Word Salad and Ladder Safety.

Just killing time I should be spending on bigger projects...

The scene was dark at Lily's pad,
The sunlit sky unseen.
No blossoms opened up that day,
Upon her roof so green,
All dropped their heads to mourn and pray,
All dressed and pressed and clean.

On Thursday from the week before,
Her daddy made the call.
"My darling daughter, pride and joy,
Ensconced within these halls,
Could you go outside and shoo boy,
Who is sitting on the wall?

"He mopes and pines and sighs and stays,
And it's bringing me right down.
Please tell the boy to go away,
Because no one likes sad clowns."
She looked outside and sure as days,
He lurked, she noted with a frown.

Outside her castle, called Oaktree
From gardens miles round,
Up on the roof were planted three
Types of lilies from the ground.
And when the sun shone happily,
Their petals flurried down.

"Hey you, depressing boy, get off our Garden wall!
My daddy says you have to go
Climb down slow, so you don't fall."
"Lady Lily, as you say it so
A glance from you was what I sought at all."
He descended, and cheerfully did go.

Now when she came into her home,
Her father looked at her askance.
"I sent you from our flowered dome,
In hopes that you might take a chance,
But now the boy who sought you roams,
On feet with which you should have danced."

"Oh Daddy dear, I didn't get
The plan within your head.
I'm so obtuse, that when I met
The boy to shoo, the way you said,
I told him shoo, not stay, not yet,
And now he's gone instead.

"Could I ask next time you have a plan,
You share an outline of the scheme?
With bullet points, times new roman,
Powerpoint. Would that be too extreme?
That way I don't shoo, as asked, a man
You hoped upon my eye could gleam."

"I hear your words and tone my dear,
And love your dry sarcastic wit,
If only your mind were quite so clear
When you dismissed the boy, you twit.
The milk is spilled, no point in tears,
That boy obviously wasn't it.

"But now I must ascend the rungs
Of the ladder in the yard,
Your namesake plant on the roof done
Made the gardening quite hard.
Go find my hopes, far as they're flung;
Or just go shopping, here's a card."

So armed with credit, and a clear mandate
She made a beeline for the stores.
The sales that day weren't all that great,
So she wandered, slightly bored.
And then she saw a dude named Nate,
Who set her heart's compass to explore.

She thought him handsome, kind, and trig,
Though she knew him not at all,
His hair was cut, his arms were big,
Her mind went blank, he was so tall.
"If you'll be my guinea pig,
I'll be your hamster ball..."

"I don't know what that means," said Nate
In a manner not quite unkind,
"Is it a stroke? Do you hallucinate?
Do you need medications for your mind?"
That wasn't how she meant to state
the embrace she had in mind

"Buttered snails with wine and bread?"
Was her attempt at dinner invitation
Word salad were all the words she said,
To her growing humiliation.
Her face went pale, and then went red
Palms wet from palpitations.

"Please stay right here and I'll be back
With a doctor", Nate told her as he ran.
But she didn't stay, she made fast tracks
the other way, past the trinket stands.
Past the parking lot so black,
Back to where this tale began.

The walls and roof, of safe Oaktree
Came into view beyond the hill
as she ran dementedly.
she passed the gate, no longer thrilled
by her own velocity
for there lay father's body, killed.

When weeding gardens on the roof
up on a ladder tall.
Ask one to hold the ladder, proof
Don't send her to the mall.
Accidents happen, and people goof
But when they're high they fall.

The scene was dark at Lily's pad,
The sunlit sky unseen.
No blossoms opened up that day,
Upon her roof so green,
All dropped their heads to mourn and pray,
All dressed and pressed and clean.

Reviews

[AE]

Wow, that was very well done! I liked how you could keep the rhyming scheme in tact without it sounding too forced. Sad ending, but nice story!

[PANDORA]

I so thoroughly enjoyed this. I think you included every..well not every...but a wheel of emotions.

The rhyme was spot on and the story interesting. This one is going in my bookshelf if only to inspire me.

Thanks for the read.

[JustinCorrigible]

Yay, thanks so much!

[Cat]

The 8th stanza made me chuckle. I enjoyed this thoroughly.

[JustinCorrigible]

I just found this site yesterday, so this was the very first review on my very first submission. It's nice to see how things work around here, so thank you!