Realistic Reflections
Mirror, mirror, tell me truly:
Do I still have charm to tempt?
Are these locks downright unruly,
Or, maybe, “pleasantly unkempt”?
Are these eyes that one may drown in,
Or just heavy-lidded puddles?
Will these wrinkle lines from frownin’
Hinder me from winning cuddles?
Can I arch just one brow slyly,
Cast a spell by well-timed wink?
How about I simper shyly—
Would that drive’em to the brink?
Okay, mirror, just be truthful:
Let’s cut short such triviality—
I must rely, no longer youthful,
On my winning personality.
Vanity Fair
Though vanity can cost a pretty penny,
I’d rather have good looks than not have any.
—
While vanity may be a vice,
It’s hard to beat for motivating,
And its incentive may suffice
To keep my fitness escalating.
—
These pushups and planks aren’t making me thinner;
Perhaps I might need smaller portions of dinner.
A Pennsylvania native now residing in Colorado, Anna J. Arredondo is an engineer by education, a home educator by choice, and by preference, a poet. She also has poems published (or forthcoming) in The Lyric, Time of Singing, Light, Blue Unicorn, Better Than Starbucks, and WestWard Quarterly.
Your winning personality shone through, Anna.
So many intricate, well thought out rhymes and turns of phrase.
Thanks for the reads.
Anna, these are both delightful poems that are reflective of aging and coping with the changes in life. The first one I perceive was inspired by “Mirror, mirror on the wall…”
These are perfect examples of what “light verse” is supposed to be — delightful, humorous, impish in its rhymes, and short. Such light verse used to be a staple of popular poetry, and would appear both in newspapers and magazines, as well as in books. This was before modernism came along, and put poetry into a hairshirt.
“Realistic Reflections” is perfect in its tetrameter quatrains, and the general trochaic meter. “Vanity Fair” is really three small squibs, and each one could stand alone as a jewel.
Thank you, Mr. Salemi, for the high praise. I enjoy light verse, and it is nice to have landed in a place where it is still appreciated.
I have a fair number of short little pieces stored up that I think of as “vignettes” or epigrams, and had been looking for a way to share them since they don’t seem to stand alone. I figured grouping them under a common theme would work, and I’m glad it was deemed successful. I’m also glad to have a new word to refer to these little bits of verse — squibs. Thank you, I like that.
Anna, I love your “Vanity Fair” sequence.
Arredondo is very good at this thing most of us like to do with words, and clearly her “dry spell” in the recent past should be regarded as a gestation period. Once her eggs hatch, a virtual literary Easter is upon us.
C.B., such pithy comments from you convince me that it’s worth it to stay in the ring and keep trying; at the same time I feel admonished to never dare give up!
I had been returning over and over to the thought that my mental ground has been lying fallow. Your ovicular metaphor had me chuckling and feeling flattered. Thanks for egging me on! Who knows, I may be the next Mother Goose… 😉
Better Mother Goose than the Golden Goose.
Forsooth. Of all the lines I have read that are attributed to the fabled Mother Goose, these are my favorite:
“For every ailment under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none.
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.”
Thank you all for your kind words! I’m glad you have found these pieces enjoyable and relatable.
Anna, I enjoyed reading both of your poems. The first one might be my favorite from both, but also like the other. Thanks for sharing.
Handing readers a mirror always multiplies reflections, Anna. Winning verses!