Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Monday, March 21, 2022

Two Little Butts

Today, for Poetry Monday,  we salute poetry!
The rhythm. The rhyme. The emotion.
At times, the silliness!
And what better way could there be to salute poetry than by...writing...poetry.
Here, then is my most popular poem from the past 12 years of blogging...

Our family was ‘raised on the stage’. And for a few wonderful years before Covid, I realized the dream of having my grandchildren follow in their parents’ footsteps.
This poem was written as we wrapped ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ in 2017.

Their parents were all in the cast or backstage,
Their grandparents, too, with the play were engaged.
Two little girls in the large gallery,
Two last little sprigs on their family’s tree,
Had grown bored with the play they had seen from Day One.
That first day was great! The rest, not so fun.
They’d watched scenes through first blocking and all incarnations,
Knew all of the songs and heard all the Orations.
And while those in the room were still fixed on the show,
Running sound and effects. Lights above and below,
Two little girls weren’t attentive at all,
They wanted to run. They wanted to crawl.
They did not want to sit in their chairs quietly,
They wanted to dance, laugh and giggle. Times three.
But Grampa, just sitting there, manning the lights,
Had to keep ‘shushing’ his two little mites.
And then in an effort to give them a scare,
Vowed to tape their two little butts to their chairs.
Two little girls sat down quietly then,
But those silly old wiggles soon started again.
And then Grampa, still working the lighting board’s keys
Heard a sweet little voice, and it said, "Grampa, please—
We’ve done all that mom sent for we two to share,
Grampa, please, could you tape both our butts to the chair?"
Every day we learn something, and today, here is one:
When is a threat not a threat? When it’s fun!
Photo Credit: Karen of bakinginatornado.com
Cause Mondays do get knocked a lot,
With poetry, we all besought
To try to make the week begin
With gentle thoughts,
Perhaps a grin?
So KarenCharlotteMimi, me
Have crafted poems for you to see.
And now you’ve read what we have wrought…
Did we help?
Or did we not?

Next week we promise won’t be flat,
Our topic is ‘Respect Your Cat’!

Thinking of joining us for Poetry Monday?
We'd love to welcome you!
Topics for the next few weeks (with a huge thank-you to Mimi, who comes up with so many of them!)...

Celebrating Poetry (March 21) Today!
Respect Your Cat Day (March 28) (Richard II's 1384 edict forbidding eating them.)
Imperfection (April 4)

Pets (April 11)

Juggling (April 18)

Brothers (April 25)

Babies (May 2)

Music (May 9)

Purple for Peace (May 16)

Turtles (May 23)

Memorial Day (May 30)

Yo-yo (June 6)
Roller Coaster (June 13)
World Refugee Day (June 20)
The Happy Birthday song (June 27)

7 comments:

  1. I've never tried to do that. To my own or my grandchildren. But these two have each other and the shannagans is outright fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always love visiting on Mondays! You're poetry is the best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So cute. Sounds like Grandpa was busy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fun that your whole family is into theatre.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Never did that to my son, but it (or something similar) was sure tempting at times!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Heeheehee! Precious little girls, to call his bluff. Happy World Poetry Day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello, Diane - I am finally able to comment easily here once again! This is a great poem and those two little granddaughters sound very sweet :)

    ReplyDelete

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