On January 12th of this new year, one of the members of the neighborhood community page to which I belong started a trend on the social media site. She challenged the other members of the page to help dispel the winter blahs by writing a haiku. (Editor’s note: a haiku is Japanese style short poem consisting of three lines, with 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables.) She started with this bit of Internet plagiarism:
Winter Haiku
I wake, reluctant;
Too cold to get out of bed
But I need to pee.
I picked up her gauntlet and submitted this:
Cold, Dogs, Nose
The winter winds blow:
Bundled neighbors walk their dogs.
Snot flows from my nose.
The page lit up as other community members submitted their poetry. All the haikus were rollicking and humorous, touching on our favorite topics: Missing pets, gunshots, fireworks, and catalytic converter thefts. My neighbor dominated the page with almost 20 submissions. Then, the “OP” (original poster) swerved onto limerick lane. (Editor’s note: a limerick is a rhyming poem of five lines — 3 long and 2 short — with a rhyme scheme of a/a/b/b/a. Limericks are usually naughty.) Once again, yours truly took the handoff (wait: mixing metaphors, here) and submitted a limerick that I wrote for a friend. I’ll not recount it here, as the subject matter is about 4/20, which is apparently a drug reference. My friend’s birthday is on April 20th, and my yearly limericks for her are (ahem) “loaded” with references to that drug.
My neighbor, who is always out for blood — no, really: She is looking for blood donors to show up at the Versiti Blood Donor Center of Indiana on February 4th, 2023 – created a limerick that named me and my youngest granddaughter:
We have a neighbor named CJ
With Myah he practices horseplay,
He smiles quite a lot
And sings, resting not
As he joyfully passes our driveway.
The neighborhood poetry was a welcome change from the usual posts, and I imagine that the administrator of the page was amused and pleased: She did not have to post the “rules of engagement” (page rules) for the nine-thousandth time. All the participants maintained the spirit of the posts, and it seemed that a good time was had by all.
April is National Poetry Month and each year on my own social media page, I post a poem a day. Some of the poetry is mine, but most of the poems come from the weighty tomes that bend my bookshelves. Little of the poetry I post is as light-hearted as the haikus and limericks that wondrously set afire our social media community page, and I am grateful to the “original poster” for her suggestion.
And thanks to all who submitted, for your poetry made everyone chuckle.
cjon3acd@att.net