covered in tree sap with legs intertwined.

Letters we sent every day undermined
All of time's efforts to make us forget.
Loving our foals, but we won't leave behind
Friendship undimmed since the last time we met.

Months in advance, how we plan and we fret,
Scheduling triple vacations designed
Carefully. Older, we still don't regret
Laughing like lunatics. Decades unwind.

Out on the porch at the Acres reclined,
Humming a melody, making a bet,
Stories retold keep the legends enshrined:
Ours is a force with the strength of a jet.

Still, there's the call of the new bassinet;
Jobs, obligations, the sweet ties that bind
Can't stop Crusaders! We're always a threat,
Shaking the world from its dull, daily grind,
Covered in tree sap.

Author's Note:

This one started out as a virelai nouveau, but halfway through, it dawned on me that, to keep strictly to the form, I was gonna need about 30 different words to rhyme with "find." So I did a quick remix, shuffled most of the lines I'd already written into the gentler pattern of the rondeau redouble', and lived happily ever after till the next one.

Comments

[Lurks-no-More]

You know, this is probably the most optimistic thing I've read in a while. Old friendships and a love of mischief and adventure, existing in harmony with family, motherhood and adult life.

Also, tree sap.

[AugieDog]

5010473

Thanks!

And yes: it's all about the tree sap. Well, all right, it'd be more accurate to say that it's mostly about the tree sap.

Mike

[Silver Scrolls]

Ever since i stumbled onto this i have loved it. I'm not a poetry nit but i do enjoy some good poetry and these are always nice. Keep up the good work, yer doing something i have never been able to get the hang of

[TheJediMasterEd]

"IS DIS DA FAMOUS CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CLUBHOUSE?"

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Escanaba_in_da_moonlight.JPG

(Da heartwarmin' story of how da Buckless Yooper got his cutie mark firs' buck.)

"Ppppthhht!--maple syrup!" It's ALL maple syrup!..."

[AugieDog]

5013007

Thanks!

I've always been a fan of "light verse," Ogden Nash and Dr. Seuss and all that, so I'm having a great time putting these things together.

5018827

The Upper Peninsula is a place I've only heard whispered about on the winds of legend, actually. And if they've got maple syrup, well, that makes it even more legendarious!

Mike

[TheJediMasterEd]

5026891

I've actually been there and you know, it's a place worth visiting.

I lived in Grand Rapids (dat's da glove) one summer on a contract job and it was great: I could get off work, collect my dog, drive out to Muskegon State Park and walk on the beach for an hour or more, have dinner then drive back and be home before dark. Pictured Rocks made for a nice long weekend: crossed Lake Michigan on the SS. Badger (a coal fired steamer, no less!), stayed in Munising, came back across Da Bridge.

There is a place on the Pictured Rocks shore that looks like something from one of those old Yes album covers by Roger Dean:

everymilesamemory.com/images/Pictured%20Rocks%204.JPG

Yeah, that's a tree growing on a rock tripod with nothing under it.

How does it do that? I approached from the landward side: the taproot grows back over a natural arch to the mainland. Clever! Cleverer still, for a tree.

(Okay, my memory failed for a bit but the picture reminded me: the natural bridge collapsed a few years back, but the taproot remained. You can see it on the left side of the picture--it's casting a strong shadow on the landward rock face).

[PresentPerfect]

Haah, that's really nice. :)