Poem for a number called "?"

[Manna]

Poem for a number called "?"

Maggie has lost count.
she looks at her fingers.
she knows there's a number
for each of them and her toes too.

the chorus chants
start with one! start with
one!

Maggie shakes her widow's head
and overpowers them with her quiet.
no, she whispers,
that's not it. not right.
it's my fingers who've lost count.

[lizzytysh]

This is very touching, Manna.


~ Lizzy

[che]

Do you say Lizzy this is touching because is about the woman fingers?

[lizzytysh]

Hi Che ~ Ha-ha. Another pun passes me by... unfortunately, no... dang it!


~ Lizzy

[Manna]

I forgot it could be touching. I wrote it to be funny. Maggie knows why it's funny.

[lizzytysh]

I don't know Maggie, or who she even is, so I can see how it could be funny to the two of you or more who know both of you... yet, not to me. The picture I got from it was entirely different. It seems to have served two purposes well.


~ Lizzy

[~greg]

Poem for a number called "?"

Maggie has lost count.
she looks at her fingers.
she knows there's a number
for each of them and her toes too.

the chorus chants
start with one! start with
one!

Maggie shakes her widow's head
and overpowers them with her quiet.
no, she whispers,
that's not it. not right.
it's my fingers who've lost count.

Up to "widow's head" I thought this was a poem about an infant.
So then I assumed that "widow's head" had to be some kind of
old fashioned expression,- such as only my aunt's aunts, and Manna,
would ever use.

My Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 15th ed, 1995,
does not have an entry for "window's head". But it does have
an entry for "widow's peak": ---a V-shaped point of hair
over the forehead, reminiscent of the front cusp of the cap
formerly worn by widows.

And since I could vaguely remember the image of an infant
in some ad who had no hair at all, other than a tiny little
V-shaped tuft of blond hair at the front, it seemed to me
that everything was going along copaceticly.

Until it occured to me that maybe Maggie might actually be a widow!

And since she isn't senile (- since Manna said it's funny,
and that would not be funny) - she had to be drunk.

Which left just the question as to what it was she was trying to count.

But that could only have been all her dead husbands.

~~

This "black widow" theme has been done very frequently
in the movies. But not so much in poems. Which is a
pity, since it's a delightful subject, at least for those of us
who are finally safely out of marriage.

~~


Or maybe "widow's head" is a play on "maiden's head"?
Or ....

But I don't know.
And I don't know if it would be better to nail this down, or not.

I think that the poem can stand up to be nailed down.
But it can stand up to be being left up in the air, too.
Either way, it's good.

~~

ps: Counting certainly does reside in the fingers!!!!!
Just as chords do. As anyone who plays the banjo knows.

[Manna]

Well, Approximately Greg, you've left me approximately stumped.
It is always very tempting for me to disclose the rising of a poem.
It's a bit of a vice for me, tends to arouse my pride.
Like with many vices,
I have been feeling lately that I should try to relax it a bit.
Once you decide if I should nail you down or not, let me know.
Until then, suffer without nails.

[Casey Butler]

Well, Approximately Greg, you've left me approximately stumped.
It is always very tempting for me to disclose the rising of a poem.
It's a bit of a vice for me, tends to arouse my pride.
Like with many vices,
I have been feeling lately that I should try to relax it a bit.
Once you decide if I should nail you down or not, let me know.
Until then, suffer without nails.

Someday I'll see your pride aroused...

That's exactly why I keep asking, "How long?"