Day Forty

Today's words:

Cheese

Banana

Work

Parking Meter

Mess

School

"Say cheese!"

I smiled obligingly, then grabbed a banana

And went back to work.

At one I ran out to feed the parking meter,

And then cut out again, leaving my desk a mess,

To get the kids from school.

I attended the school

Of hard knocks, or as some say, hard cheese.

My life was a mess,

With maybe a banana

To eat all day. I needed to save my change for the parking meter

And everything else was work.

Well that strategy won't work

Anymore. You've got to attend the right school,

Use a credit card for the parking meter,

And make sure you know the provenance of every cheese

You serve. And that banana

Had better be organic. If not, you're just a mess.

My kids know no such mess.

They'll never have to work

Like I did. Or hope to get a banana

For lunch; the school

Provides good food, including fancy cheese,

And the parking meter

Is someone else's problem. I was waiting at the parking meter.

The inside of the car was a mess - 

Pieces of cheese

Smeared into the seat, dropped either by me on the way to work,

Or one of the kids, as an after-school

Snack. And on the floor was a banana

Peel. I took out another banana

As I waited to feed the parking meter

Again. Five more minutes before the end of school,

Then home to clean up the mess

Bound to be waiting for me there. It's no wonder my work

Suffers. I ate another piece of cheese.

I'm tired of cleaning up mashed banana mess

Everywhere, and shuttling all day between the parking meter and work,

While hoping that they'll be OK with an after-school snack of cheese.