! Lights up on the garden. Sheila, elbows in the earth, sings to
@ Nancy, her oldest daughter, from her first marriage.
# Thea, Sheila’s mother, sleeps on the porch swing.
% Benny, a mute, stares at the sun. He tears up.
^ Carla, Sheila’s fat sister, hums along with Sheila’s song.
& Taffy draws a picture in the dirt with a short stick.
* Edna pulls dandelions even though her eyesight is bad.
( “Bulldog,” Sheila’s youngest child trims the hedges with intense excitement.
) Bustimante brings out the lemonade. He shakes the tray; he seems nervous.
_ And Pete, let’s not forget Pete, Sheila’s current husband, he paints the whole picture on some canvas. He loves:
+ Dolly Parton.

~~~

! Like the exotic parrot mask she's wearing, she's a bit wing tipsy.
@ Soaking one foot in the lotus pool while painting her toenails bright blue.
# She's got that dream realizer hooked up to her, blaring interference!
% His sunflower costume has a bib to catch his tears.
^ Munching candied hibiscus flowers and large lavender cookies.
& Simultaneously it's projected on the garden wall marked explicit.
* Pulls and eats each dreamily, in time with Sheila's song.
( Signals the neighbors to bring their ladders right up to the hedge.
) This pitcher is artist made blown glass and shaped like an exotic flower.
_ Got that one projected on the line drying pink silk bedsheet king size of course:
+ And everyone's figure is magnified by 2.

~~~

!Look-ing Bet-ter than a Bod-y has a right to...
@Love it, Mama. Love it. You sing so good! Look at my toes! This color is called Cobaltic Sea.
#I take turns with Anastasia. We circle Anne Frank's house. Amelia flies our sky.
%
^Cookies are never out of tune.
&Look, Pete. Looks like a crop circle.
*You know each stem has one-sixteenth of an ounce of milk?
(Joe! Jim! Juniper! Hurry up with them footstools!
)Squeeeeeezed fresh!
_Yep, might be a crop circle.
+An' here I go!

~~~

!can it be? (she suddenly hears herself).
@dramatic music from somewhere is turned up loud as she lifts her foot high,
giant lotus balanced upon it as if the time has come.
#turn down the volume her propellers are roaring!
%mama sings "wring out his bib" and Nancy reaches over obligingly, flowerfoot in air.
^Carla covers both ears with huge round scalloped edge cookies, rocks back and forth in time...
&Taffy! that's not where you should put it!
*Edna's rhythmically spitting out dandelion heads one by one. ( How could she?)
(Neighbors heads perched expectantly, all with video cameras.
)he begins to lemon water the cat.
_Pete's in the pink bedsheet oooh striptease anyone?
+I'm meditating (who said that???)

12/05/2007

Author's Note: first stanza by David Gardner, then alternating, mine his mine We had so much fun collaborating, that we decided we did not want to stop! I love his poem Trigorin, so I asked if we could do a pattern/play like that, our own characters, not Chekov's so... here we go!

Posted on 12/05/2007
Copyright © 2024 Kathleen Wilson