Turning to the Dark Side

I don’t write poetry. I’m not a poet, never have been, don’t even usually read the stuff. However, a few years ago, when asked to do a freewrite on Leap Year, to my great surprise, a poem came out. I don’t claim that it’s good – but it is about Leap Year, so here ya go…

 

Leap Year

 If I had an extra day

I could catch up on the ironing

I could clean my linen closet and get the ragged

Towels to the bottom of the pile

Where they belong

 

 

With an extra day, I could

Work in the yard, I could

Weed and plant instead of looking

Out the window and always thinking

“I ought….”

 

 

If I had an extra day

It wouldn’t be a Monday

Because Mondays are self-righteous and cold

And it wouldn’t be a Friday

Because Fridays are lazy and ne’er-do-well

 

 

I think it would have to be mid-week,

This extra day, and in the autumn

When the air is fresh and the sky

Becomes a Spanish tile of blue and white

Suspended overhead.

 

 

I’d rise early, this day not to waste.

My coffee would be freshly ground and

I’d drink it outdoors, listen to the breeze

And share my muffin with a robin

Or a wren.

 

 

On my extra day, I’d drive by the steam plant,

Whose triple towers send billowing clouds

I wouldn’t have to crane my neck and keep

One eye on traffic. I’d just park my car

And watch them rise.

 

On this special day, I’d visit my parents

And take flowers to their graves. I’d sit

On the cemetery bench and talk with my brother

And I’d remember how they lived

And not how they died

 

On this extra day, this bonus, this lagniappe,

I’d tell my loved ones how rich they make me feel

How, surrounded by them, I am rich enough,

Wealthy enough, to not really need

This extra day.

 

Some people like to use the extra day in Leap Year to actually take a flying leap – to try something new, to leap forward in a project, to spread their wings a little. What will you do this Leap Year day?