Day Ninety-six

Today's words:

Help

Mustard

University

Gate

Meadow

Lane

I can't help

It; I put mustard

On everything. It started when I was at university.

We'd hang out in a pub near the west gate

And sometimes picnic in the meadow

Down the lane.

Once, walking down the lane,

I can upon a man asking for help.

He said he'd been picnicking in the meadow

And had left his mustard

Behind. He asked me to go back on campus through the gate

And bring him a jar from the university.

The university

Was at the other end of the lane

And you had to pass through the gate

To enter. It was off-limits to outsiders; that's why he needed my help.

But I couldn't understand why he just didn't go back to get his mustard

From the meadow

If he'd left it there. I guess he felt the meadow

Was farther away than the university

At that point so he hoped to get a new jar of mustard

From someone he met in the lane

Who would help

Him by going through the gate

To get it. But I wasn't heading for the gate.

I was going towards the meadow.

In order to help

Him I'd have to go back to the university

And go the other way down the lane.

And all for a jar of mustard.

But the pub had mustard

And was right outside the gate

Just a short distance down the lane.

Rather than go back to the meadow

Or oblige me to go back to the university

I advised him to go there for help.

It was hardly my fault he'd left his mustard in the meadow.

I wasn't going back through the gate and into the university.

So I left him there in the lane. He'd have to ask someone else for help.