April 6, 2016 – Sunshine Lane

“Hey, Cupcake,
why dontcha come over here
and tell me how a beautiful dame
like you ended up in a place like this?”

“Cupcake” walked over slowly, stealthily,
towards the plaid-shirted man who
was so loud, sloppy and obnoxious that
she was tempted to dump the
entire pot of coffee onto his head.
It would be an improvement to his
hairstyle to say the least!

Instead, the petite redhead
in the pink serving uniform,
with a name tag plainly giving
her name as “Eileen,”
managed to smile sweetly
and say, “Now, Boyd! You
know my name ain’t Cupcake!
Why sugar, I’m not that sweet!”

Boyd took the toothpick
out of his mouth long enough
to ask, “Well, do you have
any of those bacon maple
pancake cupcakes left? If so,
you might eat one to sweeten
your disposition. Either that
or bring me one, Eileen.”

Eileen winked saucily,
bounced away with a definite
ba-da-boom to her hips,
and said, “Honey, just for
that, I’ll bring you two!”

Boyd laughed quietly,
picked up his newspaper,
and wondered if any of
the other customers
would ever know that
he and the lovely Eileen
had been married for
25 years next fall.

Theirs was a marriage
baked in Cupcake heaven.

Today’s challenge was to write about food. I’ve been craving cupcakes, to the point that I bought a cupcake magazine the other day. I mean to write about the cupcakes, but the poem took on a life of it’s own.

Spring Watercolor, D. Elaine Wood-Lane 2003

I yearn for plain living,
simple days with a
slower pace and a quietness
not found typically in our
loud and modern world.

Today our power was out
while our system was upgraded.
I got my wish for plain living,
but only for a day.

At first, I found myself
feeling lost without the comforting hum
of the refrigerator or the buzz
of the light bulbs while sitting
in my writer’s nesting area.

Outside our double-paned windows,
I heard a mourning dove coo
amidst the excited twittering
of spring time birds.

I walked outside and found
the snow and ice of last week
didn’t kill my crocus,
but instead left a lively purple
flower rising in defiance
from the plain brown grass
surrounding it.

Life abounded around me.
I saw a deer jump a fence in midtown,
my squirrel friends robbing the
bird seed supply, aka the bird feeder,
and just enough rain to make
it look like an old man had
spit upon the ground while
telling a good joke.

With or without electricity,
life still abounds.
Beauty is still enjoyed.
Sunshine is still free.