Mocking Bird Sonnet

Elizabeth W. Southwood

//mocking bird sonnet

Subj: RE: Mockingbird Sonnet
Date: 9/2/97 5:04:43 PM 3RD PLACE SEPT. 13
From: Sackvill

I treasure the songs of the mockingbird
who sings sweet lullabies at midnight.
Hoping for one to nest near me, I heard
distant warbles as they ended their flight.
Barely audible, bubbling brooks flowed where
low crystal coos serenely cascaded.
I wondered why mockingbirds sang just there.
But no one I knew, knew, so I waited,
listening to nearby jays and crows squawking.
Then one June night through the open porch door,
like moonlight, melodic song came floating.
I heard loud trills from a mockingbird soar,
musical ecstasy in each pure note.
Enchantment bloomed in the mockingbird's throat.



//rejected

-6-
Today was a warm day and breezy.
Since we were alone, we were easy.
We petted our old cat,
Acrobat, autocrat.
He knows he’s one of the family.

- 9 -
Some chicks in his yard are poking worms.
They bug him like bees bumbling in swarms.
Their owner lets them go.
He’s known for letting go
And leaving fowl out in a rainstorm.

- 17 -
There is a young lady named Lily
who does not look like me, luckily.
Her father and mother,
her sister and brother,
as well, do not. They all look like she.

- 17 -
There is a young lady named Lily
who does not look like me, luckily.
Her father and mother,
her sister and brother,
as well, do not. They all look like she.

- 24 -
There once was a devil who tried
To fix it so that when sinners died
They would go straight to hell
Soon as death tolled the knell.
Of course, she’s not the one to decide.

***********************************
- 25 -
There once was a boy had no pool
who made up his own Golden Rule:
If he wanted to swim
he took it to mean him,
and swam about in neighbors’ pools.

***********************************

- 26 -

There once was a kitty named Sackville,
With behavior that was versatile:
Now, paws over his eyes,
Then, stretched with purring sighs,
Next, meows quite conversational.
29.

for it, I need some more tutelage.

30.

Nuts, candies, cokes, and scorepads are out.
Tallies are passed to each gadabout.
Someone questions ‘No Trump,’
another when you ‘jump.’
Some ‘hold cards;’ today I am without.

30.

The Second Wednesday Bridge meets today.
The feeling is of a holiday.
The tallies are exchanged
for 50 cents in change.
Who will make 7 No Trump today?

33.

Nothing’s better on a gloomy day
Than friends arriving who plan to play
some hands of friendly bridge.
To miss, a sacrilege!
Cheerful chit-chat speeds the hours away.

35.

The time you don’t want to hear the phone
is when you have bridge. It rings, you groan.
You already have subs
from two other bridge clubs.
Cross your fingers it’s someone unknown.

36.

“Capes, Celts, and Botticelli”