"Seven bums and fourteen legs,
a brazen ecstasy which begs
the question some of us are asking -
is Peter Goulding multi-tasking?"

Martin Parker, Editor, Lighten Up Online

Sunday, August 7, 2011

I miss that old tree

I haven't been sampling the Poetry Jam for a while through holidays and an unforeseen and un-get-out-of-able bout of painting and decorating but this week I see the incredibly talented Chris of Enchanted Oak fame is stirring the mixture, so I'll throw this tearful eulogy about an enchanted tree of my own in for good measure. For more substantial poetical ingredients, follow the linky yoke here

I miss that old tree at the end of the street,
which afforded us shade in the dull summer heat,
that flung its leaves gaily when autumn did blow
and shivered when branches were laden with snow.

I miss that old tree, where we once carved our names
and hid from each other in long, childhood games.
And sat in the branches and secretly smoked,
the wisps of tobacco so cleverly cloaked.

I miss that old tree, where I’d meet my first love
as sparrows and chaffinches twittered above,
where night time goodbyes lasted almost till dawn
and sexual awakening was clumsily born.

‘Twas a terrible storm on the night it came down,
the lightning forked wildly o’er this part of town.
The crash was heard widely, we all rushed outside
to witness the moment that tree of ours died.

Beneath its great trunk, my poor, flattened wife lay,
crushed at the wheel of her Honda Coupé.
Oh yes, ‘twas a terrible moment for me
and still, two years later, I miss that old tree.

10 comments:

  1. Oh Peter you are hilarious. Here I thought you were going to be SERIOUS for a change :)

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  2. Blogger just ate my comment.
    If I were your wife, I'd have a complex for all the times you killed me off in a poem. The poor gal has croaked how many times now? At least you kill her well. Each time, it's a little masterpiece of rhythm and rhyme.

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  3. Thanks for the experience of reading this -- moving along stanza to stanza, serious, nodding and then coming to the last stanza and suddenly finding a gigantic laugh behind my seriously closed lips that then erupted out!

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  4. OMG ... I wasn't expecting that ending twist! Quite the poem, Pete!

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  5. I thought it was a serious one too, till the end - what a wicked man you are - brilliant rhyming of flattened wife lay and Honda Coupé!

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  6. Yes, lulled into a false sense of seriousity here as well... you are a master of surprise and boldness Peter!

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  7. Many thanks for the kind comments. Are you not all waiting for the punch line at this stage?
    Yes, my wife does tend to get rubbed out quite a lot. Good job I don't go in for psychoanalysis!
    Blogger says I don't have the authority to post on my own blog, so I'll have to remain anonymous
    Pete

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  8. OMG! I was thinking "Wait! He's writing a serious poem?!! It's not funny. What's up?" I should have known. You're a stinker.

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  9. i feel you on this...we had a large tree at the end of my parents property that had to be cut down about 2 years ago...lots of memories...it was close to 4 foot across at the base...but never dropped it on my wife...smiles.

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  10. u-huh!
    some day you will indeed write a serious poem and we will all not believe you. In the meantime, great fun!

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