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Click hereDo not ask a clergyman
how a loving God allows
the pain you see in the world and his book,
nor ask your friend in a restaurant booth
who pretends to speak with you
while he peels the label from his beer
just when happiness of nations appears
in pidgin English from a kitchen serf
leaving a moment soap and suds
to pass some time with a customer's tad
who doesn't understand her words
but smiles and holds two fingers up.
The house fly that bothered me flies away.
It's time to go home to my cock a poo
who wags her tail every night at eight
to tell me it's time for happy place,
jumps on my lap when I say "Up,"
and wriggles to have her belly rubbed.
now i missed 'tad' in that sense entirely :red face: i honestly thought you meant some customer who couldn't be bothered to try and understand her broken english, some bordering-on-yuppie type who was fond of using the words 'just a tad' and was maybe ordering 2 more beers. i far prefer your meaning!
Here's a possible re-write based on the feedback:
........
taking a break from her pots and pans
to talk with a child in his booster seat
who thinks she asked how old he was
and smiles to hold two fingers up.
gently done, gm.
the image of the peeling of the label says all it needs to.
like Angie, i have queries about this:
in pidgin English from a kitchen serf
leaving a moment soap and suds
to pass some time with a customer's tad
so, should that be 'moment's soap and suds' or 'moment, soap and suds,'
i don't have a problem with 'tad' though - i think that word speaks volumes for the type this customer is.
if only all our house-flies would simply fly away, all those little irritants when viewed with more perspective becoming as nothing.
You tell make a point without being preachy (wish I had managed the same in How to Become Less Human). Geeting a recommend. Pat your dog for me. I don't get anywhere near enough canine time (my son has a dog phobia).
The details in this parable weave together so effortlessly that I can't tell I'm reading a parable until I step back and take a very long view. And that imho is what a good poem should do. I also love the understated contrasts between the restaurant and home (happiness of nations/happy place): they make the poem cohesive.
This part needs work:
in pidgin English from a kitchen serf
leaving a moment soap and suds
to pass some time with a customer's tad
who doesn't understand her words
but smiles and holds two fingers up.
That 2nd line needs an apostrophe and s, I think, in "moment." "moment's"? Also I don't get what you mean by "tad" here. And is "holds two fingers up" a V, a peace sign, an order for more beer? It could be obscure on purpose but it doesn't feel like enough or it's too much. Something off. Maybe I need to reread. :-)