Here is the latest installment of Poet’s Corner, presented by the Edmonds-based EPIC Poetry Group.

The Trouble With Leprechauns

I’m having a hard time with leprechauns

Lately

 

As a little kid, their stories

Lit me up with excitement

Made me laugh and wonder

And maybe feel a bit of fear

They were so funny, unusual

And strange

 

When my own kids were little

And thrilled by just about everything

Always rolling around on the floor

And squealing in utter delight

They loved Lucky Charms cereal on

“Saturday Daddyday”

 

I’d roust them from their cozy beds

Change a diaper if absolutely necessary

Carry all three in their fuzzy little sleepy suits

Plunk them down on our red-and-black-and-white checked couch

In what was truly a family room

On those precious mornings

 

Our small TV would light up with crazy cartoons

As we dove into our bowls

Brimming with sugary, unhealthy, delightful

Wonderfulness

All of it overseen by that goofy, musical leprechaun

Lucky

 

Now, years and thousands of cereal boxes later

I alone chase him, week after futile week,

My bowl ever-empty at the end of his neon rainbows

No Lucky for me in a single glittering casino

 

I count my wealth in millions

Of sugar-sweet Saturday morning memories

Tom Fortin

~ ~ ~ ~

78 Revisited

That’s 78 Revolutions Pour Moi

Round and round my beloved sun

Daytimes full of light and laughter

Nighttimes full of moonshine wonder

 

Old enough to know what 78’s were all about

Big old shellac platters

Spinning like crazy

Shiny trays magically serving up music

 

Not too old to welcome new twists

On bygone things

Some would call me retro

I prefer “new-fashioned”

 

Call it what you will

There’s a zillion newfangled things out there

Some baffling, some amusing

All of them demanding patience

 

So I’ll spin happily, patiently around again

Hanging on for my dear life

Keeping my balance, counting my blessings

Laughing and loving until I’m unplugged

Tom Fortin

~~~~

Ice Cracks

Ice is icky

Sleek and tricky

No matter how you slice it

 

Find it in your parking lot?

You got trouble

Picking your way in the dark?

No easy stroll in the park

Splat! It’s your pratfall

And you’re not laughing

 

Ah, but at the ice arena

That’s the scene

For ice-raised, ice-trained, ice-friendly folks

Arctic dervishes

Who love to twirl round and round

Curlers, too, who launch their sleek rocks

Then glide and sweep away like mad

All the time singing out

Complicated directions

 

And the hockey people? Nuts!

Slashing, icing, boarding, fighting

Mayhem on blades

Care to join them?

Do so at your peril

Tom Fortin

~  ~ ~ ~ ~

About the poet:

I’m a longtime, retired high school and community college teacher with plenty of time now for “Fooling with Words.” My active interest in creating my own poetry was launched by that Bill Moyers-titled PBS series in 1998. And lately I enjoy becoming more public with my poetic attempts.

I love my present Lynnwood/Edmonds/Sno-King life. The vibrant artistic climate surrounding us here today fills my heart — and my poetic spirit — to overflowing.